scrubbo

Too far, unfortunately. I have dinner reservations at 6:45 in RWC to take my wife out for a nice bite of dinner while our 2yo and 4yo stay at our daycare's 'date night' extended hours pizza part. I'm already thinking I need to leave at 6:00am just to avoid the commute traffic from Redwood City over to the ride.

ericm979

I think that's the anti-commute direction. Google map's traffic lets you look at historic data so you can see what traffic will be like (on average) on a given time and day of week.

scrubbo

It is the anti-commute, but I expect it to be terrrrrible anyway. If I over-plan commute times, traffic always moves along briskly. When I cut it close, the highways shut down!

BenRidin

The consensus is Diablo repeats. Definitely bring some sandwiches and stash them in your car. Forget that Safeway stuff.
The first time I did the Death Ride, I used Diablo repeats as fitness gauge. Three bottom to top repeats helped my confidence immensely.

Good luck.

blt

A friend of mine stopped doing the Death Ride many years ago after they stopped going up Pacific Grade Summit. I believe it was 156 miles with 7 passes when they did that. My friend says they should have taken away the name "Death Ride" after they went to the shorter 5 pass ride, he said it meant "anybody" could finish the ride. There are reasons he and I never rode together.

It is bad enough driving up there from Hermit Valley and passing the 24% grade sign. I think it is only about 2 1/2 miles from Hermit Valley to the Pacific Grade Summit, but I wouldn't want to ride a bike up that segment after doing the first 3 summits of the Death Ride. I don't know how far down the west side the old 7 summit ride went, was it to Alpine Lake? Me, I would much prefer the 5 summit ride, but I can understand why my friend thought the 7 summit ride much more worthy of the name "Death Ride."

Wut

Diablo is no joke.

DiabloScott

scrubbo

Holy crap. Okay, I was almost 2 hours behind schedule thanks to a sick kid, and only got a double on Mount Diablo today, but my Garmin recorded an average temperature of 102 degrees on that ride. WHAT... THE... HECK? This was NOT the day to do repeats. Thank goodness for ice-cream on the top. Also, my trip up from Northgate on my second climb was miserable. I ran out of water, and only survived because I KNEW I was going to run out and was miserly sipping as I crawled up towards the ranger station. I stopped before the junction at the employee housing and refilled (THANK GOD AS I WAS OUT OF WATER FOR HALF A MILE!) and ran my head under the spigot four times and sucked down a TON of water. I drank over 10 24 ounce bottles of water over 45 miles, and still was thirsty. I couldn't swill down Cytomax fast enough, so I relied on straight water and endurolytes. What was SUPPOSED to be climbing training turned into temperature training! I sat at the junction for 30-40 minutes drinking water and letting my body rehydrate. I have yet to pee over 12 hours later. I had to drink water on the descents because it was so hot that breathing was drying me out.

That was flat out nuts.

Flat... out... nuts.

The junction read 98 in the shade at 1:00ish. So my Garmin might be overstating the temp, but not by a lot since there is VERY little cover on Diablo.

That being said, there were a ton of people out training for the death ride. Also, they sold ice-creams at the top. So, I guess it's all good. I just wish I'd been able to do a triple. No way I was making it in time.

Beaker

Good job, that was a tough day to schedule Diablo repeats. Starting early is really key on Diablo to minimize the effect of blazing heat, so the fact that you were running late made that even harder.

ericm979

Yes, a tough day to do repeats, especially for the first time. I have done three on a day like today. it was pretty hot even with an 8:00 start. The second descent down south gate was like riding into an oven. I started laughing because it was completely ridiculous. It was even hotter on the last trip up. I should have turned around but didn't. I was so wasted afterwards that I had to skip riding the next day.

I find that my Garmin 500 overstates high temperatures by around 5 degrees. But it's still hot. Mine showed 111 near the end of the Boonville RR today.

scrubbo

I checked the thermostat at the junction, and it was reading 98ish in the shade, so I'm not surprised the garmin would be higher than that being exposed to the direct sun.

Here's my write up of the fun : https://theredlanternrides.wordpress....2-wtf-man-wtf/

I'm taking my wife riding today, and we're going over to La Honda and riding a coastal loop. Enough of this high temp malarky!

DiabloScott

scrubbo

How many trips did you make up at that temperature, DiabloScott?

bobonker

scrubbo: That's insane heat to be in for Diablo repeats. Kudos for sticking with it. Awhile back, I went up South Gate when it was in the high 90s. Planned on going to the summit, but got to the ranger station and said "eff this!" and went home.

Bob

scrubbo

I wouldn't have even been over there if this wasn't my last scheduled training ride for the Death Ride. Riding out on the coast on Sunday was amazing. I didn't even need a vest! I'm usually wearing vest and arms and maybe legs when riding down Highway 1 even in the middle of summer. It was 75 with hints of fog rolling past. Bliss!

DiabloScott

Didn't make it to the Summit - once up NGR, and then I did the Easy Side down and back up which was not only easy, but shady.

spingineer

I'd say Diablo Repeats too ... However, doing Hamilton, both sides, and starting with Quimby wouldn't be bad either. Santa Cruz Mountains have some good options too ... Redwood Gulch, Hwy 9, Jamison Creek, China Grade gives you some good climbing too.

Beaker

Bump....how'd it go?

scrubbo

Finished all 5 passes. I bonked on Carson but was able to work through it and get to Pickett's and have a rest. Then I pushed through a miserably slow climb up to the top, but I made it! I managed a top speed of just over 50 mph on one of the descents. More importantly, I descended slower than the guy I saw take a header into a ravine off Ebbets. (Amazingly, he was okay and climbed up the ravine by him self. Then went back for his water bottle!) Legs are a little sore right now. I'm sure they'll be fine for my usual climb up King's on Tuesday. Started at 5 am, got back to the car at 6 pm. Long day in the saddle. LONG day. My brother came along with me and sang a song called "Recovery Ride" that he made up just for me. I'm hoping he posts his HR data so I can see just how lazy he was being riding at my pace. (He's trying to upgrade to cat 3 this year.) The weather was fantastic. Hot, but not TOO hot. Not a hint of stormy weather, and the headwinds were tough, but not outrageous. It helped that my brother basically pulled me from Ebbet's base back to our car at Turtle Rock for lunch. It helped A LOT.