Death Ride!
Sunday, 15 July, 2007, 07:19 - Cycling, Legends
Ever since the first time I heard of the Death Ride, I have thought that it would be a worthy accomplishment to finish the five passes. And I have to say that it did not disappoint me.
I'll go back to Friday morning to begin the story. I had ordered a new wheelset for my bike on Saturday, and the FedEx tracking system was saying that the package was on the truck ready for delivery at 6:50AM. So I figured that I would wait for that to show up. No sense riding on a heavier wheel if I can avoid it!
After waiting for hours, the delivery guy showed up around 1:30 or so; and I hurriedly put the tires and tubes on. Then the back wheel would not fit in the dropouts. After filing the paint off the inside of the dropouts, I was good to go. Now I had about six hours to get up to Markleeville for the check in.
Mental note: don't take Highway 4 to get to Markleeville! The road is way to slow... Highway 89 is a much better route to get there! Avoid Highway 4 except for the part between Highways 5 and 99... Okay, back to the show.
After far too much time in my car, I got the Turtle Rock Park at around 8:15PM, and checked in. After buying the souvenir pint glass, I went off to sleep.
At 5:00AM, I woke up and got into my cycling clothes and headed over to the official start. My starting cue was given by the radio that one of the volunteers had set up. Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight' was playing, so I waited until that classic drum solo started and took off.
The rest of the day seems almost like a blur now. So I will present it that way.
Hand shaking cold for the first few miles, and then getting warmed up with the climb up the west side of Monitor Pass. Passing people, and getting passed by some damned good riders. So many nice bikes on the road as well. I think the coolest one was the old-school lugged steel Colnago that one dude was riding. A very enjoyable climb! After breezing down the descent over to Highway 395, it was time to turn around and head back up the east side of Monitor. This side is nowhere near as steep as the west side, but it was in full sunlight, so it seemed a bit harder. But still the miles keep pouring on, and in no time I am back up on the top of the pass, and ready to get on to the rest of the climbs. The west descent was a lot of fun, and was over way too soon. Then I headed south onto Highway 4, and back up towards Ebbetts Pass.
The road to Ebbetts is quite narrow, so it was a very good thing that it was closed to auto traffic (Monitor was as well). But the climbing is very steady; even steep in places. I think that the east side of Ebbetts is tougher than the other passes. But hey, that's just an opinion! Everyone else seems to think that west Monitor is toughest... When I got up to the top I enjoyed some fine food at the rest stop; and then headed down into Hermit Valley. By now the temperature was getting hot, so I knew I would be in for some real suffering on the rest of the ride. The only disconcerting moment of the ride came about half way down the west side of Ebbetts when I came to a place where a rider had crashed. I had to pass left of the ambulance that was stopped in the road, and saw that the rider was being loaded in. The bad part was riding across blood spilled on the road. It didn't look too bad, but I hope that he was okay.
Once I got down into Hermit Valley, I had to turn around and go back up for 5 miles to get back to Ebbetts Pass. I had to stop once or twice to cool myself off in the shade, but I did eventually make the summit. And then I was able to enjoy the fast descent down to the lunch stop. After a great lunch of a turkey sandwich and various chip, cookies and fruit; I headed back north for the final climb of the day. By the time I got down into Woodfords, the temperature had to be up in the low 90s so the suffering for the first bit of climbing was immense. For a while, I was stopping every mile or so in the shade, and even dunked my head in the river at one point (man, that felt good!).
After getting up into the upper parts of Hope Valley, the temperature cooled down to a reasonable amount of hot, and I was able to make better progress. But still, the last few miles seemed interminable, and when Finally got to the 1/2 mile to go mark, I got my second (or 12th?) wind and was able to sprint for the summit. At the rest stop at the top, I laid down for about ten minutes in the shade and had some ice water and a fudgesicle (man that was good!). And I got my five summits pin, which was even better! Now I just had to make it back to the start!
The descent from Carson Pass is actually (I think) the best one of the ride. There are lots of longer straightaways and it is a constant descent. I was able to hit 51 MPH near the bottom of it without pushing at all. After getting back into Woodfords, there were only a series of rolling hills before my destination. When I topped the last rise, I shifted up and sprinted all out for the finish line.
This ride is supposed to be 129 miles, though I only recorded 123 on my odometer. And the total climbing is listed as 15,000+. Not bad for a day's work! My riding time was 10:35 (which is very slow if you consider that I have done 200 miles in 12:09).
I'll go back to Friday morning to begin the story. I had ordered a new wheelset for my bike on Saturday, and the FedEx tracking system was saying that the package was on the truck ready for delivery at 6:50AM. So I figured that I would wait for that to show up. No sense riding on a heavier wheel if I can avoid it!
After waiting for hours, the delivery guy showed up around 1:30 or so; and I hurriedly put the tires and tubes on. Then the back wheel would not fit in the dropouts. After filing the paint off the inside of the dropouts, I was good to go. Now I had about six hours to get up to Markleeville for the check in.
Mental note: don't take Highway 4 to get to Markleeville! The road is way to slow... Highway 89 is a much better route to get there! Avoid Highway 4 except for the part between Highways 5 and 99... Okay, back to the show.
After far too much time in my car, I got the Turtle Rock Park at around 8:15PM, and checked in. After buying the souvenir pint glass, I went off to sleep.
At 5:00AM, I woke up and got into my cycling clothes and headed over to the official start. My starting cue was given by the radio that one of the volunteers had set up. Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight' was playing, so I waited until that classic drum solo started and took off.
The rest of the day seems almost like a blur now. So I will present it that way.
Hand shaking cold for the first few miles, and then getting warmed up with the climb up the west side of Monitor Pass. Passing people, and getting passed by some damned good riders. So many nice bikes on the road as well. I think the coolest one was the old-school lugged steel Colnago that one dude was riding. A very enjoyable climb! After breezing down the descent over to Highway 395, it was time to turn around and head back up the east side of Monitor. This side is nowhere near as steep as the west side, but it was in full sunlight, so it seemed a bit harder. But still the miles keep pouring on, and in no time I am back up on the top of the pass, and ready to get on to the rest of the climbs. The west descent was a lot of fun, and was over way too soon. Then I headed south onto Highway 4, and back up towards Ebbetts Pass.
The road to Ebbetts is quite narrow, so it was a very good thing that it was closed to auto traffic (Monitor was as well). But the climbing is very steady; even steep in places. I think that the east side of Ebbetts is tougher than the other passes. But hey, that's just an opinion! Everyone else seems to think that west Monitor is toughest... When I got up to the top I enjoyed some fine food at the rest stop; and then headed down into Hermit Valley. By now the temperature was getting hot, so I knew I would be in for some real suffering on the rest of the ride. The only disconcerting moment of the ride came about half way down the west side of Ebbetts when I came to a place where a rider had crashed. I had to pass left of the ambulance that was stopped in the road, and saw that the rider was being loaded in. The bad part was riding across blood spilled on the road. It didn't look too bad, but I hope that he was okay.
Once I got down into Hermit Valley, I had to turn around and go back up for 5 miles to get back to Ebbetts Pass. I had to stop once or twice to cool myself off in the shade, but I did eventually make the summit. And then I was able to enjoy the fast descent down to the lunch stop. After a great lunch of a turkey sandwich and various chip, cookies and fruit; I headed back north for the final climb of the day. By the time I got down into Woodfords, the temperature had to be up in the low 90s so the suffering for the first bit of climbing was immense. For a while, I was stopping every mile or so in the shade, and even dunked my head in the river at one point (man, that felt good!).
After getting up into the upper parts of Hope Valley, the temperature cooled down to a reasonable amount of hot, and I was able to make better progress. But still, the last few miles seemed interminable, and when Finally got to the 1/2 mile to go mark, I got my second (or 12th?) wind and was able to sprint for the summit. At the rest stop at the top, I laid down for about ten minutes in the shade and had some ice water and a fudgesicle (man that was good!). And I got my five summits pin, which was even better! Now I just had to make it back to the start!
The descent from Carson Pass is actually (I think) the best one of the ride. There are lots of longer straightaways and it is a constant descent. I was able to hit 51 MPH near the bottom of it without pushing at all. After getting back into Woodfords, there were only a series of rolling hills before my destination. When I topped the last rise, I shifted up and sprinted all out for the finish line.
This ride is supposed to be 129 miles, though I only recorded 123 on my odometer. And the total climbing is listed as 15,000+. Not bad for a day's work! My riding time was 10:35 (which is very slow if you consider that I have done 200 miles in 12:09).
;)
posted by Mike Deitchman at
8:16 AM
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