Nathan Hoover wrote:
Late in December 2007, we organized a local “Ride The Lobster Team Practice Day”. Four teams participated,Totally Doable, Team Venus, Yam! Power, Yellow Line Fever We picked a route that was one-way and had some hills but nothing too steep, similar to Nova Scotia. Since the days are short in December, we chose a route a bit over 120km instead of 190-200km as in the race. The weather cooperated; it was drizzly and cool (about 8C at the start, warming to 12C midday). I imagine the weather in the race could be similar.
We met in San Francisco at 8:15am and the first riders started out soon after. Each team had its own vehicle and planned their transitions independently, just as in the race. As in the race, no transitions were done in the first 10km, although later on, some legs were as short as 2km for some riders. We raced with no breaks or check points, with each team responsible for navigation and food.
Team Totally Doable took first place in about 6:10 using their geared up speed machine—their average speed for the course, including stops, falls (two), and transitions, came out right at 20km/hr. My team, Yellow Line Fever, finished 5 minutes later. Team Venus (all woman racers, two members from California, two from Minnesota) finished soon after. Team Yam Power! was missing one of their racers and finished later while we were having dinner – but Jim Sowers managed to ride far enough to make this day his first qualifying ride, and successfully completed his qualification the next day.
Here is the route we followed: Google Maps