Devil Mountain Double recap

[maillotpois]

Well, I think there's a picture here of "petit pois" with the goat on Sierra Road's "Pet the Goat rest stop".

After watching the DMD Saturday, I can say I am glad I didn't do it. I think next year. (I am still recovering form the 600 and seem to have gotten SARS or some other weird lung thing. To doctor tomrorow).

Anyway, what I saw was amazing - I started up Mines at about 1:30, and found people scattered all over the climb up Hamilton. I stopped off at the junction and saw my brevet friend, Ken. Em had a root beer float and we watched people get their lunches. Then we started up towards Hamilton. About 3 miles from the top, I saw my friend Paul. He ended up making the summit at 4 and finished in 17:19 according to the results sheet. Impressive.

Thom was super cheery and optimistic at the Windy Gap stop. Boy was that stop appreciated by the riders - it seemed like a lot had run out of water by then and it was starting to get warm.

Thom advised us to continue over Hamilton to get to Sierra - if we'd gone back down Mines, we might have seen V, so I kind of regret not going back down. But it was starting to get a bit late and the goat was the incentive for getting Em to agree to go out there, so we went to Sierra.

At the Sierra stop (about 5 pm), there were a lot of super strong riders there by that point, including the first woman to arrive. But you could tell the ride was starting to take its toll. One guy couldn't keep any food down and was shivering. I checked the results and he actually finished - I am amazed because he di dnot look good.

The goat was well worth the trip - huge and personable. Em loved him.

So from everything I have heard, DMD is the hardest double in CA. I had a long talk during the 600k (where there's really not much else to do but have long talks!) with a woman who's done the 508 solo, she's done Terrible Two and a lot of other wacky stuff. She said hands down the DMD was the hardest double - she said it made TT look like a cake walk. So I am so impressed by everyone who started that ride - especially V! You'll do it next year!!