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Ultra rider 
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Wisconsin's Lon Haldeman likes it uphill and into the wind

By Mike Conklin
Tribune staff reporter

May 18, 2003

As bicyclists enjoy another weekend by wheeling a few miles on
Chicago-area streets and trails, perhaps to celebrate National Bike
Month, let's consider what is in store this week for about 50 riders
gathered just over the border at the Super-8 Motel in Delavan, Wis.

Led by Lon Haldeman, America's premier long-distance biker and
multiple winner of the Race Across America, an event Outside magazine
labeled the "toughest test of endurance in the world," this group will
ride 200 kilometers (or 124 miles) Sunday, a 300K Monday, take Tuesday
off, do a 400K Wednesday and early Thursday, take Friday off and come
back Saturday for a 600K that will take them deep into Sunday to
complete.

This is roughly the equivalent of pedaling a bicycle from Chicago to
Denver in eight days and maintaining average speeds of 16 to 18 miles
per hour into hills and winds, which, most of Haldeman's group will
tell you, always seem to be in the riders' faces. For anyone else on
two wheels, these are unthinkable zones, a no man's land of pain in a
fog of sweat, agony and numbness.

But these bikers are trying to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris--PBP for
short--a quadrennial, 1,200K event in France in August that does not
receive the attention of the Tour de France despite being every bit as
grueling.

Founded as an event for pro riders in 1891, it is limited to 3,500
participants who must complete the official 745-mile course in 90
hours.

Each qualifying leg is called a brevet and, whereas bikers are allowed
up to several months to complete each distance in prescribed times,
this is the third time Haldeman has condensed the format into eight
days.

"We've set it up for those who don't have the time to qualify over a
longer period of time," said Haldeman, 45. "Our riders only have to
take a week off and they can be back to work on Monday."

Yeah, right, if they can stay awake.

Nap first, then drive

"I plan to come visit my son in Chicago after finishing," said Jack
Herrick, 56, a participant from Greeley, Colo., "but I'm sure I'll
take a long nap before making the drive."

Herrick, a retired music professor, is the only participant to do
Haldeman's previous two Brevet Weeks.

"I was really in awe of him the first time," he said. "If he tells me
something I do it, because I've learned it always helps my effort.

"He's really encouraging and stays with you while you're riding. We'll
be in packs, form draft lines and have a pretty good time out
there. The fellowship and camaraderie help a lot, especially at the
end. But every once in a while, like when you're going up a steep
hill, you'll look up and Lon's gotten a little ahead of us."

In case you're doing the math, Haldeman's group is covering 930 miles
of biking in those eight days and, incredible as it may seem, it's
even tougher than it sounds.

Their actual riding time can't exceed 13 hours for the 200K, 20 hours
for the 300K, 27 hours for the 400K and 40 hours for the 600K. Oh, and
they'll be out there pedaling Wisconsin's hilly roads no matter what
the weather.

"I've biked all over the world, but the Midwest has the best overall
conditions because of the grid system for the roads," Haldeman
said. "Because of it, I can do 400 miles a week within 25 miles of my
home and never duplicate a route. And besides all that, there are lots
of good hills and wind."

Ever since he broke into national prominence in 1982, when he won the
inaugural Race Across America (RAAM) and now serves as its director,
the country's long-distance bicycling roads have pretty much led to
the home of Haldeman and his wife, Susan Notorangelo, an accomplished
rider herself.

That would be the big, gray house on Prairie Pedal Lane in tiny
Sharon, Wis., an easy bike ride from where Lon grew up in Harvard,
Ill. The only hint that the Michael Jordan of ultra riding lives
here--aside from the address--is a trailer parked beside a large
garage advertising the Pacific-Atlantic Cycling (PAC) expedition
company Haldeman and Notorangelo operate.

"You can't write about long-distance biking and not write about him,"
said Frank Paulo, Great Lakes administrator in the U.S. for the French
association that sponsors the PBP. "He's done it all and, yet, he
keeps coming up with new challenges."

A winning record

Individually or together on a tandem, Haldeman and Notorangelo have
raced across America more than 20 times and either won or set records
on 12 of those trips. Before he captured that first official RAAM in
'82, he did a round trip the year before by riding from Los Angeles to
New York and back in 24 days, 2 hours, setting a coast-to-coast record
for time on the return trip.

In '83, Notorangelo set a PBP record by covering the 750-mile event in
54 hours. Her best time for RAAM is 9 days, 9 hours in '89, and
together they've ridden a tandem coast-to-coast in 9 days, 20 hours.

"Lon would make a good mapmaker in another life," Notorangelo
said. "He probably knows more about U.S. roads, detours, directions,
terrain, whatever, than anyone alive."

In the coming year, PAC will run, in addition to this week's PBP
qualifying they organized in Delavan, the following outings:

Weeklong Midwest Camp in July in Beloit, Wis., open to all bikers who
will tackle Haldeman's six favorite century routes (that's 100 miles,
not kilometers) including a double-century on the last day.

Weeklong tour of southern France in late August after Haldeman does
PBP.

Two-week tour of the Grand Canyon in September and October, which
features 80- to 120-mile days for bikers.

A two-week ride in Peruvian jungles in October and November in which
bikers do a mere 30 to 50 miles per day mitigated somewhat by the fact
they'll spend some time pedaling at altitudes of 16,000 feet.

In all, Haldeman and Notorangelo have done more than 50 PAC
cross-country tours in which bikers come both to train for events and
learn techniques allowing them to more efficiently rack up additional
mileage. Bicycling magazine has labeled some of their tours the
"toughest" in the world, though Lon likes to point out that riders do
a lot of sightseeing along the way.

"My view is that Lon really defined the sport of ultra-marathon
cycling," said John Hughes, managing director of the Ultra Marathon
Cycling Association. "Prior to the Great American Bike Race in 1982
[later called Race Across America], others had set records riding
across the country but they'd only ridden during daylight and ate
sit-down meals. When darkness came, Lon just kept riding and he drank
Carnation Instant Breakfast for nutrition."

Despite reaching distance levels seemingly off the charts for most
bikers, Haldeman keeps his biking philosophy simple. He thinks cycling
should be an adventure, not a destination, unless you're riding to an
ice cream shop.

"My definition of long-distance biking is simply going beyond what
you've done before," he said. "Too many people start out shooting for
a century, or some other goal. They need to enjoy the ride more, stay
at it and do what comes natural. The distances will come in time."

Humble beginnings

As a 15-year-old growing up in Harvard, he got started after finding
an old, discarded bicycle in a large garbage container, repairing it
and riding 10 miles to nearby Walworth, Wis., to--voila--an ice cream
shop.

Bitten by the distance bug, he soon was riding all over northern
Illinois, pedaling to the nearest bike club he could find for meetings
50 miles away in Rockford, cranking out his first century to
Whitewater, Wis., and soon putting in 400 miles per week.

"I liked to explore and it was sort of fun to be unique," he said,
"but I was very much alone."

Haldeman accumulated 50,000 miles of local cycling in his first five
years before branching into more serious cross-country riding, which,
at age 20, saw him cover 400 miles in a 24-hour endurance event.

In the winter, his indoor workouts often are on a special stationary
cycle that features high-rise handlebars and no seat, which means he
stands throughout his workout.

He prefers the high-reach setup because it means he can't lean on
anything "or cheat my weight off the pedals."

Haldeman is considering entering RAAM in 2004 when, at age 46, he'd
like to set a record for the event. He's intrigued by bikers achieving
higher goals at older ages, something that should be an inspiration to
the thousands of riders who've turned to the sport at older ages.

Older riders

That's exactly the case with Chicago lawyer Brad Prendergast, 49, and
Pamela Hansen, 46, director of international treasury for USG
Corp. Both are members of the Chicago Urban Bicycling Society, but,
with less than 10 years between them of cross-country riding, they're
trying to qualify for PBP.

"There's been no great epiphany," Prendergast said. "I just want to
try. I'm not exactly the skinny rider like some, at 5-10 and 190
pounds. It's just a matter of riding, really. You just have to keep
piling up the miles, but I don't kill myself either doing arbitrary
goals."

Hansen was a mountain biker who got interested in long-distance riding
last summer, when she biked the annual 500-mile ride across Iowa
(RAGBRAI) and also turned in her first century. "I did a lot of
spinning this winter and it's really helped," she said.

Prendergast and Hansen are trying to qualify for the French event the
more conventional route, which is doing the 200K-300K-400K-600K legs
during a six-week period, unlike Haldeman's leading bikers through it
in eight days.

"There is no place else in the world that does qualifying like Lon's
trying," said Paulo, who's supervising the conventional PBP qualifying
in which Prendergast and Hansen are participating. "He's just an
extraordinary biker. He's in a class by himself."

Haldeman on the challenges of ultra biking

As a founder, record-holder and director of Race Across America
(RAAM), plus leader of a number of other long-distance rides, Lon
Haldeman knows ultra biking.

Q. What are your key pieces of equipment you won't ride without?

A. It depends on the type of ride. A helmet, of course, but items such
as the proper shoes, saddle and bike position make a big difference on
longer rides.

Q. How much water do you consume?

A. Depends on the heat. When I race across the desert, I consume one
ounce per minute if it is over 100 degrees. At 70 degrees I might
drink only 15 ounces per hour.

Q. What's the worst mishap you've had while in an ultra biking event?

A. Most of the problems are logistical. The crew is always working on
possible problems before they affect me. We broke a custom carbon
fiber tandem frame 36 hours before a race once. We had to ship it to
the builder for repairs. We got it back one hour before the race and
reassembled it just in time to start the ride.

Q. How many tires do you typically go through in RAAM and/or training?

A. A front tire can last 3,000 miles and a rear tire can last 2,000
miles. However, in RAAM we are changing tires every 500 miles because
they get cut or nicked on road debris.

Q. How do you handle on-road repair and what do you carry for this
purpose?

A. I actually teach a class called "The Organic Mechanic," where I fix
my bike from junk found on the side of the road. Knowing how your bike
works makes it easier to decide how to fix things. I still carry a
basic tire pump, inner tube and a few special wrenches.

Q. What do you think of during those long miles on the road? Does your
focus shift for competition?

A. I ride best when I am thinking about how to go faster. I'm always
doing a mental checklist of logistical details: how much to eat and
drink, weather conditions, fatigue and mental focus.

I don't listen to music during intense races.

Q. Do you strive to get in a zone? If so, how do you accomplish it in
training and competing?

A. I always have a countdown to big events. For RAAM it is hard to
peak more than once every two or three years.

The effort is so intense you can't push yourself that hard every year.

During the final two weeks before RAAM, I am wound up pretty tight. I
always remember the worst times from past races.

I need to remember the pain so I am not surprised when I start to feel
bad.

Q. How do you know the status of competitors during the long-distance
events?

A. There are time stations every 50 miles during RAAM that are linked
to the Web site. With the recent Web site technology, it is easy to
watch RAAM unfold at home [www.raceacros samerica.org]. In the old
days, we only received updates once or twice a day from a pay-phone
hot line.

Q. How do you train your sleeping habits for the ultra long-distance
events?

A. You can't store up sleep. The best thing is to get in great shape
and understand how your body will respond to extreme fatigue.

A smart rider will always stay rested and be able to recover before
they are exhausted.

Q. How often and how long will you sleep during an ultra-distance
event?

A. During the Tandem Transcontinental Record with Pete Penseyres, we
crossed the country in 7 days, 14 hours.

We had six sleep breaks of 1.5 hours each. That is nine hours total
sleep.

We actually felt pretty good the entire ride, but we are glad we
didn't have to ride through another night.

Q. What piece of equipment or gear wears out the most?

A. I ride a one-speed bike, so I save a lot of wear on
derailleurs. The chain still wears out. They only cost $5 so I put on
a new one every 3,000 miles.

Q. Do you eat differently when preparing for a race?

A. I try not to get too fat in the winter. When I am training 1,000
miles per week, I tend to lose weight faster.

Q. Worst injury?

A. I have been very lucky the past 400,000 miles. My knees and joints
still feel pretty good. I have never been hit by a car. All my skin is
intact. I try to be cautious and expect the worst.

Q. Most grueling hill?

A. Old Route 14 going up the Big Horns in Wyoming. Lots of sections
steeper than 10 percent for many miles. I usually average 5 m.p.h. for
20 miles on this grade.

Q. Most miles ridden straight?

A. 810 miles from Los Angeles to Albuquerque in 46 hours. Then I slept
2 hours and rode 400 miles into Kansas the next day.

Q. How many bikes does an ultra biker usually have?

A. Maybe a day bike, a night bike and a spare bike. Sometimes I might
bring several for a cross-country race, but one usually ends up being
my favorite after a few days.

Q. Do you, or others, typically compete on the bikes used for
training?

A. I have beater bikes and good bikes. I think it is important to
train on the same bike you will be racing on to be sure it is reliable
and comfortable.

Q. What's the worst weather to ride in?

A. When it is hot in the desert, I wish for rain. When it rains, I
wish for sun. Cross-country racing includes all the extremes.

One time crossing Colorado it went from 100 degrees in the valley at
noon to 30 degrees on the mountaintop at midnight with snow.

I just put on more clothes and froze going down the mountain until
sunrise the next morning.

Q. What kind of support effort did you have when you rode across
America?

A. I have been fortunate to have always had the support of my
parents. Even when I was just starting to ride 200- and 300-mile
distances, they would always help me train and support me during the
rides.

My wife, Susan, has been a big help since she understands being a
competitor and what I needed during an event.

Q. Best feeling?

A. I have never felt like celebrating at the end of a race, even if I
won. The finish of a race is always anticlimactic for me. The best
long-term feeling is knowing that all the planning and training has
come together and I did what I expected to do. I have been fortunate
to have many support crew members who maintained that same focus
beyond the finish line.

--inteview conducted by Mike Conklin