Now that I think about it, I actually met Victor (Biker395) on a suffer-fest. It was the Eastern Sierra Double Century in 2006 (I think?) which on a normal year is a fairly easy double-century (only 11,000 ft. of climbing). In '06, however, due to a late winter storm, the organizers re-routed it to what they thought would be a safer, more rider friendly course.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it turned out. The ride started cold (40's) but got a lot colder the more we climbed. Then the sky darkened and it began to rain. Thankfully I was somewhat prepared, lots of other riders weren't. There was a high DNF rate that year! As the storm worsened the organizers drove along in their vans, checking on each rider for hypothermia.

They would ask, "Do you know who you are and where you are?" My friend Lisa remembers them asking her. "I knew I knew my name, I just couldn't remember it!" she said later. Into the van she went. After they had eight bikes on the van (roof rack maxed out) they started just leaving the bikes by the roadside! Inside the van the riders were having huge "group hugs" to warms up!

Outside, Victor and I and a few others were cycling up the mountain (a couple or three hour climb with no descents before the summit) as the rain turned to sleet and then to snow. As we gained speed over the summit the slick wet pavement promised a hard landing to any rider not paying attention. What could be worse? Down a bit from the summit the pavement (if you can call it that) deteriorated into bumpy rocky (smooth rocks at least) not quite pavement down to the Northern floor of Death Valley.

The descent into Death Valley, photo by Victor Cooper

After a checkpoint there (warm up, re-fuel) it was a long, cold, bumpy climb back up. And then we got buzzed by a Navy fighter jet. The wash off the wings nearly knocked me over! At least the weather had cleared up. And . . . the descent back to Bishop was actually sunny, smooth and warm by the time got back to the start.

Okay 100 mi. done, then after lunch it was right into a direct brutal headwind riding (slightly uphill) all the way (36 miles to Benton). Victor and I were trading pulls at 6 mph but he was taking far more (and longer) pulls then I was! From Benton it was more miles, more climbing, out to the turn around at Benton Crossing. No SAG worker, no sign, no way to know exactly where to turn around. Finally, I remember Victor proclaiming, "I know this area, and this IS Benton Crossing, so we're turning around!"

So we did, and after more climbing to return to Benton, the Suffer-Fest was over as we enjoyed a big-ring, fast-as-you-can-pedal tail-wind for the 36 miles back into Bishop. To survive that suffer-fest was Epic indeed .

Rick / OCRR