sandrab

I'm signed up for Death Ride 2014 (my first!) and have been base building. Soon I want to climb more hills. I live in Saratoga and have been riding Highway 9 both sides, Hicks, Montebello, Mt Ham, Old La Honda, Tunitas Creek and some shorter hills (Eden, Pierce, Montalvo, and little bit of Bohlman). Does anyone have any favorite local routes that would be good Death Ride training? Anyone know of any groups training for this year's ride? Thanks!

Bostic

Keep doing what you're doing. Both sides of HW 9. Nothing on the Death Ride is steeper than the steep sections of Montebello. As it gets closer to July head over to Mt. Diablo and do three times up, south north south or vice versa. There is a south bay group on Meetup that is doing the Death Ride this year. You can't train for elevation though.

c0lnago

Diablo 3x. Start early since it can get pretty hot up there mid-afternoon. I've done DR a bunch of times and my training was mostly Diablo repeats...if you need to mix it up you can do the Morgan Territory->Diablo South Gate loop as well.

DiabloScott

Roadrash3

Diablo is my plan. 3x up is mind numbing to me, but great training.

c0lnago

It is extremely mind numbing...I usually do NG to summit, descend to SG to summit and then NG. The upside is there will be plenty of riders doing DR prep in June so you won't be alone in your suffering...I usually find someone to chat with for a bit. The better option is Morgan Territory->SG->summit->NG->summit->back to car. This is plenty of climbing and a good mix of riding. You can also reverse it and finish with Morgan Territory which is harder going the other direction and probably better prep for finishing with the ride up to and up Carson's Pass. That long hot stretch between pass 4 & 5 and then the trudge up Carson is brutal...saddle time, miles and heat are winning the war and I end up dreaming about the pass 5 summit ice cream for about 3 hours.

Last tip, I'll also park outside of NG on a nearby block so if it's really hot I can just go back to the car and do a full bottle swap that's cold/on ice. Plenty of times on that 3rd ascent I've hit a heat wall. I'm just not acclimated to 100deg anymore.

VaultGuru

A couple of options for you. You get distance and climbing.
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/32087
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/309553

sandrab

Thanks for all the great advice, especially the ridewithgps routes!