Central Coast Double

Eighteen bicycle riders labored up the steep hill. A thousand feet below them, Pacific Ocean waves crashed onto the beach. A thousand feet above them, the road disappeared into pine trees. Sweat dripped off their faces. Flies swarmed around their heads. Some riders ran out of water. A car approached. The driver stopped to refill empty water bottles. He encouraged the riders, "Only five more miles to the top."
This was 1995, the inaugural Central Coast Double (CCD), a 210-mile bicycle ride that starts in Paso Robles, goes through Cambria, up Highway One and over Nacimiento-Ferguson Road to Fort Hunter Liggett. After a lunch break, the route continues north almost to King City, then back to Lake San Antonio, Bradley, San Miguel and Paso Robles. CCD is the dream-child of local ultra-cyclist Brian Stark.
Mudslides, floods, war and destruction--Brian never knows what he will have to deal with. Covering so much territory almost guarantees that some act of nature or man will challenge his ability each year to provide a continuous route.
One year Caltrans closed Highway One north of Ragged Point. Brian had to send the riders west through Hunter Liggett over Nacimiento-Ferguson Road to the coast. Then they turned around and rode back. The hair-raising, brake-gripping seven-mile, 2500-foot descent from the summit of the Santa Lucia mountains to the sea was followed immediately by a lung-busting, thigh-burning, sweat-dripping climb back up.
Another time, the Estrella River flooded River Road north of Paso Robles. Brian had to reroute riders ten miles east to a bridge crossing to get them from San Miguel back to Paso Robles.
Since 2001, heightened security measures have resulted in the Army restricting civilian travel through Fort Hunter Liggett. Gate guards require each of the approximately 150 CCD cyclists to show picture ID to get to the lunch stop.
Brian starts the riders at 5:40 a.m. from Paso Robles City Park. The course closes at midnight. Typically, eighty per cent of the starters are able to complete the ride within the time limit. Although this is not a race, Brian does record finish times. Fastest completion so far is 10:53 by three riders in 1999.
For those who want an easier route, Brian has added a shortened version of the ride–170 miles and 10,500 feet of climbing–that he has named Central Coast Challenge. Imagine climbing stairs from Furnace Creek to Whitney Portal. That’s Brian’s easy route.
Forty volunteers help put the event on. San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club members and other volunteers help on the course and provide equipment. Keith Schmidt, owner of K-Man Cyclery, acts as headquarters and sponsors the ride, along with Hammer Gel Nutrition.
Paso Robles Radio Club HAM operators provide communication around the two-county course, using high frequency radios to transmit over the hills. It is important that everyone be accounted for at every stage of the event since much of the riding takes place in isolated areas.
Larry Sarver, web administrator of centralcoastdouble.com, provides a sophisticated website and 3D graphics as well as T-shirt and patch design.
One of the attractions of CCD is the food. Frank Milazzo of Santa Barbara prepares a gourmet after-ride dinner. Out on the course, volunteers serve refreshments at six food stops and a full lunch in the shaded area behind De Anza Gym on Hunter-Liggett. Brian sets up additional water stops in the Interlake area where hot afternoons suck the moisture out of cyclists.
This is a tough ride and it has a time limit. The course closes at midnight and riders must clear the Bradley food stop, Mile 179, no later than 9:45 p.m. Those who can’t finish in time get a ride to the finish line. No one gets left behind.
INFORMATION BOX: May 10th, 2008, Brian will celebrate the fourteenth annual presentation of the Central Coast Double. Check the website at http://www.centralcoastdouble.com for additional information or call K-Man Cyclery at 237-2453. If you want to volunteer to help on the course, call Brian at 239-4397 or email bms_cycling@centralcoastdouble.com. Volunteers receive free T-shirts, patches and meals.

You Can Do This

You saw the ad. Two U.S. Postal Service riders are sitting on a couch and a third rider is pulling them up this hill on his bicycle. And he’s thinking about Clif Bars. You know two of the guys, you’ve seen their names in VeloNews. But the guy on the bike, Kenny Labbé, with the accent mark on his last name, who’s that guy?
He’s a worker. He’s like you and me. He works for the post office, delivering the mail through snow and sleet and all that other stuff, walking the rounds in Mount Prospect, Illinois. He’s something else too. During the spring and summer for three years he raced on Thom Weisel’s U.S. Postal Service team, pulling guys like Robbie Ventura and David Zabriskie up through the pack so that when the bell rang for the last lap, they were in position to win and Kenny could drift off to the side and heave his guts up and smile because he did his job–he delivered the mail for the Posties.
How did that happen?
Kenny’s just like you and me, except for maybe a couple of things. He’s blessed with a not-too-bad ability to race bicycles and he has this unquenchable, unstoppable, unkillable determination to race on the best-by-God American cycling team that this country has ever seen.
Kenny had some talent, sure, Northbrook Velodrome Rider of the Year for four years, a couple of respectable finishes at Downer’s Grove. But he wasn’t elite. He wasn’t the best racer in the country, or even in Illinois. He’s no Freddy Gonzales or Levi Leipheimer. So how the heck did he get on the Posties?
If you have to ask, you don’t know Kenny. He’s this guy who had a dream. We all have dreams. We all wish we could do this, or if we had time we could do that. Kenny dreamed that the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team included a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, and that it was him. Then he made his dream come true.
One other thing about Kenny–he’s a shameless self-promoter. He has no false humility and if he needs to impress you with an exploit to get your attention, he matter-of-factly lays it out there for you to absorb.
When he worked up his résumé for Mark Gorski, he saw a big hole in it. Northbrook Velodrome Rider of the Year, 21st place at Downer’s Grove. Not enough. Gorski, after all, has an Olympic gold medal and he’s general manager and part owner of the Postal Service team. If you want him to keep reading, you’d better have some sort of national title.
Kenny enlisted his dad to help him train and then set a USCF 12-hour cycling record of 252.5 miles. (Then the USCF retired that category, leaving Kenny Labbé’s name on it forever. Sometimes you’re golden.)
Kenny flew to L.A. to meet Gorski. Gorski listened to him and said, "I’ll give you a call." Kenny waited for what he thought was long enough, then he invited himself to the Postal Team’s training camp in San Luis Obispo.
Gorski said, "Hang around, but keep a low profile." Kenny hung out with the team. He hung on to the end of the pack on their six-hour training rides. Sometimes he hung on to the back of Johan’s car. But he never fell off the back. And he got better. When you ride with the best, some of it rubs off.
Kenny raced a few times with the domestic team in 2000, pulling his teammates through the peloton or going off the front to control the pace while they set themselves up for the finish. But he kept his day job.
The following spring, Gorski invited him to training camp on the Costa del Sol, in the south of Spain. (Hey boss, can I have a few weeks off to ride with Lance in Europe? The Postmaster General says it’s okay.) By now he was holding his own with the big guys.
He raced in 2001 with the domestic team in its U.S. races–Redlands, Sea Otter, Downer’s Grove. At the San Francisco Grand Prix he led out George Hincapie. Can you say "excited?"
What do you do to top that? Maybe a better questions is, "Do you have to top that?" Go to the website http://www.lancearmstrong.com/lance/online2.nsf/html/. Click on "Photo Galleries." There he is, your home town letter carrier, Kenny Labbé, all dressed up in blue and white, photo by Graham Watson.
The Postal Service made a poster of him and put it up in all the post offices. They put on a big dinner for the postal racing team and seated Kenny next to the Postmaster General. Maybe they’ll put his picture on a stamp.
So who is this guy, really? He’s you and he’s me, only maybe he has a little more talent and certainly the ability to sell himself and, most important, all the determination in the world. He had a vision and he made it come true.