Death Ride 2009 - not as bad as you'd think

Well, we did it - Blair, Bill and I finished the Death Ride today (well, I made it through 4 of the 5 passes, but they did all 5 passes).

Think about these totals for a minute (for the three of us):

342 miles ridden
42,000 feet of climbing
28.5 hours of riding

It might have been, to use the oft-overused word "epic" - though I'd say that it wasn't nearly as hard as I would have expected (I did 94 miles of riding, and 12,000 feet of climbing - and was still feeling pretty good at the end). Blair and Bill took an extra three hours and finished the fifth pass, Carson Pass, which included a bracing downhill ride in the rain - they covered about 124 miles, with 15,000 feet of climbing in roughly 10.5 hours.

The day started early, with a 4 AM wakeup call, and a 5:30 start time. Although we had about 12 or 13 riders in the extended group, four of us (Blair, Bill, Greg and I) started together, and headed up Monitor Pass.

Rich, Bill and Blair at the start

Bill, Greg and Blair - about to head out

We stayed together for awhile, but first Greg took off ahead, then Blair and Bill headed out at a brisk clip.

My back side view of Bill, Greg and Blair

I stayed with my plan for the ride, and held to 160-180 Watts the entire day (a slower pace than the others)), so I solo'd the entire day.

We were fortunate to have perfect weather for (almost) the entire day - it started out at about 60 degrees, then warmed up by the time the sun came up as we ascended Monitor Pass.

View from Monitor Pass as the sun comes up

The weather stayed nice for the whole ride, until late afternoon (around 3 PM) when clouds came in and started raining on the riders who were ascending or descending Carson Pass.

The rest stops were uniformly very well-equipped, but very crowded. I found it was best to run in, get refills on water and/or Cytomax, grab a PBJ bagel, and then get going again. It would be easy with 8-10 stops to add 1-2 hours if you spent 10-15 minutes at each rest stop.

At the top of Monitor - first time

The Monitor Pass "tombstone" at the summit
(photo courtesy of Ed Schuller)

The scenery as we climbed and descended Monitor was really spectacular - the sun was coming up across incredible views of the valley, and the contours of the land were shadowed - it looked almost like CGI in some places (or maybe that was just the riding ;-)

At the bottom of Monitor Pass

This guy apparently finished the WHOLE ride
on this "elliptical bike"

After ascending Monitor from the back side, it was time to head back down towards Markleeville and head up Ebbett's pass. The descent was nice - really smooth and well-paved road, but there were the inevitable yahoos who were going WAY too fast, and would pass you without announcing "on your left" - I kept my speed below 40 MPH so it was pretty mellow descending (relatively speaking). Monitor Pass really wasn't all that hard - it felt a bit like doing Mt. Diablo, though there were definite effects to be felt when you got up around 8000 feet.

Heading up Ebbett's Pass, we were first treated to a nice gently rolling ascent (maybe 1-3%) along a beautiful river, which took your mind off the riding a bit.

Long, slow climb up Ebbett's Pass - this is a discouraging view!

Nice, shady climb up Ebbett's - before it got REALLY hard

Then the road kicked up, and by the end of the ascent, it REALLY kicked up - there was wave after wave of what felt like 10-12% grades. It took real concentration to keep the pedals going after you thought you were "almost done" but came around a corner to find ANOTHER steep 300 yard ascent staring you in the face. This pass topped out above 8700 feet, so it was a long haul to the top.

The rest stop at Ebbett's Pass

Proof that I made it to Ebbett's (first time)

At the top, I refilled the bottles, grabbed some snacks, and debated whether to head down the back side to then do my fourth ascent. After talking with people, I convinced myself that it "wouldn't be that hard" so headed down to the bottom. It really turned out to be not that bad - about 1700 feet of climbing, and no really nasty climbs. People were clearly starting to get tired, so I found myself saying "on your left" as I passed person after person - just held it at 160 Watts and spun the pedals till I got to the top (again).

The descent was a bit sketchy - the road had no center line, and there were often three or four riders abreast going up, and then others were descending really fast, kind of threading around the climbing riders. I took it easy, then headed down to the lunch spot. It was really crowded, so I passed on it, grabbed more water and Cytomax at the next stop, and then rode the remaining 14 miles back to the car. It seemed MUCH longer than when we rode it in the morning, but it was the end of the day after all.

When riders went through Markleeville, which was halfway between the lunch spot and the car, there were hundreds of people lined up on the main street, with cowbells and lots of cheering and hooting. It was really nice to hear the encouragement, and helped make the last 6 miles to the car.

Once at the car, I found that I was the first one back. A few minutes later, Greg rolled in (he'd done the 4 passes then stopped for lunch).

At the car after my 94 miles

We compared notes, then Blair rolled in - he had stopped for lunch and met up with a bunch of the other guys. Blair decided to go for Carson Pass, so we waited a few minutes to see if Bill would stop by the car, then Blair just headed up himself.

Blair deciding to take on Carson Pass - he left
quickly before he could change his mind!

He ended up taking about 3 hours from that point, and only hit rain on his descent. Bill was ahead of Blair and managed to avoid all the rain.

All in all, everyone really enjoyed the ride (as much as you can enjoy something like this) but it's not clear that we really need to do this again. It would be nice to do a ride up and down Monitor on our own, so perhaps we'll come back some time and do that pass again.

It's also important to note that this was Bill's birthday weekend (this was his birthday) and he and his wife Joey shared their gorgeous house with a huge crowd of guys, with wonderful food and conversation - quite a treat compared to our usual crappy motels at the races!

Everyone at dinner on Friday - discussing strategy for the Death Ride

Here is a link to the ride today.

Here are more pictures.