Congratulations to Taylor Thorne for setting a new WUCA record for California E-W (North Course) in the following categories: Male, 18-49, Standard upright bike.
Ride Report
I got into cycling a few years ago and spent a lot of time riding the bike trails in Folsom and Sacramento California. I always wanted to string all the trails together to go as far as possible and started thinking about how I could get across the state. In 2022 I created a RideWithGPS route from South Lake Tahoe to San Francisco but knew I didn’t have the fitness to make it happen. In 2024 I started following Matthew Lefthand and related to his story since I also lost a lot of weight and started cycling. I was really increasing my cycling fitness and in 2025 I started thinking it was possible for me to complete that ride. I found WUCA through Matthew and saw that there was no E/W record for California, so I created a real route that I think is the fastest East to West route in NorCal, and potentially all of California. (Unfortunately it didn’t include any of those bike trials that inspired me)
We started the ride at 5AM after 3 hours of sleep due to a noisy cheap hotel in South Lake. The morning was very cold for me; 28-32 degrees for the first 3-4 hours. First stop was a couple miles in to put on a ski mask and gloves with hand warmers, also ran a hand warmer in the front of my bibs. About 6 miles in my custom 3D printed headlight and computer mount snapped in half. My dad and coach John were able to get the headlight back on with some duct tape but I had to put the computer in my pocket and worry about that later.
There is one climb out of South Lake to Echo Summit that’s not too bad, after that; downhill on Highway 50 all the way to Pollock Pines for the next climb where it started to warm up. Once we got into Placerville we figured out how to get the computer mounted again so that I had navigation. Everything went fairly smooth through Green Valley Rd., Folsom, and Sacramento with mostly good honks of support from passing drivers. At this point we were more than an hour ahead of my planned time. There was a construction scare on the causeway to Davis with signs saying the bike path was closed but I proceeded with caution and there turned out not to be any issues. I did get a puncture there but the tubeless sealant did it’s job and I didn’t have to stop for more than 30 seconds. That was lucky because it was the first time I was away from the chase vehicle on a separated bike path.
We got through the crazy Davis traffic and out into the farmland where I was expecting the biggest headwind issues of the day but luckily we had favorable wind and I was getting really good average speed for the power. That boosted my spirits and I pushed through that section, probably a little too hard. The majority of fuel was Formula 369 with some other solid foods like Nature’s Bakery bars and my secret weapon; banana nut muffins. Once we got to Vacaville/Fairfield area I started to not want to eat anymore. Since we know that’s not good we were trying different foods to get my stomach to move again; pretzels, water, soda, sliced ham, whatever we could find. After a while I had no energy and I was not able to get my heart rate to come up. We struggled with that for a few hours and ended up losing the lead that we had built up. We came to a breaking point where my coach told me that we either needed to force through it or quit. I started forcing calories down despite feeling like I was going to puke with every sip, and we pushed forward 15 minutes at a time. I came back to about 70% power for the final 20 miles, but still felt like I was going to puke for the entire ride through the bay. There wasn’t much communication with the follow vehicle during that time and once we hit the bike paths leading into Sausalito I knew we had it.
Those final few miles were emotional for me on the bike because of how far I had come in the last 4 years; losing almost 90 pounds and doing what I thought were hard rides back then. To meeting my coach and the team, and having all these people support me through this effort. Five people in the chase crew willing to spend their time and money to follow me for a bike ride, and so many people along the way came out to cheer and make an effort to tell me that it’s inspiring to them. A great day out on the bike.