This afternoon in Sanborn County Park.

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I completed all five passes of the Death Ride yesterday. After 12 hours in the saddle it’s nice to sit on something wider than my butt.

We drove down from the Grover Hot Springs campground at 5 am and parked in Markleeville. Just as it got light, we merged into the stream of riders descending from Turtle Rock. It was 5:21 am.

The first two passes are the front and back side of Monitor Pass. I rode with Russ and while we took it fairly easy, we were passing most of the riders around us. The top of Monitor Pass is a wide open alpine meadow, and riding through it is a joy. Russ was riding strong and beat me up to the top of Monitor the second time. Thankfully he waited for me at the top and I took a pee break. After that the descent down to Silver Creek was awesome.

The second two passes are the front and back side of Ebbetts Pass. The terrain is much different than Monitor. It is rugged and rocky, and feels like a hike in the mountains. Ebbetts is the steepest of the Death Ride passes, and it was a big grunt to get up the front side in particular. Ebbetts was where I saw the first rider pushing his bike. By the time we were climbing the back side of Ebbetts there were many people taking breaks in the shade or pushing their bikes slowly up the road. Russ and I noticed that we weren’t passing anybody anymore either.

Carson Pass is not extremely steep, but it comes after 12,000 feet of gain are already behind you. And we climbed into a stiff headwind. My legs were very tired, and even the easiest grades were a struggle. Shortly after leaving the final rest stop Rhett and I had joined two other riders in a pace line. The pace line really helped while climbing into the wind. When we finally got to the pass the ice cream was so great! Everybody at the top was in a jaunty mood and we chatted and shared stories like long lost friends.

On the way down from Carson Pass we saw a serious accident. A rider had crashed while descending and lay in the middle of the road. The rider was surrounded by emergency vehicles and personnel. He was conscious and talking, but was covered in serious road rash. Not a pretty sight. The poor guy must have been in a huge amount of pain. As we skirted the stopped traffic, a fellow rider said to me, “that’ll make you slow down.” “For sure,” I said. I then proceeded to rip down Carson, topping 50 mph. I couldn’t help it, the urge to stick it to Carson Pass was too strong.

At 5:19 pm I pulled into the Turtle Rock parking lot with a sore backside and 5 pass stickers on my number. Russ gave me his last $5 and I bought an ice cold Sierra Nevada. Mmmmm.

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A few days ago I decided to participate in the Death Ride, a grueling tour of the California Sierras totaling 129 miles with 15,000′ of climbing. And of course this all happens at 5,500-8,500′ elevation. Sane people spend months training for this epic event, but I made a last minute decision based on our family vacation plans changing and freeing up my weekend at the last minute.

I’ve been on a few long-ish rides this year, including the Sequoia Century 100k ride, but I wanted to do at least one more long ride before the big day. So yesterday Gary, Fred, and I rode 76 miles into the Santa Cruz Mountains and back. It was a great ride, and except for the cruel grades (15-22%) on Bohlman Road at the end, it wasn’t even that painful. We climbed 8700′, just over half of the altitude gain of the Death Ride route.

Our route was: Home » Hwy 9 (to Saratoga) » Big Basin Way » Hwy 35 (aka Skyline Blvd) » Bear Creek Road » Boulder Creek » Hwy 9 (back to Saratoga) » Bohlman Road (up and down) » Hwy 9 (back to Los Gatos) » Home.

As a final move to prepare for the ride, I dropped in to Summit Cycles yesterday afternoon and had them install a Dura-Ace 11-28 cassette on the bike, replacing the stock 12-25 cassette. I think the extra bit of low gear will come in handy during the last few thousand feet climbed next weekend.

As of now I’m finishing up my packing list and cautiously looking forward to the experience.

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