I didn’t want to climb the Eiger, I wanted to have climbed the Eiger.
– Jon Krakauer, Eiger Dreams
Gianni’s Take
This Cogal seemed like a good idea to Frank. Right up until he understood we had to be riding at 5:25am to meet up for espresso or muffins, or dense fuel omelette loaded with cheese and sausage (Peter only). This ride had been weighing heavily on my psyche for a long time and I needed to get it underway. I needed to have done the East Maui Loop. Long distances and climbing are two of the many weak points of my cycling. This was by no means the Too Much on 100 slog; the East Maui Loop was 50% the distance and 80% of the climbing.
Frank proclaimed he was going to do this cogal without fuel. Frank is other worldly. He is from Mars and I, evidently, am from some outer orbiting pussy planet. I had stuffed one of my rear pockets with Clif products. Hell yes, bonking is dumb and I didn’t need to add that to my list worries. Why would one propose such Rule #91 folly? To meet the Man with the Hammer, a confirmed date with him, to really get it square in the forehead? No, Mr. Body Dismorphia wants to lose weight. With tongue cleanly bitten off I mimed that it was a fine idea.
After a zero dark thirty start we met the other riders, most of whom had no idea what a Cogal was. They were just up for a day of riding through the many climates and geographies of the East Maui Loop, followed by pizza and beer gorging. Frank and I were the only East Loop virgins on this ride. @mauibike was our guide but with one road and no turns, he didn’t have to worry about us getting lost.
Everyone returned to their starting points. Frank suffered a non-fixable flat with five miles to go and had to call in the support truck. He will have to come back to finish this one. It was a hell of a ride. I’m glad to have done it. Everyone else treated it like an easy roll around session. Rob even added some climbing after dragging me along.
The beer and pizza made us whole again.
Frank’s Take
At a cozy 160km with and a few thousand meters of climbing, this ride has been given something of mythical status by Gianni ever since our first trip out to Maui a few years ago. Poor tarmac, dirt roads, loads of climbing, and heat all add their unique elements to Maui’s already unique climate.
Being a small island just big enough to have distinct climates in different areas, there is a tropical rainforest on the north and northeast sides of the island, desert in the south, and normal in the isthmus that runs between East and West Maui. That makes this ride the only ride I’ve ever been on that takes you through all these weather zones in one day. I’d experienced part of this when riding the Kaupo ride with my friend Dave Ezzy on our last trip, and I was thrilled at the chance to ride the whole thing.
Bad roads and peer pressure meant a last-minute change to clinchers, as the wheels I had brought were my Café Roubaix climbing wheels and it was (repeatedly) postulated that I might destroy them when introducing fat ass, carbon, and potholes. I scrambled to get tires and valve extenders sorted out and claimed the VMH’s Zipp 404s for the ride. This turned out to be a bad idea as the extender I bought sucked, and the inner tubes I repurposed from her wheels were old and cracked and destined to fail just prior to us completing the ride. You’ve never been doing this so long that you can’t learn a basic lesson: never change your equipment the night before an important ride.
I had a rough night; I stayed up late writing, and staying up late writing customarily requires ample portions of wine. When I finally got to sleep, it was soon interrupted by phone calls from work when the servers chose to fail. I was awake just long enough to realize how hung over I was going to feel in the morning and how few hours were left before the alarm would go off.
Hangover, no food, and coffee seemed like an excellent way to meet the Man with the Hammer, and though I brought a Clif bar and a few shots by way of escape chute should I need it, I was determined to run the tank empty. This endeavor was aided somewhat by losing a bidon on the Maui Pavé.
This is dragging on, so I’ll stop after making a few final points. First, this is an amazing ride and despite the pouring rain, was one of the most beautiful I’ve done – full stop. Second, riding from desert into rain forest is one of the coolest things you’ll ever do. Third – and this is mostly just for the islanders – that tarmac on the back end of the island is rough, but it is nothing like the Pavé of Northern France and Belgium.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/j.andrews3@comcast.net/East Maui Loop Cogal/”/]
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View Comments
@scaler911
I saw in a Patagucci catalog a few years ago a definition of "mountaineering" that I thought was pretty accurate: "Walking uphill slowly while not feeling very well."
But then I've mostly been into clipping bolts and smoking cigarettes while belaying, which I guess is the climbing equivalent of riding a fixie in tight pants with my ass-crack showing. Damn...
@ez
I hope I'm misunderstanding & you aren't freely admitting to violating Rule 62.
@Buck Rogers
I had just brought my climbing wheels over. My plan had actually been to put the Café Roubaix CX wheels on the bike but circumstances prevented that from being practical.
By the way, I have some FMB Paris-Roubaixs which I'll mount on those wheels and bring them along to Keepers Tour for anyone who wants to test them.
That is, if you can pry them out of my greedy little hands!
@Nate
As far as one road goes, its got it covered: twisting climbs, twisting descents, long straight climbs, long straight descents, Mauian Pavé, endurance gravel riding, cornering, switchbacks, sun, rain, heat, we even had cold at 6am at Grandma's waiting to start the ride.
@frank
Ahh, as we say in the Army, "I'm tracking!"
What would you suggest as the ideal wheelset for that ride?
@Buck Rogers
Whatever works for you; the road is rough, but not so long that it will destroy a wheelset. In retrospect, I should have ridden my lightweight wheels - I think they'd have been fine, and I could have just gone a little slower.
I actually think a semi-deep carbon tubular would be the ideal wheel for Maui - good in cross winds, good in head winds, good for climbing, and strong on bad roads.
Its cool seeing the community is also excited about mountaineering. I think its a fascinating sport and think there are lots of similarities to Cycling.
In fact, this reminds me of an old article I did on doping and oxygen use in mountaineering. I can't remember what my position was on it, but its an interesting question, whether I'm right, wrong, or an idiot.
http://www.velominati.com/general/doping-the-acceptability-of-a-method/
Epic ride and pictures.. nice to see the word 'tarmac' feature. I regularly stumble at the word tarmac when referring to the blessed black stuff with asphalt, bitumen and pitch in the mix...
@frank
Frank, I agree that the carbone climbing wheels would have made it around and your 8 bar 23mm tyres would have made it too. You may have eaten it in a wet corner on the way back from Hana but really, how bad could that be? So I do need some semi-deep carbon tubular wheels? Perfect Maui wheel. Oh yes please.