WOW! This event presented so many bizarre and out of left field anomalies that were impossible for an outsider to precognitively have grasp as possible or even probable. Let me out line the time line… The host of AirBnB told us the place they had available was just down the street from the Start - Finish Line. In reality it was 5 miles away - 2/3 of the way to the north end of of Big Bear Lake just off the main highway into town so you couldnt have windows open due to car noise and once parked we had to carry our belongings back through a maze of sidewalks to get to our place. The accommodations saving grace was the living room sliding glass doors opened to the pool and jacuzzi but there was no other windows or other non mechanical means to bring in Mountain Air. On to the Big Bear 100: we came up Thursday so I could pick up my ride - race packet. They said that the earliest date participants could pick up their packets was Thursday noon time. By the time we arrived, unloaded the car, and needing a meal, we decided to go pick it up Friday. There was no hours or even location listed for Friday pick up. So I assumed it would be somewhere near the Start - Finish line area. It was way back up in the raised deck area of the giant ski lodge about 100 yrs away from the road the Start and Finish were being set up. No signs, no humans directing, just a bunch of colored flags off in the distance and a cordoned off parking lot for registrants to park as if the already painted on the ground parking spots wasn’t functional? We go to Registration 9am Friday and they tell us we can’t pick up a packet until 10am! We go out for early lunch… come back… “The Packet” is just a white plastic number plate thats got electronic sensors in thr right and left back side so electronic readers at the Start and Finish can track your Start and Finish along with a duplicate “Release of Liability” paper after pre-registrants were already required to fill and autograph one online! Here’s the rub: its huge - the relatively inflexible plastic identification number was about 6-7 inches tall x 8 inches across resembling whats commonly used in BMX racing. Upon handing the me what I realize is not a number designed to attach to a rear jersey pocket as has been the norm in bicycle racing for over 150 yrs they point out a food court table away from where the registration booth is and tell me to go get the zip ties to attach the number plate and to attach it to my handlebars! I turned back to the lady and asked her to repeat herself as what she said sounded bizarre and out of place for what is functionally a mountain road race involving potentially high temperatures and winds from various directions with 100’s of riders one $5-15,000 bikes with expensive paint jobs. When I got to the table I was even more put off in realizing all they offered was bread bag twist ties! 🧐 The audacity to want us to attach a fricking bill board out front with twist ties and to tie off the bottom against that $1000 to $3000 paint job where every steering input would saw the bottom of the number plates bottom edge right into the paint! That’s no different than if I showed up at the organizers house with sandy mud caked shoes and demanded I be allowed to march in and slide my feet across their white carpeted floors or even tile and grouted floors and they can have no opinions about it! Not even safety pins were offered so one could attempt to attach such a rigid and large tracking number to their shirt or jersey? Never mind that mounting such a huge thing across the front of one’s bike would create massive wind drag - The more wind drag, the more heat the body must generate to keep going (glucose and oxygen burning in the cells engine or mitochondria - It’s almost as if they planned in the promotion of heat exhaustion and heat stroke conditions! My creative spirit immediately began to think about how I could find some safety pins and knowing cutting the size down wouldn’t work because of the super sized electrical circuits stuck on the far right and left sides of the “billboards”. I walked into a liquor store - Stop N Shop market on the main highway side of our AirBnB community cluster and asked the lady behind the counter they had safely pins? They reponded No, but said they had paper clips! And proceeded to give me a hand full for free! I thanked her and her male coworker that actually suggested the paper clips and bought a couple of fruit drinks I’d not had before. So I reshaped 3 of the paper clips in such a way as to attach the hard plastic tracking plate to the center rear pocket of my jersey without putting holes in the jerseys fabric! On to the next weirdness… Ok so I finish dialing my gear in for the big event Saturday morning. I wake up Saturday morning with this weird sensation of gloom and doom and like I was going to die today. My insides felt like pins and needles. Once my wife wales up she says she woke up with the same sensations! At that point I knew we were reading some kind of energy pattern that was kind of like a premonition and to stay tuned to “The Force” so to speak… I also realized that in sharing that experience with my wife verbally, the sensationa in my body began to suddenly dissipate! Back in the days before I got married I had a business that involved working with clients that had chronic mental, physical and emotional problems that were debilitating. One of the phenomenon that I experienced often was that I’d feel in my own body what the scheduled client was experiencing before they arrived at my office and in 99% of the case had not shared any details about what they felt before meeting me in person. The other wild part was that in our greeting and interviewing open conversation at some point they’d describe in some detail what they had been experiencing internally and the moment they spoke it into our conversation, that same manifestation in my body would dissipate and disappear! So I knew that what we woke up feeling was something manifesting in the collective life force of the participants and probably the crew putting on the races that day! I load up my bike in my car and headed over to the Big Bear Ski Lodge where riders park their motor vehicles where the Start - Finish is on the street out front of the lodges massive parking lot. There was a several block long line of vehicles waiting to get into the lot at 630am. The ride - race launches at 7am. I thought I had plenty of time to park, get my bike out, clip in and roll over to the Start a hundred yards away from the furthest parking spaces on the lot. As I approach the entrance, I here one of the traffic directors telling the folks ahead of us that the entire lot in front of us (big enough to park over 1000 cars) is for “Prepaid” parking clients only! I’m like… WTF? I’m a prepaid registant for the 100 mile bike race! The guy looks at me and says “The free parking is down the road you came in on & tells me to do a u-turn! There was nothing on this events website nor anything in the supposed Race Packet I picked up the day before stating that the parking lot by the Start - Finish line was another profit grab on their parts for some secret group of privileged unknowables! I was pissed… But what do you do? I drove a mile or so back down the road and was directed to park in a giant freshly gravel covered and coned off lot with probably a thousand other riders cars, trucks and SUV’s throwing up dust. By the time I’ve parked, got the bike out, shoes, helmet, gloves, glasses secured or on it’s 654am. I still have to find a way out of the gravel lot that will make my bike tires look all chalk covered. The road back to the Start Line is up a grade that tilts up to about 7-8% to ride back to the Start - Finish. Threading through gridlocked traffic, I crossed the Start line 5 minutes after official start time of 7am. They’ve set off the 100 milers, the 70 milers and the 50 milers all together already. So I use another mile or so to warm up , then I drop into full on Dragon Mode 🐲🔥🦶🏽🦵🏾🫁❤️‍🔥👁️🚴🏾 That meant 25 - 35 mph across Big Bear and the length of Big Bear Lake and onto Highway 330. I caught the back of end of a group dropped off the fastest now lead group shortly after getting onto 330. As I worked my way up through the dropped group coming to the first Aid Station and turn around about half way to Running Springs, I spotted the lead break away group of about 30-40 guys with a few women in the mix heading back already. Having to chase for the last 10-12 miles both required me to burn more inner matches than I’d allocated for a 100 mile race at altitude in heat with lots of climbing along with the reality that I sweat more than most cyclist so I had to refill or top off both 22 oz bottles as I was unsure how far or how much heat I’d encounter to get to the next aid station. In traditional US and International Road Racing there would “feeding zones” where one could have team support personnel hand up water already filled water bottles or a “musette” cloth bag containing water bottles, food, pocket calories or electrolytes. Instead Pro races they even allow team follow cars to hand up such things at various points along the course. At the Grand Fondo level they must have Aid Stations along the way to serve these same functions. There was more climbing heading back to Big Bear than the outbound leg and I am not a climber by anatomical proportions. I’m more like a Time Trialist - Sprinter - Descender - I can like an Australian Semi Truck that can do 25-35 mph for miles on end on the flats, light up the last 100 meters in a side by side sprint and usually win it and descend a mountain like a fighter jet pilot on the edge of reality. However during real mountain climbs that are more than a few miles in gain, I’m doing good to keep those who are the real greyhounds of climbing drop in my sites. I can and will ride at or even into my anaerobic threshold (oxygen debt) to minimize my losses on a climb so I can more than make any loss up once I clear the top and begin the descent. And that’s was my mission in this scenario playing out. As I worked my way up an 8% grade through in route back towards the north end of Big Bear Lake, to my surprise, I came upon a lady that had become my absolute favorite riding partner in quite a few group meetup type rides down in the coastal regions that I’d not seen or heard from in almost a couple of months now. As the group with her on the tail end created the last fairly steep climb for the return leg back to BB, I felt my body kick even deeper into what I call “Dragon Mode” 🐲🔥where I suddenly feel no pain, no oxygen debt, only pure flow state and every system in my body is wide open and at 110% output. I flew past her and the group like they were doing a Zone 2 ride… She was aware I was coming up from behind and said Hi as I flew by and I replied back in kind and while going to “Warp Speed” I signaled a ✌🏾 to let her know all is well and to be at peace ✌🏾. It was at that moment I found myself reflecting upon the synergistic energy dynamic we seemed to naturally elevate into when we rode together in the past. Every single time I’d realize I’d been in Dragon Mode for a lot of miles and that I had probably dropped everyone we’d been riding with only to look back and there she was… Tucked calmly into my slipstream with a Buddha like smile 😉 looking back at me 👁️. Some might of thought we were a couple of something the way we rode together through this past Spring into early summer. But we are both happily married and just loved the experience of what I described above. One of my other dear friends: Erik Pippens has a video on his Instagram profile of Phil Leggit describing his multi decade long love of riding with Paul Sherwin (whose passed away a year or so ago) and both Phil and Paul are happily married men to their respective wives), yet Phil described Paul as his “Soul Mate on the Road.” I once mentioned that I saw her that way. I suspect she took it the wrong way. She’s from the UK and I can recall that US vs UK meanings assigned to various words and phrases tend to not always mean the same thing. If you can see this my friend and this was the case, I apologize for the lack of foresight on my part for saying something triggering without knowing that’s the effect it had upon your need for peace and resonance the same as for me. She has some kind of aura af presence about her that somehow ignites Dragon Mode in me making for some really spirited rides and event collaborations. She seemed to love “Pedal Dancing” - my word for riding fast and far. She’s got talent and I had hopes we’d inspire one another to continually push one another towards higher levels of fitness: speed, power and endurance. I miss that… Anyhow, I told myself it wasn’t the time to try to dialogue about such soft touch inner thoughts and feelings while bumping thresholds… So off I went… Thought I’d see her again on the return leg of Onyx Summit. I didn’t. Hope the heat didn’t get her… I thought perhaps since I am normally the slowest climber in any given group due to my beefy proportions, I’d use this Dragon Mode 🐲🔥 power to launch my continued chase of the break away group. Just before the last Aid Station where I refilled my bottles while leaving Big Bear Lake’s southern end and headed for Onyx Summit - Highway 18 there was bicyclist crash that involved a lot of road rash from what I could see. Bike looked pretty beat up also. 4-5 guys had stopped to assist so I rolled onwards. As 18 pitched up so did the temperatures. My Garmin registered 99 degrees as the climb progressed! As the temperatures climbed my inner resources got redirected towards surface cooling and the power to the pedals came way down. I knew then that catching the lead break away of many guys and gals in a rotating peloton at the front would be impossible to catch with no one to draft to get even a light respite from wind drag plus the higher I climbed the hotter it got… It was evident in the body language of thr riders along the climb that the heat was brutally taking its toll. This is the next screwup I recognized in this evente planning. They had very well stocked and reasonably spaced Aid Stations in and just beyond Big Bear at lake level where it’s relatively cool. The organizers knew of a massive heat wave coming to thr region days before August 1st. They knew that temperatures nesr 100 would put a lot of lives at risk. The next Aid Station heading for Onyx Summit was at Onyx Summit! That’s a heck of long way water replenishment wise considering the overheating of extreme temperatures plus much slower rolling speed while climbing with zero cooling wind to speak of and not a sign of shade or water. They didn’t list that one on their site or anywhere publicly available either. They needed another Aid Station half way between the far end of BB lake and Onyx Summit. They sent riders with far less altitude and heat adaptation than us seasoned riders into life threatening conditions! Riders were dismounting and seeking thr tiniest of trees for some relief. I heard tons complaining of cramps in leg muscles, dizziness and nausea, saying they’d run out of water which is what happened for me despite javing. 2 - 22oz insulated water bottles, being 100% heat adapted and altitude adapted to about 6000 ft according to my Garmin 1050. I consumed the last of my water about 5 miles before the summit! By the time I reached the summit, I was also starving for ride calories since all my calories required water to mix into to drink them. I knew upon arrival at Onyx Summit that to continue on and descend to Jenks Lake Road then climb to the next turn around up Jenks Lake Rd would take myself and any others that made that unfortunate decision in even worse heat and the possibility that the Onyx Summit Aid Station might be closed as they listed it closing at 3pm! What a recipe for disaster?! I got my core temperature down at the Onyx Summit Air Station and mixed more of my powdered carbs and electrolytes solution to chug down for rhe ride back. The heat was palpable! I saw some heat distressed riders go ahead and dive onwards down towards Jenks Lake. I couldn’t help but think of the incredible suffering they were signing up for. When in deep heat prostration our minds may not function objectively and allow us to make potentially fatal decisions. This is where training in the most extreme conditions one can come up with to simulate what the body and mind will be asked to continue to thrive within before the competitive event is critical. It’s not fun to only survive and event. The fun comes when we become MORE THAN THE EVENT! So once cooled and fueled back up, I launched back down the mountain towards Big Bear on Highway 18 like a rocket. Blazingly fast… Thought I might see Jules and maybe Ashley (spotted her heading for the Running Springs Aid Station after I’d already left there way earlier. Ashley is a strong climber but not too into Dragon Mode tempo on the flats or descending. But I thought maybe she jumped in with a group and picked up some speed until things went vertical where her natural climbing talents take over. Didnt see either of them but did learn via STRAVA that Ashley did the full 💯 🫡💪🏾☀️🏔️ There is narrow tar and rock spattered section of road coming back into Big Bear with lots of huge pine trees literally growing in the edges of the asphalt bulging into the driving lanes! It was this section where I came upon a nasty bike crash involving a rider with lots of road rash and broken bike. 4-5 guys on phones trying to get him help. I rolled on. The next one was at the beginning of what I call The Dump Truck Alley at the south end of the Big Bear Airport - a section intended to route cyclist around Highway 18 through town through quieter less motor vehicle trafficked neighborhoods until its time to cross Highway 18 again to head for thr Finish Line area on the western side of 18. I was approaching this raggedy section when I noticed what I initially thought was a black trash bag wobbling in the wind but upon closer view I realized it was another cyclist who had not seen the rather tall and angular unmarked speed bump in his short sighted focus of going fast to the finish line despite being no where near placing as the lead finishers had gone through long ago by then. Heat delirium was probably a factor also. Road rashes upper thigh, chest, forearms and face with lots of embedded gravel. I saw 2 guys pulled over to assist. So I rolled on… Just a bit after crossing the main highway is a short but super steep about a 18-20% hill that every dehydrated, fatigued, glucose starved cyclist is directed to climb to get back to the finish line instead of the original street we came out earlier during the start of the event. I was passing a group of about 7-8 riders when the guy between me and thr right curb stood oit of thr saddle and suddenly lost consciousness and flipped over his bars onto the pavement! Heat Stroke! Myself and a couple of his club mates got him up and walked him over to the shade of a vacant housew front porch and got him laid down on his back and put his feet up. One of his team mates proceeded to pour super ice cold water into the fellas helmet vents putting him into almost seizures, violent shakes, eyes rolling back in his head. I told him to stop and to lightly wet down his chest area. A lady drivng by saw what was happening who happened to have couple of bags of ice in her van, stopped and ran over to us offering her bags of ice. His team mate placed one under the neck of the downed rider and proceeded to put the other between his legs in his crotch! The downed rider went into absolute shock and convulsed. I had to intervene and snatched the ice away from his privates while asking the fella what the heck are you thinking? Another teammate called 911 and we had an ambulance there in about 4 minutes. Once the EMT’s took over I rode onwards towards the Finish Line only to witness a very short and stocky lady on a bike trying to climb that same grade pull out of her pedals - cleat, shoe and all and the force of trying to keep the pedals turning over plus coming detached from her pedal sent her leg way out back and up like clock arms sending her tumbling off her bike and onto the scalding pavement. I stopped for moment as 2 others nearby came to her assistance. Her ankle looked ruptured and instantly swollen all the way around itself. She insisted she was going to walk the last mile or so to thr line after getting back on her feet but realizing she could not clip back in again due to pain. I rolled on… Came upon dozens of riders stopped… Some seeking shade, some just sitting in thr dirt on the side of the road looking delirious, some laying down on porches trying to stabilize their core temperatures. Absolute carnage… and no ride staff, police, sag support anywhere to be seen in what’s obviously the stretch most likely to cause heat stroke on days like today! And this overwhelming assortment of disastrous outcomes are what only I saw! There must of been hundreds if not thousands that had these experiences today with no organizer help to be found. I would not be surprised if this event faced a multitude of lawsuits out of todays gross negligence. They’ve been putting on this event for years over the same courses. They’ve done so in all kinds of weather and conditions. They would know lucidly where all the problem spots exist and should have taken measures to fix them by any means necessary before this event. They didnt! They took the registration money and hid behjnd liability wavers! I’ve been in a ton of races and quite a few organized rides in various regions of the US and Europe and never seen negligence on this scale before! I will find a way to get a copy of this recap to the organizers of this event. Maybe they will do the right things and make this event reasonably safe? So this is what my instincts or intuition was trying to tell me was the energy pattern I was riding into today. Trust Your Soul… Its the most loyal and honest and longest existing friend you’ll ever have. 👁️🧠🔍🦶🏽🦵🏾🫁❤️‍🔥🚴🏾☀️⛰️🧬🥭🐲🔥🙏🏾🌻🙃👍🏾🫡✌🏾