06/14/06

Go to DEVIL MOUNTAIN DOUBLE Official Website

Hey, hey, boys & girls.           

I have returned to my old stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area and the East Bay Hills. This is the place where I learned the most from my bike mentors and buddies John Thompson and Larry Osborne. I have made a lot of lasting friendships here that have survived despite my move to Las Vegas. You guys know who you are. There are way too many of you to list here but it is great to see you again.

The COURSE: Here is a quote from the Quackcyclists web-site: "THIS SHOULD NOT BE YOUR FIRST DOUBLE! These are VERY TOUGH RIDES. On average, riders who have done the Terrible Two say the DMD takes two hours longer. The staff will do all they can to pamper you at the rest stops but THE COURSE WILL SHOW NO MERCY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! "  The best time on this course was set on this year's ride, 11:55:00. The average time is 17:33:00. The longest time: forever.

The BIG CLIMBS: The first big climb of the day is Mt. Diablo. Listed by Bicycling Magazine as one of the 10 toughest climbs in America with it's peak at 3,849 ft. The last 0.2-mile of the 11.0-mile climb is called "The Wall" with the final 150 yards at 16% ... and it is only 20 miles into the ride. Then we assault the 7.4-mile Morgan Territory climb, followed by the Altamont Pass climb, and Patterson Pass climb with it's famous "Oh-My-God" hill (pic on the left). To add insult to injury, it is always very windy here, so windy they have windmill farms all over. Next up is the more sedate 19-mile Mines Road climb. We get to refuel with lunch at mile 116, then we grind up the 5.0-mile climb on the backside of Mt. Hamilton to it's 4,100-ft. peak.

Then the killer beast of all the climbs hits at mile 155 ... Sierra Road rises 1,800-ft. in only 3.2-miles. Do the math, that is a sustained +11% grade. This is one of the most feared climbs in the East Bay hills. This is so steep, I vowed to never go downhill on it when I used to train here. It is so scary to go downhill on it, I prefer to climb it. We then go up the Calaveras Reservoir's "mini-wall", steep but very short, followed by a 4.5-mile climb up Palomares Canyon. But wait, before we get to finish, we have to get over the 2.1-mile Norris Canyon road.

The SIERRA FACTOR: When I first climbed Sierra Road in 1997, I did it with fresh legs after a nice easy 20-mile warmup, using a triple crankset, it took me 38 minutes, with an Average HR of 167. On this ride, with already 155-miles, 15,550 ft. climbed, using a double crankset, it took me 40 minutes with an Average HR of 157. That's a 5% slower time but 6% easier effort. With my legs already cooked, that extra 2 minutes was well worth the trade-off.

The FAST DESCENTs:  The descent from Mt. Diablo is fun but very technical with lots of decreasing-radius turns. The descent from Morgan Territory is called the "Plunge" because it is the steepest descent of the ride, very narrow, and has a few high-compression turns. The descent from Mt. Hamilton is at least 18.5-miles and seems like an eternity. It is narrow with lots of hairpin turns, gravel, and the open rangeland can sometimes create "Close Encounters of the Mooo-Cow" kind. The descent from Felter Road is fast but gently twisty. Same is true for Calaveras Reservoir and the backside of Palomares Canyon. The best downhill of the day was Norris Canyon, a very fast 3.0-mile run on absolutely smooth road, taking us to the finish line. It is no secret to most of you that I am a very conservative downhiller. I managed to traverse all these fast descents without center-line violations. I credit the De ROSA King for playing a major part in my downhill confidence on these technical descents.

The WEATHER: Perfect climbing weather. Cool and with cloud cover most of the day. I never had to switch to my dark lenses all day. I did not have to take off my Under-Armour All-Season long-sleeves either. But the descents made it cold enough that I had put on my long-sleeved windshell, long-fingered gloves, and knee-warmers. It is so ironic that because of the cool temps, the descents seemed more physically "uncomfortable" than the brutal climbs :-)

The RIDER: Average HR for the day was 142 bpm. I felt good all day, but I stuck to my plan of going conservative early in the day to conserve energy for Sierra Road. I think it worked well because Sierra Road did not seem as bad as I thought it would be. Very horrible thoughts of walking up Sierra Road had entered my mind all day.

The BIKE: (Repeat from the last report; see Mulholland DC) This is the De ROSA KING's (a.k.a ELVIS) third Double Century.  I managed with a 39x26 gearing but could have benefited from a triple-crank. I think I may have been able to get faster times spinning.

The MOUNTS:  The custom-fabricated mounts for the Light-&-Motion HID Lighting system, Superflate cartridge inflator, and route sheets makes a long day a bit more organized.

The OTHER VARIABLES: There are not much flat roads on this ride; except for a short stretch in Livermore, Calaveras, and Niles Canyon. We are either climbing or descending. Consequently, there are no fast pacelines to latch on to. Since none of my Double Century bike-buddies were here, and everyone pretty much ends up going at their own pace, the ride was kind-of-like a mountain climb time trial ... riding solo most of the day. I even missed my buddy Corky Dominguez, who was supposed to meet me en-route because I got to the meeting spot 1.5-hrs earlier than we thought.

The FATIGUE INDEX: This ride beat me up pretty good but not as bad as I had been imagining all week. I actually felt some spring in my climbing from mile 160 all the way to the end. Probably because I knew the worse part (Sierra Road) was history. It is truly a big advantage when you know the course very well because navigation and pushing certain climbs are non-issues. Although this ride had +3.5-miles and +3,500-ft. more climbing, I felt better and finished it in EXACTLY the same time as the Mulholland Double 2-weeks ago. Yeah, baby!

The MORNING AFTER:  I went back down to the conference room where dinner was served and waited for the ride organizers to show up and start the clean-up so I can claim my spare battery and start heading home. But, there were not many people there to help sort, move, and load this big roomful of 'stuff'. I volunteered to help. We started around 8am and finished around 12noon.  They gave me all sorts of extra supplies to take home (Hammer Gels, Gatorade, Clif Bars, cases of H2O, Revenge Nutrition, fruits, bread, potato chips, gel flasks, water bottles, etc.).  The best one was a boxed-dozen of premium quality drinking glasses with etched logos of the Quackcyclists and Devil Mountain Double (pictured below).