PUMPED UP '508' RACERS WILL TEST THEIR ENDURANCE.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Tim Skipper always meant to get his dad on a long bike ride across the country, but neither man could find the time to do it together. Undaunted, Skipper decided to start long-distance cycling on his own.

In 1999, he joined cyclists in Race Across America, an annual 3,000-mile event held in June, then last year he found the Furnace Creek 508, a shorter course that still puts him out on the open road for a weekend adventure. It also starts closer to home.

When Skipper joins the more than 80 other long-distance riders Saturday morning in the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn in Valencia, it will be his second spin down ``the 508,'' as regulars call it.

``My dad still rides, but not as much as he used to,'' Skipper said. ``This is one way I can do it for him.''

Skipper, whose profession is information technology, appreciates the bike race as a departure from what he usually does all day long. He will ride as part of a two-man team that calls itself Two Can, a moniker in homage of teamwork.

That teamwork has paid off with some records: Skipper shares three of them in the Ride Across America competition, including one in men's tandem team, one in a mixed tandem team - where two of the riders were blind - and one solo award for riding a ``human-powered vehicle.''

``It was actually a three-wheeled tricycle with a body on it,'' he said.

Bike racing has taken him around the country, because the Race Across America course changes every year. Skipper has pedaled from Irvine to Savannah and from Portland to Pensacola. The familiarity of the 508 course is something he welcomes.

``This course jam-packs as much mountain climbing and extreme desert into 500 miles as possible,'' said Chris Kostman, whose organization, AdventureCORPS, put on the race.

The cyclists leave the corner of The Old Road and Magic Mountain Parkway and head toward San Francisquito Canyon on a route that will take them through the communities of Mojave, Trona, Stove Pipe Wells, Badwater, Shoshone and Amboy, ending 508 miles later in Twentynine Palms.

Solo cyclists must complete the course in 48 hours. Two-rider teams, such as Skipper's, must finish in 45 hours.

``The riders will traverse Death Valley, which is Mother Nature's greatest sports arena. It's easy to navigate,'' Kostman said.

The ultramarathon race includes 35,000 feet of total elevation gain.

``I like this race because of the challenge,'' Skipper said. ``To ride miles over the desert with a lot ot climbing is always a mental challenge as well as a physical challenge. It gets tough and you want to stop, but you don't because you're helping your teammate ride.''

Two-man teams have one rider on the road and another in the follow vehicle, resting up or carbo-loading. They also bring along four crew members (two per rider) to help with breakdowns or rider sustenance.

Skipper's three children, who live in Castaic, enjoy riding bikes with their dad. They almost made it on this journey but he decided to let them wait another year because the endurance required might be too much.

Cyclists often have a lot on their minds while they ride through the desert, Skipper said - like getting from one checkpoint to the next and deciding what to eat to avoid dehydration or indigestion on the ride.

Riders need to consume approximately 6,000 calories along the route and drink 400 ounces of water, which Skipper gets from a backpack equipped with a sipper pipe.

His pre-race dinner plate was loaded with pasta and bread. Meals for along the way contained bagels, cream cheese and gels with complex carbohydrates.

``I've had to go to the hospital for IVs because of dehydration,'' he said, noting that rides don't come without hazards. ``I've had crew leave the team, our follow vehicles have broken down. The heat can really get to you out there.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Bike racer Tim Skipper of Castaic will be part of a two-man team in the Furnace Creek 508 race this weekend.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News