Wishing all of the "Death Ride" Riders happy tail winds!

[andtckrtoo]

To all the wonderful ladies riding the Tour of the California Alps - aka the Death Ride http://www.deathride.com/index.html here's wishing you a safe and wonderful ride!! I'll be cheering y'all on tomorrow and wishing I had your strength and determination. Y'all rock!!!

[RolliePollie]

I'm rooting for all of you too! You guys are already a couple hours into the ride as I type this...it must be a beautiful morning up there. I hope the T-storms stay away this afternoon. One of these years I'll be up there riding with you!

[snapdragen]

jobob and mp should be well on their way by now -- I know jo was planning on a crack 'o dark start time.

[Blueberry]

Go Jo and MP (and anyone else who is riding....)!!!

[Catrin]

I hope the weather holds for all of the riders and cheering on any TE members who are riding!

[maillotpois]

thanks for the well wishes everyone! our tnt team finished safe - which given the extraordinary number of ambulances this year was the important thing. some of our riders struggled with the heat - we have had NO hot training days this year. I had a mechanical issue (who really needs a front derailleur?) and that plus a real lack of training time led to my first fewer than 5 pass finish since 2002. but I had fun and was able to shepherd our tail end riders up the last pass. and I got a lot of hanging out at lunch time with velogirl, which was fun.

now to relax and plan the next adventure! we are taking a break from coaching after 10 years coaching for tnt and 5 years with the death ride program. mixed emotions for sure, but it is time for a break.

[snapdragen]

Yay MP!! Glad to hear the team survived congratulations to you and the rest of the coaching/mentor/captains for another fine season. You deserve the time off after 10 years! I'm only on my second season as a captain, and I'm exhausted.

[Biciclista]

How did Jobob do?

[jobob]

Hey, thanks for asking, and thanks so much for the well-wishes!

I'm writing up my report, but I thought I'd pop in to let you know that I did fine, and I'm really happy with what I accomplished.

Things didn't go according to plan for me, and when it became obvious that 5 or even 4 passes were just not going to happen, I kicked back and enjoyed my day.

I climbed the front and backside of Monitor Pass (rather laboriously ), and I climbed partway up Ebbetts. Turns out I did one-half of the ride, at least on paper -- it worked out to about 64 miles and 7,800 ft of climbing.

And I had a great time! I'll post a full report in a bit.

[Veronica]

That's awesome Jo! I have such a freakin' hard time with altitude that I am darn impressed with anyone who can do more than one pass in a day up there. Good job, luv!


Veronica

[Biciclista]

I climbed the front and backside of Monitor Pass (rather laboriously ), and I climbed partway up Ebbetts. Turns out I did one-half of the ride, at least on paper -- it worked out to about 64 miles and 7,800 ft of climbing.

And I had a great time! I'll post a full report in a bit.

7800 feet of climbing???
that's A LOT of work. I did about 1600 feet of climbing yesterday and it wore me out...

[jobob]

I get such a kick out of how whacked-out my perceptions have become over the course of the DR training season.

If you told me earlier in the year (heh, or last year!) that I would consider 7800 feet to be a ho-hum accomplishment, I'd have laughed my azz off.

The reality is, I think I can do much better (crazy, but true!) on a good day, but best I could tell the altitude and the heat got to me, and I did what I could on Saturday without turning myself inside-out. I'm not big on suffering.

[maillotpois]

And remember, between Altitude Camp and the ride itself, you have now done ALL of the Death Ride passes.

[indysteel]

It sounds pretty darn impressive to me, Jobob! Congrats! I look forward to reading the whole report.

[Bike Goddess]

I'm looking forward to your report too, JoBob. Seems like you weren't the only one suffering up there. We had a guy who crashed the day before so he didn't get to ride at all. (He's in the hospital in Reno with a broken collarbone and 6 cracked ribs plus brain bleed). Congrats on all you did do. And all that prep work too.

I hear it was nasty hot most of the day- a woman I know from my town said she drank 8 bottles of Cytomax drink and at least 8 waters. Oh me oh my.

I had super admiration for anyone who even does 2 passes at the DR. You are a champ in my eyes.

AS for MP- she's famous even here in my home town. AND LOVED DEARLY by all whom she has coached! I hear this every time I ask someone about that great lady from TNT who coaches the Marin group!!!!