Southern California - Anyone Doing the Heart Break 100

The Heart Break 100 is comming up May 23. It's the last race in the King Of the Mountain Series. If you can help me with any info on gearing, and the grades of the climbs please post here.

I'll be there and I did it in '07 and '08. I use a 50/34 crank with a 12/27 cassette.

Don't know what the grades are.

I'll be there too. Geared 39 x 53 and 11 x 27. Suffered in the cold last year, hopefully we'll have better weather this year!

Riding the Davis Double this weekend for Heartbreak 100 training. May try the Heartbreak double next year.

Rick / OCRR

There are some steep grades in the first 20 miles, or so, maybe 13%, but they are short climbs. Gains about 2500 feet in 20 miles?
There is only 8000 feet of climbing but it is deceptive. A lot of false flats in the middle wear you down and the climbs in the last 25 miles just seem to keep coming.
The wind can be a factor, too.
It's one of my favorite loops and I have done it many times since the 80s. I used to live up there and did it solo a few times. Last time I was recovering from a flu and Heartbreak Hill kicked my ass.

Cool, Thanks for the info, I did Breathless Agony and Mullholland Challenge. Mullholland Challenge seemed to be the hardest of the two. I'm using compact cranks with a 12/27 cassett. This year I'm doing 4 centuries before July. The Heart Break and Ride Around the Bear in June. I can't understand why I like to suffer so much..

I don't remember any real steep parts on the first climb. There's a lot of long gradual climbing and some rollers before and after the top. They a long descent, a 20 mile flat section, and the "heartbreak" climb which starts out gradual and gets steeper. Once you're done with that there is an interminable section of rollers, a flat drag across a valley, some more gradual climbing, followed by a gradual descent back down the initial climb.

The cold last year (there was snow on the hill above Lebec) and the headwind on the flat section made it tough. The year before the temps were above 100 and I liked that more.

We are also going to HB and never done it before. We are really looking to it but at this point and after doing Mulholland and Breathless Agony we are sure the last one still going to be hard and we are not going to sub estimate it, maybe not as hard as the other two but it seems that Planet Ultra just likes to really torture us :) I don’t see why the last one would be any different. How is the start? is it a mass or is just like the other two?

I can't understand why I like to suffer so much..

I'll tell you then, John R.

It's because for thousands of years we humans have worked/invented things to reduce (eliminate?) suffering such that now our lives are (relatively speaking) pretty easy, i.e. almost no suffering.

So guess what? Now we seek suffering! We pay big money so we can go out and do some recreational suffering. That's why.

Of course there are lots of folks still suffering in daily life due to diseasy, injury, poor (or no) nutrition, etc. But you won't see these folks paying for suffering on KOM (and similar events) either :mad:.

That's my take on it, anyway. Your Suffering May Vary (YSMV)!

Rick / OCRR

Yes, it's beautiful country! The route is shown as the middle 100 miles on this elevation chart of the Heartbreak Double. The century is the section to and from the Best Rest Inn, in Lebec:

http://www.planetultra.com/heartbreak/images/HeartbreakProfile2008.jpg

I'm running 50-34 and 12-27, as usual. It's an all day affair... ;)

Yes, it's beautiful country! The route is shown as the middle 100 miles on this elevation chart of the Heartbreak Double. The century is the section to and from the Best Rest Inn, in Lebec:

http://www.planetultra.com/heartbreak/images/HeartbreakProfile2008.jpg

I'm running 50-34 and 12-27, as usual. It's an all day affair... ;)You're one minute ahead of me. It's on.

My plan? I'm just going to draft the current leader of the 50+ women; she's almost 2 hours ahead of both of us. :eek:

Or, maybe we should work together to beat Ian?

My plan? I'm just going to draft the current leader of the 50+ women; she's almost 2 hours ahead of both of us. :eek:

Or, maybe we should work together to beat Ian?
That's much better than my plan - wait until you went into a porta-potti and bungee cord the door closed.

I just looked at the combined results from Mulholland and Breathless on the P.U. site:

http://www.planetultra.com/KOM/Results/2009%20Two%20Stage%20Standings.htm

For the 50+ men, I'm in 38th place (out of 82), but if I modify it to my age (59), I'm 3rd in 59+!

I'm at 15:29 combined whereas the best 50+ men's time is 11:30 . . . so I'm FOUR HOURS slower after 2 of the 3 events. No point in hammering on Heartbreak!

Rick / OCRR

That's much better than my plan - wait until you went into a porta-potti and bungee cord the door closed.

Excellent, I'll bring the tacks.

Alex and Deya crack me up. They have totally shreaded both Mullholland and Breathless. There tandem skills and ability totally defy all the skeptics who say "Tandems Can't Climb". Last year at ride Ride Around the Bear, they set the fasted time for the whole ride, single or tandem. I am totally impressed. Whats really amaizing is there riding a Cannondale standard Aluminum bike. God Help Us All if they ever get a full carbon bike.

Hey Rick, I'm in 7th place in the 50+ group. 22 minutes from 6 place. I think I'm going to relax on Heartbreak and enjoy the ride. What sucks is that on Breathless We followed a bunch of riders off course about 2 miles. It cost us over 10 minutes. On Mullholland I cramped up on Decker cyn. Lost time there. Damn, Getting old sucks..

The start is like the other two- check out with the timekeeper, check in at a couple checkpoint/rest stops, check in at the finish. Don't cut thrugh the truck stop to the back of the motel where the start/finish is- in the past they have stationed people there to watch for that. I don't know what happens if they catch you. The start times are later than normal to sync up with the double century.

The route is simple, just a few turns. There is a short gravel section around mile 82 but it is not bad.

That's much better than my plan - wait until you went into a porta-potti and bungee cord the door closed.


Excellent, I'll bring the tacks.

I see where this is going. I tried to be nice (well, except for the Ian thing).

That's it. I'm going to tell the gals you guys said they were slow (and looking a little pudgy), and then hang on for dear life. A-train, baby!!

Oops... deadline was yesterday, so it looks like I will not be there. Oh well...

Oops... deadline was yesterday, so it looks like I will not be there. Oh well...

We got this email from Planet Ultra yesterday at 6:12 pm, it looks like you may still have time to email your entry.

"COMING UP THIS WEEKEND- HEARTBREAK:
If you're not already signed up, you have 24 hours to become so. Make an email reservation by sending us your name, address, telephone number, email address, birthday, and let us know if you're riding the century or the double."

Oops... deadline was yesterday, so it looks like I will not be there. Oh well...

I'll go up there with you some time soon and we can do the same route.

big john[/B];8946762]I'll go up there with you some time soon and we can do the same route.

But will you get KOM credit? I don't think so:lol:!

Will you care? . . . probably not.

Rick / OCRR

Ah... I got in thru the email reservation - cost something extra for the late fee - oh well, no biggie. Now I gotta find a hotel room nearby. Thanks for the offer BJohn. Now I just need tacks...

But will you get KOM credit? I don't think so:lol:!

Will you care? . . . probably not.

Rick / OCRR

No, I'm pretty much done with pay rides. I'll still do a few select events, but there is so much riding I want to do and so little time. The last time 7 of us went up there to Frazier Park and did that loop we had a great time.

Ian, you could get a room in Santa Clarita or Castaic, I think Castaic is only about 25 minutes from the ride start. There is also a hotel in Pine Mountain Club, also 20 or 25 minutes from the start.

The truck stop in Lebec that the ride starts from has a largish motel and looks like it would be reasonably cheap.

The truck stop in Lebec that the ride starts from has a largish motel and looks like it would be reasonably cheap.

It's the Best Rest Inn and Ian said it was sold out.
I just remembered there is a motel in Frazier Park, too.

I'll tell you then, John R.

It's because for thousands of years we humans have worked/invented things to reduce (eliminate?) suffering such that now our lives are (relatively speaking) pretty easy, i.e. almost no suffering.

So guess what? Now we seek suffering! We pay big money so we can go out and do some recreational suffering. That's why.

Of course there are lots of folks still suffering in daily life due to diseasy, injury, poor (or no) nutrition, etc. But you won't see these folks paying for suffering on KOM (and similar events) either :mad:.

That's my take on it, anyway. Your Suffering May Vary (YSMV)!

Rick / OCRR

Rick, you have nailed the cycling suffering mandate. I have always considered cycling suffering as a disease of excellence.

Rick, you have nailed the cycling suffering mandate. I have always considered cycling suffering as a disease of excellence.

Yes rubic,

Suffering is a disease of excellence. Sometimes, esp. on long climbs, I have a lot of time to think about these things and try to figure out why I'm suffering on long climbs like these, on the KOM events, or on the Davis Double last weekend (for example).

The easy, and probably most often heard answer is: "It builds character!" If that's true, I must be quite the odd character by now:roflmao2:.

Rick / OCRR

So how was everyone's ride?

I wasn't happy with mine. I flatted, and had stomach problems that kept me from eating for the last couple hours with predictable results. My time was still better than last year's but the winds were favorable and a lot of fast times were turned in.


Someone said Hi to me on the first climb, I didn't catch your name. I think I saw Rick OCRR out there too.

So how was everyone's ride?

I wasn't happy with mine. I flatted, and had stomach problems that kept me from eating for the last couple hours with predictable results. My time was still better than last year's but the winds were favorable and a lot of fast times were turned in.


Someone said Hi to me on the first climb, I didn't catch your name. I think I saw Rick OCRR out there too.My ride was good. I started to cramp a little toward the end but not too badly.

That was me that said hi as you blew by.

I saw a lot of BF members. It was good to see everybody.

Eric, sorry to hear you had those problems. That explains you not catching us on Heartbreak hill. We did well on the ride and the conditions were great. We’ll have to wait and see in few days what the final results are. Good to finally meet you GP

I don't think I would have been able to catch you on Heartbreak even if I had been feeling perfect- you two climb almost as fast as I do and you are much much faster on the flat. I'm sure you were far ahead of me by the bottom of Heartbreak.

You passed the group I was with near the bottom of the descent. A couple guys tried to bridge up but couldn't do it. I was spinning out my 50x12 just to stick with them. What were you running, a 55x11?

Damn What a Perfect century, good weather and the wind wasn't bad. I turned a 5.44. I definitaly will put this ride on my permanant things to do list every year. See everyone at Ride Around the Bear.

My Heartbreak started out good, and I really rode well (for me) for the first half. Then after lunch (such as it was), I just couldn't get going well again. Turned out I was dehydrated (shoulda brought my Camelback!), so I really suffered from mile 53 to mile 75.

I could barely keep the pedals turning over, climbed Heartbreak Hill at 2.5 mph but kept going somehow. Took on a lot of fluids at the Heartbreak checkpoint (a whole lot!), plus got ice for my bottles, . . . and then rode well for the last 25 miles.

So yeah, that 3rd 25 mile section was bad, I really sucked, but other than that, a fun century!

Rick / OCRR

This was the first century I can remember that they had ice, what a welcome relief it was to drink ice cold water. It seemed I hydrated faster with cold water. I wish Orange County wheelman would do the same.

This was the first century I can remember that they had ice, what a welcome relief it was to drink ice cold water. It seemed I hydrated faster with cold water. I wish Orange County wheelman would do the same.

John, that is an awesone time! Yes the ice at the top of Hearbreak hill was great :thumb: I still remember how good it felt to drink ice water, we got sad towards the end when we had no more cold fluids :cry:

How many of you got stuck behind the helicopter? Apparently, a guy went down just after the top of Heartbreak, hit the dirt and broke a collarbone. They brought in the helicopter to get him out, saving him an hour and a half ride in the ambulance.

Anybody know how he was doing?

They landed the heli on the road, and we had to wait 15 minutes or so for the EMS guys to get him loaded up and take off.

I'm not going to mention my time, GP and Ian will just gloat. Besides, I kept running over these stupid tacks. All those flats really slowed me down.

WOW!! The crash must of happened just after we went by. We noticed all the emergency equipment heading that way. I hope the rider is ok and has good Med insurance. Those Heli rides can get expensive.

How many of you got stuck behind the helicopter? Apparently, a guy went down just after the top of Heartbreak, hit the dirt and broke a collarbone. They brought in the helicopter to get him out, saving him an hour and a half ride in the ambulance.


I was stuck there too. Too bad that guy was the 50+ leader...

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106185&stc=1&d=1243440079

Looking good Frank! :thumb:

Lee, your such a ham! :D

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106189&stc=1&d=1243440278

Rick Rocking the OCRR kit.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106190&stc=1&d=1243440638

Here I am making it a double.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106191&stc=1&d=1243440725

^
Great pictures WhiteCarbonDude! R U the one with the Santiago Cycling kit?

^
Great pictures WhiteCarbonDude! R U the one with the Santiago Cycling kit?

Yes that's why I said, "here I am.." :)

Is this your rocket tandem?

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106194&stc=1&d=1243442152

Is this your rocket tandem?

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=106194&stc=1&d=1243442152

Wow that is a great picture! Yeap that is us. Glad to meet another BF member.

Deya

Hey Congrats Alex and Deya for having the fastest tandem time ever!:thumb: Just read the shout out from Plant Ultra's communique. Maybe I'll see you at the Bear.

Hey Congrats Alex and Deya for having the fastest tandem time ever!:thumb: Just read the shout out from Plant Ultra's communique. Maybe I'll see you at the Bear.

Thank you. We’ll se you at the Bear :)

Deya