Northern California - Got the post-Death Ride blues? Need a new goal?

Was the Death Ride easier than you thought? Looking for another challenge?

Get your climbing fix at the Everest Challenge (http://everestchallenge.com) in September!
It's like doing two Death Rides, back to back. The climbs are longer and go higher, descents more epic, and the scenery is even better. There's no slow descenders in the way. The support is oriented to riders who don't want to stop to get stuff- they do actual bottle handoffs at the aid stations in addition to the typical bars gels and century food you can stop for. And at the finish each day there's a bunch of ultra-marathoners who know how to feed and pamper tired athletes.

Of course you don't have to do the whole thing if you don't want to, and you don't have to race- besides the race there is a Tourist division where they don't keep times. So if you want to cruise up the first and last climbs each day (highest and most scenic) you can do that.

I've raced the last three years. As much as I like the Death Ride, the EC is way better.

next year, next year. My knees hurt thinking about this!

It's also damn scary. I have driven most of the climbs, they are impressive.

I am thinking about the High Sierra Fall Century, easier than the DR but also with beautiful scenery. For me the next big challenge could be next year Climb to Kaiser as I won't be available for a ride the DR weekend. I would love to think about the EC but I have to be realistic, at 52 it would mean a quite intense preparation and I don't have the time for it at the present. However a photo trip on the same mountains in October sounds very possible and... more relaxing. :innocent:

Older riders can do pretty well at this sort of thing. The overall winner has often been a 45+ rider.

We are still planning on doing that on the tandem... not entirely sure.

If looking for more summit riding - check out the Mt. Shasta Summit Century at:

http://www.shastasummitcentury.com

similar distances and climbing as DR - just a little lower elevation. I rode the Super Century last year and had a BLAST!!

See ya there.

Well, I am signed up for the EC this year. The idea this past Sunday of going out and riding another close to 100 miles and climbing almost 14000 more feet was a bit scary, however. We shall see how the training goes. My biggest issue now is my saddle. I am getting a bit bruised over the sit bones, and need to try a different saddle. I have tried all the specialized ones, and they don't work for me. The Arione used to be fine, but I had some problems this past Saturday with it near the end. I am going to try some Selle and Terry saddles to see if they feel better on really long rides. I have nice bibs and use chamois creme, so that isn't something that will help.

Older riders can do pretty well at this sort of thing. The overall winner has often been a 45+ rider.

We're already closer to death, so it doesn't phase us.

Was the Death Ride easier than you thought? Looking for another challenge?

Get your climbing fix at the Everest Challenge (http://everestchallenge.com) in September!
It's like doing two Death Rides, back to back. The climbs are longer and go higher, descents more epic, and the scenery is even better. There's no slow descenders in the way. The support is oriented to riders who don't want to stop to get stuff- they do actual bottle handoffs at the aid stations in addition to the typical bars gels and century food you can stop for. And at the finish each day there's a bunch of ultra-marathoners who know how to feed and pamper tired athletes.

Of course you don't have to do the whole thing if you don't want to, and you don't have to race- besides the race there is a Tourist division where they don't keep times. So if you want to cruise up the first and last climbs each day (highest and most scenic) you can do that.

I've raced the last three years. As much as I like the Death Ride, the EC is way better.

How many folks typically attend? Are any of the roads closed?

How many folks typically attend? Are any of the roads closed?

I think about 250-300 riders. The fields are split up into various categories and start at different times, so its well spread out. Little of the race is done in a pack... just the neutral start and first few miles of the first climb each day. There's been times when I haven't seen another rider for half an hour or more.

Some of the roads are so empty that there is no need to close them- no one drives up them anyhow. Even the ones that have traffic don't have much.

Everest Challenge writeups... my race reports:
2006 (http://ericm.lne.com/blog/?p=32) 2007 (http://ericm.lne.com/blog/?p=89) 2008 (http://ericm.lne.com/blog/?p=149)

Other rider's race or ride reports:
2007 (http://ericm.lne.com/blog/?p=93) 2008 (http://ericm.lne.com/blog/?p=158)