Remembering John M. Clare

I am feeling very sad writing this in memory of a good friend and mentor to so many.

What can I say about John.

John Michael Clare was such a giver to so many people and an individual who was always thinking of others before himself.

John lost his life in a terrible hiking accident in the San Bernardino Mountains while hiking Mt. San Gorgornio with his son, Scott, above the Jenks Lake area—a hike he had done literally just the weekend before and many times before that.

I first met John many years ago at one of the early Triple Crown Double Centuries--the Route 66 Double.
I did that ride 3 times and I first met him during the 1999 event. I think we were on single bikes on that one but I am not totally sure.

I got to meet his dad, John T. Clare, during the 2000 event. That year John was on the tandem with his son, Ian. I was riding my tandem with my brother-in-law, Vince, and we talked quite awhile while we rode toward the finish together.

Photo courtesy of the Clare family, John Tribute album. I am not sure who the photographer was.

John riding on his tandem with son Ian. Alongside is ultra-legend, his dad, John T. Clare.

After those first few meetings, I didn't really see John much. I think he took some time off the ultra circuit for a while to be with family and to go to school.

It really wasn't until the past 5 or 6 years that I really got to know John well . It was just about the time he really started to attack the ultra-cycling circuit.

John was a beast of a rider who earned the nick-name...."The Diesel". He was a big, tall guy with massive power. I don’t think he even knew of the idea of spinning an easy gear ratio. He was always mashing the big gears even on climbs.

·         I have had too many great experiences with my friend John to cover all of them in this blog. Following are some of my favorite moments with him over the past few years.

Early on during my experiences with John on the double century circuit, he was riding with the big guns at the front on the flatter rides. One memory comes to mind. It was the Solvang Spring double and I had started with the early group. He and the fastest guys came flying past me before I reached San Luis Obispo. They had started over and hour after me!!

John was instrumental in getting me to join my primary cycling club, Adobo Velo in 2013.
 If memory serves me, he paid for my entry in the club and the Death Valley Double event.

 I rode tandem for the first time on an event with Teresa (Tiger) Beck,  at John's suggestion, on that one. 
 It was my first time doing the fall event and it turned out to be the last Fall Season Death Valley Double but the first of many doubles and events with Teresa on the tandem.
 John is the one who thought we would make a good tandem team and he was right. He did many tandem rides with Teresa too. 

John rode it with his son, Scott, on his tandem. We traveled together to Death Valley in John’s car with two tandems on the roof.
 It was a really fun trip!!

2013 Death Valley Double. Dawn ride start.

A very large Adobo Velo contingent was there to do the ride.
John is at the far left.

John and Scott ready to roll.
 2013 Death Valley Double. Dawn ride start.

Another memorable moment was the White Mountain Double Century. John was riding his tandem with Teresa this time. It is a really tough one on the tandem. I have never done it tandem.
Here are a few pictures from that one of John with his stoker of the day, Teresa

John and Teresa climbing Montgomery Pass on Hwy 6 from Nevada back to Bishop, Ca.
John would later tell me that he wasn't smiling. He was grimacing because his feet hurt so much.

John was a master at taking photos from the bike. An action shot by John from the front of his tandem while descending Montgomery Pass .

2014 was a great year. It was the first time I got to jump on the tandem with John.
 I had only ridden on the back of a tandem once. That was on my brother-in-law's tandem on a quick ride in Connecticut.
John and I had talked a little about doing The Grand Tour Quad on his tandem. He knew I had done it twice on my tandem with my brother-in-law Vince so we planned it.

Next up we had a really great adventure.

A friend of mine asked if I wanted to do RAW, The Race Across the West.
RAW is the desert southwest portion of RAAM, The Race Across America. It is put on by the RAAM organization and is run at the same time as RAAM.

She was helping someone she knew who wanted to delve into Ultra-Cycling and he wanted someone with experience. He would pay for all the costs related to the race. The name of our team was Adrenaline Enduro Racing.
My friend had to drop out at the last minute so I asked John if he wanted to join my friend Victor and I as part of the team. I also enlisted our friend, Tony, as a very experienced crew chief and friend Margaret as our navigator. (The leader and money man of the team had a friend of his acting as a crew chief but this guy knew nothing about racing bikes, especially ultra events, and was trying to do everything his way. It was all wrong and the two of them almost caused us to call it quits in Flagstaff, Arizona where there was almost a total melt-down. We decided at that point to finish for us and forget about those guys. We were courteous but did it our way.)

John was his usual strong diesel self on the ride just crushing it on the bike when he was riding. He put on a clinic on how to descend a hill at breakneck speed whenever he was on a descent.

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the event:

John at the pre-race meeting with RAAM record holder and legend, Seana Hogan

John with Victor and I before the start

At the start line

John heading out of Tuba City Arizona toward Monument Valley

John sunrise.

Not long after the Race across the West, John and I did the Los Angeles Wheelmen, Grand Tour, Quad. “The Quad”, is doing the Grand Tour Triple Century with an added 100 mile loop at the end. I have done it 2 other times on my tandem with my brother-in-law.

John and I had been talking about it for quite a while. This would be his first time completing it. We did it on his tandem and it would be my first time doing something like this on the rear of the tandem.

We did only one pre-ride prior to “The Quad” to get me dialed in on his tandem!

 My first time on the tandem with John was a crazy climb-fest in the San Gabriel Mountains to the Mount Baldy ski lifts. We were both in really good shape and did not think too much of it--just off RAW a few weeks earlier and training for events in August and September.

John did not have any low gears to speak of on his tandem. He did not have a granny gear and the rear gearing only went down to a low gear of a 28-tooth cassette!!

Gear mashing to say the least, we did great but the climb up to the ski lifts was a real grunt.

 I was in the back standing out of the saddle on much of it while John just was being his “Diesel” self.

Climbing to the Baldy Ski Lifts

At the summit. Boy was it a white knuckler going down!!

We did about 8,500 vertical feet of elevation gain on John’s tandem in 60 miles--great training for both of us.

The following weekend was “The Quad” and we were ready for it after the Baldy ride. We did it on the event staff ride since we worked the actual event at the end of June.

Our moving time was 21:25 with an overall time of 23:02. Only an hour and a half off the bike!! Shows you that you don’t have much time to stop if you want to finish in the allotted time of 24 hours.

Below are a few pictures from the event.

Climbing out of the saddle. You didnt see John doing this much.

A video of "The Quad"

My last ride on the tandem with John was the Adobo Velo Tour de Francis summer addition at the beginning of August.

We rode from Palmdale, CA, to Dawson Saddle on Angeles Crest Hwy. This was another beast of a climbing ride for a tandem but with Hoodoo 500 coming up at the end of the month, it made for great training especially since the event was on a single bike not a tandem.

 Climbing out of Palmdale

At the summit.

2015

The next year really showed what John was all about.

In 2015, John did his 100^th double century at the Southern Inyo Double up in Lone Pine CA. We all got together to stay with John and be his posse on the ride.

We all had a great day. Below are some pictures from the day as well as a video culminating with John’s finish in Lone Pine for the celebration.

They made T-shirts up for John!

Johns 100th double

Our next event together was The Mulholland Double Century. A really tough event with over 17,000 feet of climbing. We both were staffing the event so we did it as a staff ride. 

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John and Terri at the start

John Climbing Potrero Road into Hidden Valley

     John rode really strong all morning but said later that he was not feeling very well when he started.

 When finishing up the first half and stopping for lunch, John was feeling dizzy and out of breath. He decided to stop at that point and drive home. On the way home he checked into the ER to get checked out as a precaution. It turned out he was in atrial fibrillation(A-fib) with tachycardia and he spent 5 hours in the ER until they got it settled down. He was at the hospital close to my house so my wife, Ginny, picked him up and he spent the night at our house. So glad he didn't have to drive home to Long Beach after that traumatic episode. 

 He had a tough road getting back to cycling at a level he was happy with.

 He was just starting to get it all dialed in and getting stronger and stronger on the bike. It was tough according to him but he kept riding on his single bike and tandem. 

After riding and working events with John over the year, and after he had the episode with his heart, I got a call from him about the Silver State 508.

I had wanted to do this race for many years but waited until 2013 before I decided to do it. Problem was that it was an anniversary year and I could not get into the race as a rookie. It was kind of a good thing because the race was shortened that year due to a problem with permits in the national parks.

I, instead, crewed for my friend Victor who did it.

The race moved to Nevada shortly after that with a new course from Reno to Eureka and back.

   When John called me, he asked me if I wanted to do the race with him on a 4-person team. The team would be called Team White Owl 4X. He knew that my nickname was White Owl and had talked to the organizers ahead of time. At “The 508”, you don’t get a race number. You have a “totem” which is a real or mythical animal name. John said that the race would hold on to that totem which was not taken yet until after the 2016 race and if I completed that race in the solo division, I would keep the totem.

  John also knew about the passing of my younger brother to heart disease in 2011 and was going to make our race in memory of my brother, Dave. They even put it on our bumper stickers and t-shirts.

What an amazing friend to do this!!!

He and the “Team Clare” family knew I could not afford the race and paid for my entry, hotel, and travel.

This is what John was all about.

A few pictures below of the event:

 John purchased an owl to go on top of the crew support van.

Our support van. Notice the owl on top.

 John climbing Geiger Grade with Reno down below.

At the finish

In the years that followed, we did and worked many events together.

After John’s tragic accident, we were all in shock. I still have not, to this day, been able to believe this awesome guy is gone. Like I said before, he has done so much for so many.

A memorial ride was planned at John’s favorite Double Century, The Planet Ultra Solvang Double.

Many of his friends did this ride in his memory. We had some pretty good rain in the morning while riding between Santa Maria and Morro Bay.  Did I mention that rain was NOT in the forecast for that day?

It went through my mind how much John loved riding in the rain. I mentioned to my riding friends that John was messing with us with the rain.

The day turned out to be a perfectly beautiful day. John’s wife, Melinda, came and was helping out at a few of the rest stops and at the end.

We all had some great conversations about John on this day. All of us who knew John well, were so glad Melinda was there so we could give her a big hug.

Here are a few pictures of the John Clare Memorial Ride.

Climbing Foxen Canyon in the early morning

John’s wife, Melinda, was at check point 2 in San Luis Obispo.
Melinda was thinking exactly as I was about the rain. She mentioned to me what I already knew, that John loved riding in the rain and that he was probably messing with all of us. 

 Everyone saying thanks for the rain John!!!

Everyone was thinking of our big guy John on this day. He was involved in many conversations.


WE ALL MISS YOU BUDDY !!!