Devil Mountain Dummy - February

[Bike Goddess]

V- Thanks for sharing with us your training ups and downs! I know Veeder well, but not Dry Creek. Sounds like you went up the south side of Veeder and then out Dry Creek. I'll have to look at a map. Glad you didn't crash, I certainly know the feeling of going too fast. Good fast work in recovery!

Keep us posted. As you can see we all love hearing about your progress. I'd like to do Sierra Road sometime as well. Mick tells me that it's harder than Diablo. What do you think as you are the Diablo Queen!

I'm planning to go up Morgan Territory the way you came down. I've driven it with my friend Linda- a thwarted attempt to climb that direction since her rim gave out about 4 miles on the ride (so we drove it instead) 44.3 MPH- Not too shabby in my book! I've only done 42 on Crockett and its a much better road than Morgan Territory!!!!

Don't you need to do single rides to qualify for Triple Crown???

[maillotpois]

Great recovery on the descent! Sounds like your training is going really well. I don't know about you, but I am getting downright impatient to actually DO Solvang or one of these other events.

I've got a great ride planned for Sunday - 120-ish, which I am VERY excited to do. I am having to work in the coaching rides I am doing with the group I am training for Death Ride. Those rides have been a bit shorter at this point than I'd like, but c'est la vie! I am really excited to see some of these women I am coaching take on the Death Ride, so that will be super fun to watch their progress over the next few months. (They're all TNT coaches who have done loads of centuries, but nothing longer or harder, so for many of them this will be a significant step up in their cycling. Of course, I am also "coaching" DH as part of this group. He doesn't take to me coaching him too well, but then I don't take to being coached by him too well, either! A pair of Type A's!).

And meanwhile, my FC 508 partner is mildly freaking out because she has a hamstring issue. She may not even do Solvang, but she's committed to DMD.

[Veronica]

It's hard to compare hills that are so different. Diablo is longer than Sierra, but it's not as steep, except at the end.

V.

[Bike Goddess]

That's what Mick said- steeper! And if you say it's doable, maybe there's a chance I can do it too. AND I never like the end of Diablo cause by that time you're pretty tired and you have to give it everything you've got (or at least I do)!

[SadieKate]

Nancy, jobob provided quite a good write up over in a Tour of California thread. She even posted good pictures.

Glad you folks enjoyed it !

LeeBob and I did a recon ride up Sierra Road today to scope out places to view the race. Sierra Rd is the Cat. 1 climb on stage 2 so it should make for interesting viewing.

Well, I can now say with assurance, that road is quite the stinker !

It starts out with a steep bump of about 14 % right from the get-go. After about a 1/2 mile straight stretch it starts getting very windey. I really dislike roads like that, I start dreading what I'll face coming around the bend, and for the most part I was not disappointed - dismayed is more the word.

Here's what you first see when you turn onto Sierra from Piedmont.



This is looking down from the end of the straight stretch



And this is where it starts undulating ... upwards ...



Now, in my own defense (oh, oh, it's excuses time ) I haven't ridden for nearly 2 weeks so I'm hardly in prime shape. Plus I was still achey from yesterday. Plus, uh - I can't think of anything else at the moment, if I come up with something I'll let you know. Oh, right, jet lag!

But even if I was in decent shape that stinker would still be hard.

Here are a few more photos on the way up, and looking down from where we'd been. The views are gorgeous up there.




We reached a point where we had a really good view of the road coming up. There was a bit of a gravel shoulder and it seemed generally pleasant so we figured that might be our viewing spot for tomorrow, it's about 1.5 miles up. But we thought we would press on to see what else we could find.



About 1/4 mile farther up we reached a bend in the road with a small clump of trees on either side. We looked up and it seemed the road was kicking up even more ! Lee and I both decided at that point that gee, that spot we passed a little bit back looked fine & dandy and we really didn't need to go any father.

Uncle !!!!


So, we made it about 1.75 miles and climbed about 950 feet up Sierra before we threw in the proverbial towel As far as I can tell that's a roughly halfway up - depending on where I read the climb is between 3.2 and 4 miles. Someday I'll make it up that thing and find out for myself.

I checked the gradient display on my computer after we returned home and it looks like the first half of Sierra averaged about 10-12%. Once in a while it would "level off" to 5-6% but the climb was for the most part in the double digits. Gahhhhh. And according to the profile on the Chain Reaction website, it doesn't let up until the top. Double gahhhh.

Now maybe my lack of conditioning plays into this but I think Sierra is *way* harder than Mt. Diablo. It's quite a bit shorter, but it's so much steeper for much more of the time.

People who finish the Devil Mountain Double (which is Diablo & Mt. Hamilton followed by Sierra at mile freakin' 150) are demi-gods in my book !