Yesterday was the staff ride for the Devil Mountain Double. Ten brave souls, who will work the actual ride next Saturday, took off at 6AM. It was about 45 degrees out and I just could not seem to get my legs warm on the 30 minute ride over to our first climb, Mt. Diablo. My knees don't take the cold well so at the base of Diablo I got some vitaimin I (Ibuprofin) from our wonderful SAG guys - Jesse and Thom. The climb up Diablo was gorgeous. It had a layer of fog about 1/2 up, and the sun coming through the clouds just glinted off the valley below. Otherwise it was a pretty clear day and you could see for miles. My knees had finally gotten with the program and overall I had a pretty good ascent, other than the wind I encountered about 5 miles in. Weather data for the mountain shows it to have been blowing 19 with gusts to 35. This leg - 19. 1 miles, elevation gain 3,780 feet.
The descent on the other hand was brutal. Freezing cold, even with my full fingered gloves, my fingers were getting numb. I stopped once in a patch of sun just to warm up.
After a brief rest stop at the base of Diablo, I hooked up with two other riders and we headed over to the base of our next climb - Morgan Territory. This is about one of the prettiest rides around I think. You wind your way out of the 'burbs and into horse country. The road begins with ranches and ends up being a small one lane road, for about the last four miles, covered with trees. Only downside is that the road is not very well maintained, very rutted, loose asphalt, lots of potholes. Last year on this ride, I was miserable on this section and thought about quitting when I got to the top. I just hadn't been eating enough. This year I made myself take a bite of a bar every 15 minutes or so. And felt great when I rolled into Morgan Territory, where Jesse had a cold Red Bull waiting just for me, and he told me I still looked very fresh.This leg - 33.3 miles, 2400 feet of elevation gain.
Here I changed out of my tights into shorts. You can't imagine how good that felt. I also switched jerseys. The joys of doing a small group ride with SAG.
We pulled out of Morgan Territory, climbed a little bit more than headed down into Livermore. The backside of Morgan Territory is called by many cyclists - The Plunge. It's a wonderful descent, pretty good sight lines, even though it's a little curvy. It can be a little warm since there are no trees on this side. The road on this side is wonderfully smooth. Somewhere in here I hit 41 mph! FUN.
Once at the bottom, you wind your way through the Livermore Valley flatlands to Altamont Pass. This section was great. We had the wind at our backs going out Altamont. Great right? No, because that means you get a nice stiff wind in your face climbing Patterson Pass. I've done this section of the ride twice before, once at last year's DMD where I thought I had died and gone to hell. And once on the tandem with Thom. Neither time had I experienced the gale force winds we had yesterday. It was brutal. At one point my odometer showed me cresting a hill at 2 MPH. In spite of that, other than my lower back beginning to twinge a little, I still felt really good. A little vitamin I and I was set. I was even contemplating going further than my planned 115 miles. This leg - 28.1 miles, 1840 feet of elevation gain.
We descended Patterson and headed out across the other side of Livermore to Mines Road, the beginning of the climb to Mount Hamilton. This was where I quit last year - 91 miles into it, 9,000 feet total elevation gain. Not this year. My back was getting a little more achy, but my legs felt great, a little fatigued. This section 10.3 miles, 910 feet of elevation gain.
Mines Road begins with a fairly steep ascent over two miles. We had a slight breeze at our backs - nice! For the next twenty miles or so, you're still ascending, but it's really gradual. It's a beautiful area. Kind of looks like where they would film old western movies. About 18 miles into this section, I realize my back is killing me, my stomach is no longer happy (I'm blaming it on Carboom) and I'm getting cold, which is not good for my knees. This leg ends with two short climbs. The last two miles to the first one, I am not a happy camper. I can't wait to get to the climb, because it will mean I'm almost to the next rest stop. The two miles drag by. Finally, the climb's not bad... The descent is another fairly curvy one, but on good roads. I'm flying. By this time I have decided that I am not continuing on with the climb up Hamilton. I'll be done at the Junction, as I had originally planned. Another short little climb and it's a couple mile descent to the Junction. YEAH! This leg - 24 miles, 2400 feet of elevation gain.
Ride total - 115 miles, 11,240 total climb. Average speed - 10.9
At this point, there are still 8 riders on the course. 4 way off the front, two in the middle and two that I was riding with. Another rider stops at the same time I do. Jesse takes him back and Thom and I continue sagging after getting burgers at the bar at The Junction - good burgers.
We drive to the top of Hamilton - man am I glad I quit when I did! From the Junction you ride along through a valley, climb up a little bit, this is where we pass the two guys in the middle, descend and then begin the six mile climb up to the top of Hamilton. Thom and I got up there and watched the sun set and the fog roll in. Now I'm really happy to be off the bike, because the temperature is dropping.
The first guy - Dave - rolls in at about 7:45. He is still looking good. Gets some food, a little more water and heads on out at 8. At 8:20 the next guy, Jon, comes in - he's done. He's cramping from the cold. Now our vehicle is full. We expect the last two riders at about 8:35. No sign of them. It's cold and foggy. At 8:45 we decide to go back down and look for them. They were almost at the top. Scott is still looking really good. Mary has been cold almost all day and this fog is not helping. She warms up in the car for about 45 minutes, she really wants to finish the ride. They start down Mt. Hamilton at about 9:30. It's dark, there's fog and it's 37 degrees out. We make sure they are okay and then head out with a plan of checking in on Dave and taking Jon back to his car.
Things don't go as planned. We hop on the highway to get up to where we think Dave'll be. We drive the course. We can't find Dave and his cell phone isn't on. We turn around and go back out thinking maybe we overestimated his speed.
It's now about 10:30. The phone rings, it's Jesse. Dave called him, he missed a turn and is now off course by about 5 miles, facing a steep climb to get back on course. The people in this particular neighborhood always paint over the white arrows on the road with black paint. Nice. Have you ever tried to look at black paint in the dark on asphalt? Jon volunteers to sit on the side of the road with his bike, while we go get Dave.
The phone rings, it's Scott. He and Mary are off Hamilton. But they're done. We decide we'll continue with our plan to get Dave back on course, then we'll go to Scott and Mary and scout the area for a Denny's for them to hang out in while we then take Jon home. It's past midnight by the time we get them situated. I sleep a bit in the back of the car while we drive the twenty plus miles back to Scott's house (the ride start.) There we get his huge truck since neither his nor Mary's bike can go in our roof racks.
The phone rings. It's Dave. He still feels good. Just wants to confirm directions.
We drive back to Scott and Mary. About halfway there, Thom says he's too tired to drive. We pull over, switch places and now I'm driving this huge truck. It turns like a boat and takes forever to brake, but I manage, other than wanting to drive over the lawn at Denny's which looked to me like a driveway. :D
Scott loads up their bikes and drives back to his place. It's now almost 4 AM. I've been up for 24 hours, other than a snooze in the back of the car.
Dave still hasn't arrived. We call him, he still feels good and is about 8 miles from the finish! Woohoo for him! We drive home. It's now 5AM, I wash my face and fall into bed.
I've had three hours of sleep. I'm glad it's Sunday. I'll take a nap later.
Veronica
