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

[Trekhawk]

Well done mate!
This flatlander is very impressed.

[malaholic]

Firstly - way to go Jobob & MP! Jobob, congrats on acheiving your goals and representing your team. MP - I am in awe - I think you're crazy (in a good way!) to be doing this ride year after year.

DR happened to fall on my birthday this year. Last year on my birthday weekend I did the 1-day STP, so what better way to celebrate this year than Death Ride, right? I was pretty intimidated going into the ride because due to work, weather, and intermittent knee problems I hadn't trained quite as much as I'd have liked. DH was there with me, and going into it he had already decided he was going to go for the 2 pass route. We had 2 other friends make the trip as well. They'd been training very hard and were setting their sights on a 5 pass finish. As for me, I decided to take it one pass at a time and just keep riding as far as I felt I could...I wanted all 5 but didn't want to get my hopes up too high. My strategy was to keep an eye on my HR monitor and make sure I was staying below my LT as much as possible to keep my endurance up.

Unfortunately, none of our cell phones worked there near the start line and we therefore weren't able to find our other friends. Later I found out they'd thought we were meeting in Markleeville, while we thought we were meeting at Turtle Rock park. DH and I started out at about 5:15, sticking together up til the turn off Monitor Pass at which point we split to each go our own pace. I'm a faster climber and he's a faster descender, so we usually end up meeting up again. I enjoyed the climb up Monitor, and mostly enjoyed the descent aside from being a bit cold. I had brought a jacket layer but not legwarmers as I couldn't fit it all in my pockets and I knew it would be hot later. As I reached the bottom of Monitor Pass, I saw our 2 friends just getting ready to head back up. Apparently they'd started out about 20 minutes before us. DH arrived just as I was parking the bike and we grabbed some food & topped off our bottles for the ascent back up Monitor.

Again I went out in front, and on this leg of the trip I had fun talking to several other cyclists. I was wearing my '09 RAMROD jersey which ended up being a nice conversation starter and several other northwest-based riders introduced themselves because of it. The camaraderie definitely helps you pass the time and distracts you from your suffering on those long climbs. I was starting to have a couple problems though; my knees were starging to hurt a bit and whether it was the altitude or something I ate, I was feeling sick to my stomach. DH caught me near the top of the pass. We hadn't been planning on stopping til the bottom but I had to make a pit stop to go be sick in the sanican. I also grabbed some advil for the knees and some more food to try & replace what I'd just lost.

The advil worked, but the food still wasn't agreeing with my stomach and I had to stop again on the way down and again at the lunch stop on the way to Ebbetts where I was to meet back up with DH. I wasn't ready to give up but clearly the bagels & solid foods were not going to be an option. I was carrying a flask of Hammer Gel and a bunch of Perpetuem drink mix, so I switched to drinking all my calories in the hopes of retaining some of them. DH headed back to the finish line at this point and I continued on to Ebbetts. He was kind enough to take my jacket and long gloves which by then were no longer needed.

The front side of Ebbetts starts out OK with a few miles of pleasant lower grade climbing. Then it pitches steep & winding with sections of sustained 11-13% grades. The scenery is gorgeous but this was the hardest climb physically for sure. I was trying to keep my HR below 165, preferably closer to 160, and I was going sooo slow in order to do that. At some points less than 4 mph. Finally I made it and then had another fun descent. I noticed though on the descent that the road was steeper than I'd thought it would be and I was not looking forward to the climb back up. By then it was very warm - not sure how warm exactly but probably mid 80's at least. I'd been chatting with other riders most of the day but kind of withdrew during that ascent, I just felt like I had to concentrate and just keep the legs spinning. This 4th climb is the shortest mileage-wise, but I found it very difficult mentally.

Finally topped out on Ebbetts again and began the descent. This one I took pretty timidly as there are several hairpin turns, the road is not as wide as the other passes, and there are steep dropoffs in many places - if you don't stick those turns it would not be pretty. I was amazed at how fast some of the other riders went...obviously much more comfortable with it than I was. But I don't think that strategy worked out for everyone, as I saw more ambulances on this ride than on any other single day in my life.

I stopped again at the lunch stop where I couldn't eat lunch. I downed some more advil, and some calories in the form of a coke. I was feeling OK and for the first time started thinking that for real I was going to make all 5 passes! But now I was running late due to my slow pace on Ebbetts, and I was running up against cut off times. I sped as fast as I could to Woodfords and made the cutoff by a mere 7 minutes. For some reason I was thinking that the next and final cutoff point at Picketts Junction was further away than it was, so I rolled out hard there, pushing my HR up above LT for the first time all ride, and made it to Picketts with almost half an hour to spare before the cutoff there. I had another coke - this drinking my calories thing was working out just fine - and headed on up Carson Pass toward the finish. A couple miles from the top I saw our two friends descending, so I knew that they'd finished and that boosted my spirits a lot. At about 6pm I reached the top of Carson myself and finally got my last sticker. I waited in line for a bit to sign the poster and then started my final descent.

When I arrived back at Pickett's Junction I found the road blocked off by ambulances. They had stopped traffic both ways and were landing a helicopter to evacuate a rider to the hospital. I don't know what had happened but this was a sobering sight. I hope that the rider will be OK. During the evac many cars & cyclists had queued up. I had no desire to become another accident so I let them all go through and clear out before I started down again. Made it back to the car and a proud waiting hubby. He says "You did it!" and I replied "and I'm never doing it again!" Went and ordered my 5-pass jersey and then went back to the hotel for a well deserved shower and sleep.

Next birthday, I am going to do something LAZY for a change!!

[jobob]

Great report malaholic, and congratulations!!

And happy birthday too.

Hope you'll post a pic of yourself wearing your 5-pass jersey when it arrives.

[smilingcat]

OMG another 5 pass finisher!! congratulation to malaholic!! knee problem and no solid food tough cookie!!

You don't want to do it again? It's a lovely ride with beautiful scenery!!

[maillotpois]

Wow - congrats on 5 passes on your first (and apparently only * ) attempt! Well done - and great report.

*after I first did all 5 passes I also swore never again, but then I just kept coming back over and over. Next year I think we'll be out of the country for part of July. Maybe the part that Death Ride falls in, but you can never be sure. There is something that makes me keep coming back to that ride, although, like you, I found the number of ambulances there this year extremely sobering.

[malaholic]

You don't want to do it again? It's a lovely ride with beautiful scenery!!

Well...funny you should ask that. I'm already softening on the "never again" stance. I think one of these years if they have a better jersey design I could be persuaded to try again. I'm not a big fan of this year's design as compared to previous years. I like the older jerseys which have a big logo & text visible on the back; this one says "Death Ride" in really tiny text which will be completely covered by my hair.