Of all of the double centuries that I have done, the Devil Mountain Double is by far the hardest of the lot. Riding 200 miles in a day is hard enough even before you throw in 18,600 feet of climbing; so why would you increase the suffering?
Apparently, for some people the "easier" doubles aren't hard enough. So they seek harder challenges. And then us mere mortals come along and seek to challenge ourselves with these crazy rides.
I've certainly done harder rides than the Devil Mountain Double, but it was only a year ago that the DMD was the longest ride I had ever done (soon eclipsed by the Central Coast Double, then the LA Grand Tour Triple and the HooDoo 500). And it has far more climbing percentage-wise than any of those other rides. So the suffering may be of a shorter distance, but it's far more intense!
And so it was that Joan and I found ourselves waking up well before 4:00 AM on a perfectly nice Saturday morning to make our way to San Ramon for the start of the craziest (or maybe second craziest, I'm not sure how bad Alta Alpina is!) double on the California Triple Crown schedule.
Starting out at 5:00 AM we quickly made our way to Mount Diablo and the first climb of the day. The climb re-enforced my opinion from last year that Diablo is one of the finest climbs in the Bay Area. It has great views, nice roads, and is a great place to watch a sunset! Of course, the park doesn't open normally until sunrise so you won't get to see it unless you camp there.
At the top, I paused just long enough to refill my water and grab a bite to eat (and take some for the road). From there, the descent is relatively nice until you get onto the North Gate Road heading down into Walnut Creek. From there, the road has some tight corners and rough sections but isn't all that long so it passes quickly. From Walnut Creek the route heads over to Clayton and then up Morgan Territory Road for the second climb of the day.
Morgan Territory has been resurfaced since last year so it's not so bad any more. It's still rough, but at least there aren't as many loose sections of surface. Overall a very nice climb, with a few steep pitches at the end. All this leads to a rest stop almost at the top, and then a screaming descent down into the Livermore Valley.
At the bottom, you get a surprising number of miles of flat roads before heading up Altamont Pass. Altamont is a lovely easy climb, especially when it is acting as a wind tunnel. Which it was this day! Going 20+ MPH uphill just feels good! =)
After crossing to the other side of the pass, the route turns south and over to Patterson Pass Road. This is fairly protected from the wind, and on a warm day it can be quite hot up there. This was the case, at least as I perceived it. Just like last year, I began to suffer a bit going up Patterson. And it wasn't the climbing, just the heat. But when you see the top, you know that you're in for a treat. The descent back into Livermore is another fun one.
From Livermore, the course heads south on Mines Road deep into the mountains northwest of Mount Hamilton. The first few miles are flat before crossing a bridge and arriving at a rest stop. Refueled with cookies and chips I headed off up the hill and into the hottest part of the day. Most of the climbing on Mines Road comes early, but it does go on for quite a while. Unfortunately, we didn't have the breeze this year that was there last year. So the suffering was there as well! But I did eventually make it over the top and down the short hill to Junction, where the lunch stop is, at mile 116.
At the rest stop, I ate way too much. It's always tempting on these rides to gorge yourself at the rest stops, but it's not a good idea... But the turkey sandwich tasted great, as did the chips, french fries, brownie bites, watermelon V8 Juice and Mountain Dew. Oh well, some times you have to learn things the hard way! Joan caught up with me there, so I decided to wait and ride the rest with her (she was perhaps 10 minutes behind me coming into lunch.
After she was done, we got back on our bikes and headed off to Mount Hamilton. The road goes through some wonderful rural areas around here. And over some minor hills of course! The only bad part of the road through here is all the cattlegaurds. But they're easy enough to clear if you just lift your front wheel up and semi-hop over them, keeping the weight off of your seat!
Once we got to the main climb up Mount Hamilton, the suffering began in earnest. My stomach was giving me grief for all of the food and the heat was sapping my energy big time. With that, it's not too bad that I had to stop a few times during the climb. But reaching the top was a great reward as was the cold sparking juice at the the rest stop!
From there we headed off down one of my least favorite descents in the area. Mount Hamilton Road is just too windy and dirty (rocks on a lot of the corners) to be fun. At least the final part is on good road! After the detour (uphill of course!) to the Crothers Road rest stop, we were off to the hardest climb of the day, Sierra Road!
I've had a love-hate relationship with Sierra Road since the first time I climbed it (2001?). It shuts me down some times, and I crush it other times. This time was closer to the former. I felt somewhat okay at the bottom, but started to fall apart about a mile up the hill. Then I started getting cramps in my gracilis (muscle on the inside of the thigh). Not fun! So I walked a few sections trying to stretch out the muscles. Finally I made it to the last rise before the top, and remounted my bike to ride the last little bit. Then we headed off to the "Pet The Goat" rest stop.
This was where I started having problems with my brakes. Descending Calaveras, I couldn't get my bike to stop shuttering when I would brake. After the short climb up the Calaveras Wall, I stopped to see if I could fix the brake as it was getting to a dangerous point. Fortunately, all I had to do was re-tension the cable on the back brake since the pad still had some life in it. After that, no problems though I did keep the speed in check because I was getting rather tired (go figure!).
After riding Calaveras down into Sunol we got the famous hot dog and chili treatment there. Those two foods are just about the most appealing thing towards the end of a long ride. Then we headed off down Niles Canyon Road (which really could double as a Pinball Board given the way it feels to ride it, especially after dark!).
After making the sharp right turn onto Palomares Canyon Road we found ourselves on a quiet and dark road that felt a lot harder than I remember it from last year! The hill just seemed to go on and on, even though I knew that it should feel so bad! I'd done it just a couple of weeks prior. But it still hurt, and seemed to take far too long. From the top, it's a nice descent down and into Castro Valley. This part of the ride isn't fun, so fortunately it's not all that long. Once the route leaves Crow Canyon Road for Norris Canyon Road, it goes back to its quiet feel.
Even the climb of Norris Canyon seemed a lot harder this year. But fortunately it's only 2.4 miles long and has a great descent on the other side. Then it's just a quick trip through western San Ramon and across 680 to the finish at the Marriot.
Total time was 18:22 for 206 miles with 18600 feet of climbing.
At the finish, we enjoyed our sparkling apple cider, pasta and brownies. It sure felt good to be done, even though we were bother rather thrashed. Fortunately I was able to stay alert enough to drive home that night.
The next day we of course got to sit around and enjoy doing nothing. La Bamba has rarely tasted so good! And sitting by a fountain with our feet in the water was a small taste of heaven.
Labels: Altamont Pass, bicycling, cycling, devil mountain double, double century, east bay, Livermore, Mines Road, Morgan Territory, Mount Diablo, mount hamilton, Patterson Pass, San Jose, sierra road
