My first double century of the year started out at 6:15am. It was about 50 degrees. The 6:15 group has all the folks that are racing to finish with the best overall time. There were about 60-75 folks that start at 6:15. Right out of the gate the pace is at 25+mph I'm hanging in with the top 20 and not working to hard. My HR was only about 125-130.It was flat for the first 10 miles then the rolling hills started. That's when we started to dropped everybody except for 15-20 of us and, my HR started to climb and climb fast trying to keeping up the the top guys. The first hill I was hitting 150 HR. The second one I hit 162 HR. I knew if I kept this up that I was going to blow and never finish the ride. So what do?? I keep hanging with the top guys for two more long rollers. The whole time telling myself to back off you idiot. back off...It's a 200 mile ride!!! So finally at mile 25 we hit another hard roller I finally convinced myself to let them go and, back off the pace so I can actually finish the ride.
The next 15-20 miles were uneventful. That's when a couple of tri guys (not on the ride) blew by us, so the guys I was with hammered it and caught them and, for the next 10+ miles it was a hammer fest again.. Again I kept telling myself you're going to blow dumb ass. When I dropout of the draft I realized I blew by the check point by a mile, so I had to go back to get my card signed. Missing the check point ended up paying off big! More on that later.
The next 10 miles was mellow just trying to get my legs back. Right before we had to get on I5, yes meaning I5 the freeway, southbound a tandem joined us as we get on the I5. The tandem took the lead and with that the hammer fest was on again for the next 7 miles. We were going 30-33mph on the freeway, it was awesome!!! My legs were on FIRE! When we got off I5 i rolled up to them and gave them a big thanks for pulling us. At this point there were only two other people with us. So, off we go for the next 30+ miles, we dropped all the other riders, so know it's just me and the tandem. The two folks on the tandem were Rob and Karla. Rob is 57 yrs old and Karla is 50. They were both from the area and knew the course like the back of their hand. Between them they had done about 70 doubles!!! Holy shit 70!!! On all the climbs I would pull ahead of Rob and Karla and wait for them at the top and then FLY down the hills.
At 110 miles my legs are feeling ok but, can feel the efforts from the hammer fests earlier. At mile 140 Rob yells back, hey pat do you want to stop a Carl's Jr for a burger? I say, Uh yeah!!!! I'm game. So at mile 145 we stop and go in and what do I order? A charbroiled chicken sandwich and a Coke. One word MONEY!!!!! After that we were off again. We had an hour of day light left and 3+ hours of riding to go. When the sunset I turned on my light and it's a pile of shit. It looked like I had a mini flashlight taped on my handle bars. Thank god for Rob and Karla, they had a light that was like a car light. It lit up the whole road.
More climbing and then on the decent from the last climb and only 10 miles to go I get a flat. Just my luck!!! Rob and Karla were nice enough to stop with me and shine some light on the matter. We finally roll into the finish, thank god!!! All in all it was a great day. I learned some new things about doubles
1. Don't try to keep up with the top guys. (ok I already knew that!!)
2. Have a better light system for the bike and a helmet light so you can see what you're doing if you need to fix a flat.
3. More storage on the bike so you can pack extra clothes and food
4. Develop a better system for reading the directions so you don't have to pull them out every 5 min to see where you're going..
Rob and Karla were great folks and a lot of fun to chat with and made the ride a lot more enjoyable. Not only because I sucked their wheel, but they also knew all the turns so I never had to worry about it. Thank god because there were about 120 L or R hand turns..
Totals for the day
198 miles
11:50 ride time
8400' of climbing
18.1 avg speed
One down two to go!!!
pk
The next 15-20 miles were uneventful. That's when a couple of tri guys (not on the ride) blew by us, so the guys I was with hammered it and caught them and, for the next 10+ miles it was a hammer fest again.. Again I kept telling myself you're going to blow dumb ass. When I dropout of the draft I realized I blew by the check point by a mile, so I had to go back to get my card signed. Missing the check point ended up paying off big! More on that later.
The next 10 miles was mellow just trying to get my legs back. Right before we had to get on I5, yes meaning I5 the freeway, southbound a tandem joined us as we get on the I5. The tandem took the lead and with that the hammer fest was on again for the next 7 miles. We were going 30-33mph on the freeway, it was awesome!!! My legs were on FIRE! When we got off I5 i rolled up to them and gave them a big thanks for pulling us. At this point there were only two other people with us. So, off we go for the next 30+ miles, we dropped all the other riders, so know it's just me and the tandem. The two folks on the tandem were Rob and Karla. Rob is 57 yrs old and Karla is 50. They were both from the area and knew the course like the back of their hand. Between them they had done about 70 doubles!!! Holy shit 70!!! On all the climbs I would pull ahead of Rob and Karla and wait for them at the top and then FLY down the hills.
At 110 miles my legs are feeling ok but, can feel the efforts from the hammer fests earlier. At mile 140 Rob yells back, hey pat do you want to stop a Carl's Jr for a burger? I say, Uh yeah!!!! I'm game. So at mile 145 we stop and go in and what do I order? A charbroiled chicken sandwich and a Coke. One word MONEY!!!!! After that we were off again. We had an hour of day light left and 3+ hours of riding to go. When the sunset I turned on my light and it's a pile of shit. It looked like I had a mini flashlight taped on my handle bars. Thank god for Rob and Karla, they had a light that was like a car light. It lit up the whole road.
More climbing and then on the decent from the last climb and only 10 miles to go I get a flat. Just my luck!!! Rob and Karla were nice enough to stop with me and shine some light on the matter. We finally roll into the finish, thank god!!! All in all it was a great day. I learned some new things about doubles
1. Don't try to keep up with the top guys. (ok I already knew that!!)
2. Have a better light system for the bike and a helmet light so you can see what you're doing if you need to fix a flat.
3. More storage on the bike so you can pack extra clothes and food
4. Develop a better system for reading the directions so you don't have to pull them out every 5 min to see where you're going..
Rob and Karla were great folks and a lot of fun to chat with and made the ride a lot more enjoyable. Not only because I sucked their wheel, but they also knew all the turns so I never had to worry about it. Thank god because there were about 120 L or R hand turns..
Totals for the day
198 miles
11:50 ride time
8400' of climbing
18.1 avg speed
One down two to go!!!
pk
1 comment:
Hi Dave!
That triple Crown is a tough acheivement.
Easier now that there are more DC's to choose from than when there were only 5 over three months.
Terrible Two
Tour of Two Forests
Death Valley Double
Davis Double
Mike
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