High Sierra Fall Century?

[RolliePollie]

Has anyone done the High Sierra Fall Century in Mammoth?

http://www.fallcentury.org/

I'm tempted, but if anyone has ridden it, I'd love to hear details. I'd probably be riding by myself for most if not all of the ride, so I'm wondering about the ride support. And about the climbing too!

[Veronica]

It looks like a good chunk of that ride is the same as the Eastern Sierra Double - an absolutely beautiful ride.

But if you are descending the same road we did after Sagehen, and hopefully MP will tell you it's not the same road, you won't have any fun. That road has expansion joints every 6 - 10 feet and was miserable. And I have descended some bad roads in my time. :D

But even with that descent, I'd do this ride if my summer hadn't been so event filled. It's just such a beautiful area.

V.

[RolliePollie]

Thanks for the info, Veronica. I hope it's not the same descent...sounds painful. I am hoping to have a new bike by September and I'd hate to torture the poor thing with expansion joints. I guess they don't think about cyclists when they build mountain roads :(

[maillotpois]

I just decided to do this ride with my sister. she's never done a century. We'll see. :rolleyes:

Anyway I will look into the route more and see if that road is the same. You'll get some idea of the terrain by going here, which has my ESDC photos (including those expansion joints :rolleyes:) :

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=7264&highlight=eastern+sierra

[RolliePollie]

I just decided to do this ride with my sister. she's never done a century. We'll see. :rolleyes:



I've never done a century either...but this ride looks so beautiful! Thanks for the link to ESDC thread...great info and great pictures! Those expansion joints look like torture.

I think I'm going to wait to register and see how things go over the next couple of weeks. I really don't want to ride a century on my current bike so part of my decision will hinge on whether or not I'll have my new bike by then. I'm also fighting a sore ankle/foot issue that's been haunting me since I had tendonitis last winter. But hopefully everything will fall into place and I'll be ready to do this ride.

[gnat23]

Has anyone done the High Sierra Fall Century in Mammoth?

Did it last year, still debating on whether to this year or not.

The thing I loved about it is that it keeps... on... going. There is only one stop sign the entire route, and it's a right turn, so nobody stops there anyway. There are long stretches of road where it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere and it can take a while for the scenery to change! Some lovely views, tho (Pictures here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnat23/sets/72157601950567776/)), and I bumped into Greg LeMond and his son at one of the rest stops.

There is some good climbing: I clocked about 6000ft. One hill around 70ish miles in that darn-near destroyed me because of altitude sickness (came from the coast the night before).

Decent rest-stops about every 20-ish miles. Standard sports drink, bagels, pretzels, fruit, etc, nothing outrageous.

My only real complaint (excepting the overall starting altitude) was that just before the lunch stop, the road conditions got horrid. I'm not sure if it was heat damage or what, but the road had buckled/split a few inches every few feet, had been tarred to repair, but then the tar had melted away somewhat. The result was maybe 10-15 miles of riding over small ditches like this:
*caTHUNK* ... *caTHUNK* ... *caTHUNK*
There seemed to be no way around them, no way of making it easier, and my brain got so rattled around in my skull that I was suffering a pretty massive headache by the time I got to food. Hopefully they've fixed it by now!!!

But: I recommend it. It was my first "real" century, and I really felt like I had done something amazing by the end of it!

-- gnat!

[maillotpois]

sounds like gnat's describing the expansion joints. oh well. I am still doing this.

[Veronica]

Here's what I said about it in my write up for Eastern Sierra...

This is where the road turned ugly. Now I have ridden some pretty nasty roads, filled with potholes, patched and re-patched lumpy roads. But I have to say Rte. 120 is the King of Vicious Roads. They get snow and freezes in the Eastern Sierras and to handle the contractions and expansions of the road there are expansion joints. Big, ugly gaps in the pavement that the bike does not glide over. KACHUNK, KACHUNK, KACHUNK! Mile after mile of expansion joints, they went on and on. The GPS decided that this was too much, and kept turning off. These expansion joints so rattled the bike that the batteries would not stay on the connectors. It would blink out, I would turn it on. Fade to gray and it was off again. If I was lucky, it would stay on long enough for me to check how many more miles to the finish. I was riding with my butt slightly lifted off the saddle, so my hands and feet were the only connection points to the bike. My wrists and ankles were a little sore when I woke up Sunday morning.

Bu the good news is it comes at mile 70 instead of at mile 140. :p

V.

[gnat23]

KACHUNK, KACHUNK, KACHUNK!

Heh, and thus: we are in agreement.

Maybe if I can suck it up and pretend I'm riding in the Paris-Roubaix...?

-- gnat! (I tried using a different cuss word every kathunk, and by golly, I ran out of obscenities)

[michelem]

Rollie Pollie,

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but if you need an alternative to the High Sierra Century you might want to the try the Gold Rush Century:

http://www.folsomcyclebration.com/Gold_Country_Century.html

These are pretty good roads, so you can skip the KACHUNK, KACHUNK, KACHUNK!!! :D