Rick@OCRR

Signed up for Knoxville and Dead of Winter . . . will probably do Bass Lake this year as well. That will give me six after having already done Camino Real, Hemet, Devil Mountain and Grand Tour (seven if I do Bass Lake).

Rick / OCRR

anotherbrian

I'm waiting to hear if there is a Death Valley Double or not ... I have zero doubles to date (five in each of the last two years) and pretty much at rock bottom on my cycling. Local CX series will be starting up in October, so I'll use that as an excuse to ride lots if the doubles don't materialize (maybe Knoxville and Bass Lake, based on proximity, if DV does happen).

Lesper4

I am hoping to ride both DV rides next year if they are offered. And Bass Lake, I would also like to ride Borrego and or Camino Real as I have never done those. Up around San Fran is a long ride but I hear they are great rides.

Lesper4

two training rides down one double to go! Bike Ride Profile | High Sierra Fall Century near Mammoth Lakes | Times and Records | Strava
Winds were actually pretty strong and never in our favor. Hopefully next week will be better.

Lesper4

Well done and done! 5 double this year and a volunteer and one was a triple century. White Mountain was not the hardest but it was close. Not because of the elevation of climbing surprisingly but because of the heat in the desert.
Bike Ride Profile | White Mountain Double Century near Bishop | Times and Records | Strava

anotherbrian

Earlier this week I used the "contact us" link on adventurecorps.com to ask if/when the Fall Double would be decided, because the website still said "maybe." No response back, however just checked the website and it has finally been updated ... F'14 finally changed to "Returning October, 2015" and S'15 to "Returning February or March, 2015".

So I'll skip riding any doubles this year, and just make sure I'm ready for the spring ride ... in it to win it, maybe, if it isn't windy.

Lesper4

good news!

Rick@OCRR

Are any other SoCal forumites heading up to Vacaville for the Knoxville double this weekend? It's always my favorite double of the year!

Rick / OCRR

anotherbrian

Should be absolutely perfect weather this year. It's going to rain in the area tomorrow, but should be clear and cool by the weekend.

Rick@OCRR

Thanks anotherbrian, Clear and cool are both good, esp. since climbing the Knoxville Grade is usually very toasty, ditto the Loch Lomond climb after lunch. Anything under 90 Deg.F would be refreshing!

On the other end of the thermometer it's always a tad on the chilly side while descending Mt. George just before sunrise. But oh well . . . I just have to HTFU and deal with the cold for a little while!

Rick / OCRR

anotherbrian

Have fun on the ride.

Steady rains have made it to Sacramento ... finally a change of weather.

I'll HTFU for the cold any day if it means Knoxville Rd to Middletown in pleasant weather.

If you've got allergies (mold?), make sure you med up. I got totally slammed by allergies on a double that happened a couple days after a storm like this.

Rick@OCRR

Bass Lake Double 2014 . . . done!

We were fortunate to enjoy a beautiful day for cycling on the Bass Lake Powerhouse double century on Sat. Oct. 11, 2014. I started at 3:30AM with Linda, her friend Bill, Penny Fink and my good friend Peg Miller. I let Peg set the pace and we were quickly away from the others, as Peg and I (pretty much) rode together with other riders joining for short times along the way.

The dreaded Powerhouse Climb was a tad cooler this year (but just as steep and long), and the first 75 boring/flat miles were covered (mostly) in the dark, accented by several chasing-dog encounters. Some of those hounds could really sprint (not much endurance though)!

Other than that (and no Hammer products @ check-points 1&2) a fun ride with some beautiful scenery esp. in the Pine Flats Lake and Bass Lake areas. Tasty burritos at Auberry check-point both North (chicken) and Southward (Veggie) bound kept us well fueled.

Excellent post-ride-dinner by the Fresno Cycling Club too after our 9:40PM finish.. Not quite the perfectly run event as when Richard Hoff was in charge, but hopefully those issues will be resolved before next year's event. Overall though, a very good time and a fun day on the bike.

Garmin: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/#activity/611431412

Strava: Bike Ride Profile | Bass Lake Powerhouse Double Century near Clovis | Times and Records | Strava

Rick / OCRR

Kaminokaze

Congrats
Doubles are not in my bucket list

anotherbrian

Congrats. Do you still have more for the year?

Several years ago I signed up for Bass Lake but DNS'd for some pretty lame reasons. Last year I talked to some folks that raved about how nice it was, so I finally started to regret missing it. It's one of the local doubles (don't need to cross any mountain ranges to get to it at least) so figure I'll try again soon.

3:30am start. *shudder*. I did that for Alta Alpina ... longest day of my life.

hamster

Solvang Autumn Double tomorrow. I've been procrastinating as usual and I still have no hotel room. The only thing left in Buellton is Quality Inn for $160/night. As I recall, parking situation in Buellton isn't great (don't recall anything except for the long shoulder across the street from the starting line hotel) but it'll have to do. Even if I choose to drive before and after the event, that does not help, everything as far as Santa Barbara is either sold out, $150+/night, or has crappy reviews. I think I'll do Motel 6 Buellton Friday night (it's sold out on Saturday night) and find something along the way back the second night.

Rick@OCRR

Yes Brian, I'm signed up for the Saturday of the Dead of Winter Double. That will give me 7 for this year: Camino Real, Hemet, Devil Mountain, Grand Tour, Knoxville, Bass Lake and (hopefully) Dead of Winter.

Re: 3:30 AM start: The first 75 miles are boring flat farm land, best ridden in the dark. This gives you more daylight miles for the end of the ride, which is really scenic. Last year I hammered and finished in daylight (well, dusk). This year I rode slower and it got dark on the way back @ Auberry.

Rick / OCRR

anotherbrian

Tent it for tonight. At least I find little value in staying in a hotel room the night before (my next "car" is going to be a high roofline Sprinter/Transporter just for that reason). The RV Park across the street from Andersen's Pea Soup had tent/overflow sites in the field. Can't get much quicker start in the morning than throwing tarp/sleeping bag/tent into the car and driving a block or two out of the park.

Definitely find a motel on the way home though. I fell asleep in my car w/o showering after Death Valley one year, and that was the worst way to wake up in the morning.

I'll be riding Foxy's Fall Century out of Davis tomorrow. Start in the daylight, end in the daylight, awesome. I've never ridden it, but it looks like it hits many of the Davis Double and Knoxville Rds. ~3k elevation total, so it'll be perfect on a recumbent (unfaired one this time).

hamster

Not sure what exactly went wrong, but I simply ran out of time. Started at 6:10 (missed the first wave at 6), rode alone the entire time, never caught up with anyone in the first wave, was 20 min behind the second slowest double rider by mile 75, got to the lunch stop (mile 110) at 3:50, which left me with something like 3 hours of sunlight and 7.5 hours till finish close, to go 85 miles with a lot of climbing. So I threw in the towel and went straight to finish (15 miles).
That makes it 3 DNFs in a row (2 doubles and a brevet) and 1000 mile club is not happening this year. Need to figure out why I was so slow. I've gained too much weight since spring, I just got a new frame last week (something may be misconfigured), missing the pace line at the start may have cost me, and pacing could use some improvement.
The course is nice, though headwindy at times, looks very parched (almost like SoCal) and temperature variations are too much for me (from 45 F the first two hours to 85 F by mile 60). My triangle bag was so full with all the shed layers, it was hard to zip up. I don't understand how people ride doubles like this one without a triangle bag at all.

Lesper4

My only suggestion is to put in more miles but then again I have seen you ride some pretty hard rides with out a lot of miles so that may not hold true. I can do almost any ride with warmers and a vest. I can also fit all that in my back three pockets. Do you have an extra layer, jacket?

anotherbrian

What was your average rolling speed through lunch? Did you spend a lot of time in rest stops? By your start to lunch times, it took you 9h40m to go 110mi, which feels like an overwhelming amount of the day. I know that if I don't force myself to rush (which I don't find to be pleasant), my plans for a "short" rest stop can end of being 20-30min+. Stack a couple of those and I'm finishing really late. If I am trying to rush, I'll hit my lap button as I roll into the rest stop, and hit it when I leave, and if my stopped lap time is too high I'll try to compensate either on the road or at the next rest stop.

As for carrying stuff (saw your post in the LD forum), on my road bike I've started carrying a short length of webbing with a plastic buckle, and I roll my jacket+arm warmers+gloves into a mass, wrap it with the strap, then clip it to the bottom of my stem, or back of my seatpost. I've tried riding with all my cold weather gear stuffed in my jersey (i.e. climbing Mt. Diablo, I don't need any clothing on the ride up, but I'd like a parka and on the way down), and I might as well wear a Camelbak. Except that wet stuff stays wet when rolled up, it has worked very well and left room in my jersey pockets for a snack/keys/phone. On the recumbents I just suffer the weight penalty of the bags, but could carry a 6-pack or two if I really wanted.

hamster

Total stopped time before lunch was 1h06m. Average rolling speed 13.0 mph over 111 miles with ~6400' of climbing. The longest stop was 15 minutes, and that was when the temperature got into the 80s and I had to put on sunscreen and pack all extra layers into the bag.
My powermeter shut down at 8h30m into the ride, it recorded 3021 kJ of work. At the last two successful doubles I was at 3616 and 3578 by that point. So, it could have been a matter of pushing a little harder.

I've created a strava segment for the first half of the course (up to lunch), for some reason it only matches one other cyclist, who beat me by 2h10m, looks like I was steadily falling behind, e.g. I lost 40 minutes between mile 12 and mile 52, which were mostly flat or dowhill. Partly it's just that I usually don't push hard on flats, partly there may be something off mechanically. I think my handlebars are set too high, and there may be some brake rub (I have fancy aero brakes and they are a bit of a hassle to set up right.)

anotherbrian

That's a ~20% difference, so definitely going to make a difference ... and if you were carrying any extra weight compared to the previous rides that'll slow you down over that 6k of climbing. Do you usually base your effort on perceived exertion, heart rate, power, or speed and did something different this time?

I've found it can take close to 24hrs for a new segment to fully match, and it doesn't happen in any obvious date order.

hamster

Early in the ride I go by some combination of exertion and power, shooting roughly for 450 kJ/hour, going harder on hills and easier on flats. (That works out to 125 W. I can do 210 W for an hour with fresh legs if I try hard enough, but I don't think it's a good idea if I have to be on the bike for 14+ hours after that. I averaged 177 for an hour climbing Sherwin Grade during this year's Eastern Sierra, and 172 for ~50 min climbing Topanga during this year's Mulholland.) After a few hours I stop caring and I just go as fast as I can go sustainably.

This time I was falling a bit short of the target, especially because climbing didn't really start till late.

Segment got populated and I'm currently #40 /40.

hamster

Oceanside Double in 3 days... Not an easy double even under ideal conditions. Looks like we'll have some interesting weather, too. The forecast for Julian is the high of 50 F, good chance of light rain, and 20 mph gusty west wind. So, a hair-raising descent down Banner Grade followed by climbing Montezuma Grade with 20 mph headwind. Fortunately, a 20 hour time limit, should be hard not to finish in time. 11-32 cassette goes back on the bike, as well as aero bars (ever tried to climb in 34/32 while on aero bars? I'll try).

Lesper4

Good luck! My only planned ride left this year is tour de foothills.