Long Distance Girls....

[Brandy]

Jana...I just read your blog...I didn't realize that you were at the SD 200k brevet. Wish I would have known! I was there riding with some of the Bike Forums guys, I thought it was a great route and I think I'm going to plan it as a Bike Forums group ride sometime soon but possibly start and end it in Oceanside instead of La Jolla.

[Fredwina]

Brandy, I think you passed on that climb before Esocondido
I Just cancelled out of Death Valley.
I'm doing the 200K in Cayucos on 2/24 - should be pretty. If do a good time, I'l probably do the 300K there on 3/24 It's a couple of out n backs, so I can wimp out if needed , and I 'm still planning on doing Hemet.
Are you still doing the Butterflo..er field double?

[Brandy]

Bite your tongue lady! Yes, I'm doing Butterfield. I wasn't planning on it being my first DC, but was talked into it (when someone tells you that they guarantee you won't DNF and that they'll double back for you after they finish, how can you turn that offer down?) by a friend, so I took the plunge. Hemet's on my schedule after that and I need a new plan for my third...my commitment to crew for a RAAM team has blown my backup plan of Grand Tour out of the water, so I need to either commit to Eastern Sierra or do the Davis Double.

[maillotpois]

Brandy -

Davis = easy, pretty new climb, rolly hills, LOTS of flat with fast pacelines
ESDC = beautiful, thinner air, lots of time alone, longer climbs but not too bad

Tough choice. Do both!

[Brandy]

I wish that I could, but considering that I'm abandoning...err...leaving my kids for 8-13 days (depending on whether I fly back from Atlantic City) in June to crew RAAM, it's going to have to be one or the other. I'm leaning toward Eastern Sierra. I was worried about doing 10,000 feet of climbing, but I recently did a 112 mile 10,500 ft ride (Encinitas to Palomar Mountain observatory and back) and felt really strong most of the day. I'm thinking that if I can handle the 8500 feet of climbing on the Butterfield DC, that ES shouldn't be too bad.

[maillotpois]

I didn't think the climbing at ESDC was too bad. The only climb that was noticeably "tough" on ESDC was after lunch. To get to lunch, you descend down, down, down to Mono lake. You keep going down, all the while knowing that you have to climb out of the lunch stop. So that blew. And the climb after lunch was a lot longer than the descent, because you took a jog left and did a pretty long climb on a different road.

But aside from that extended climb and the moderately long climb out of Bishop in the morning, there wasn't really a lot of climbing that sticks in my mind. There weren't really many roller-y climbs either. And the whole last part is downhill - how can you beat that??

The only real bummer about ESDC and reason I might not do it again was the expansion joints in the road for the last 60 miles. You could get a lot of good speed up, but you'd hit these nasty breaks in the pavement - rattle your fillings out. I actually had to stop at one point to make sure my bike was intact. But it is so pretty. If we didn't have a Death Ride training ride that day, I'd consider doing it again.

[Brandy]

The only real bummer about ESDC and reason I might not do it again was the expansion joints in the road for the last 60 miles. You could get a lot of good speed up, but you'd hit these nasty breaks in the pavement - rattle your fillings out. I actually had to stop at one point to make sure my bike was intact.

Is that THIS ride? I remember reading your ride report last year.

ETA: I just went back and re-read your report. The views are so amazing, I'm going to block out the mental image of those expansion joints...lol!

[jobob]

Davis = easy, pretty new climb, rolly hills, LOTS of flat with fast pacelines...

excuuuuse me, but am I the only one here who considers the phrase easy double century an oxymoron?

[Veronica]

Well it was one of the easier ones I did last year. I think Solvang was a tad easier though - probably because I was riding with Thom for 3/4 of it. Company makes long rides easier.

V.

[maillotpois]

Davis is the only double the GP will do any more, because he doesn't have to train for it...

[Brandy]

Well it was one of the easier ones I did last year. I think Solvang was a tad easier though - probably because I was riding with Thom for 3/4 of it. Company makes long rides easier.

V.

Absolutely!! I just finished my first double century...Butterfield yesterday. I started with the early group at 5:30 and by the time I left the first rest stop at mile 38, my friend George who started at 6:15, had caught me. I was leaving as he was coming in, but he caught me again a couple of miles later and I thought I would try to hang with him for awhile. Well, my "awhile" turned into the entire day...he was on a fixed gear but still had to slow his pace a bit for me and I was so appreciative. He caught my overheating before I did and made me pull off and dunk my head under a faucet and really took care of me all day. He was there to talk me through the lulls and assure me that I would recover and get my game back. Of course, I had to give him crap since he talked me into Butterfield saying "you want to get doubles in early during the season when it's cold because once it heats up, everything changes"...lol...it was SO HOT and windy yesterday!

So...having him there made all the difference in the world. I was able to finish in 14:25...totally exhausted and ready to SLEEP!

Oh...and my view for the day. I was NOT complaining.