Hey, John, it was good seeing you there! I attempted my first double, but knew I was unlikely to finish before I started - I'd hardly ridden at all in September or October. Still, I'd paid and never seen Death Valley.....

The double route is similar to the century route, except you get to do several short and one long out and backs to get you up to close to 200 miles. It seems like an ideal first double route - most of the climbing is front loaded, so if you can survive the first 100 miles, you have a fighting chance. As BBM described, the first 50 miles or so are fairly flat. I hooked up with a friend, and then we tucked behind a 19 mph paceline that basically pulled us into Stovepipe Wells (the first of those pesky out and backs). I was feeling good, my heart rate was mostly in zone 2 - I was beginning to think I might be able to finish this ride. We then worked our way back to the first rest stop for the century, made sure our water bottles and stuff were full (we had a bit more than 30 miles at this point) and headed on to Scotty's Castle.

At around mile 50 the consistent climbing started. Nothing serious - mostly like Collier Canyon, for those who ride around North Livermore. But it goes on for 25 miles, with the rest stop at Scotty's breaking it up around mile 70. At first I was fine. My friend Fredsky was struggling a bit, but my heart rate was still where I wanted it and I was feeling strong. There was a water stop at mile 60, after a brief steeper section. I thought I was feeling good - but when I unclipped, I was hit with cramps in both quads. WTF?!! I was able to work them out fairly quickly, so I swallowed a few endurolytes to go with the water and orange slices. I was sticking with drinking every 10 minutes, and had already gone through 3 24 oz. water bottles and 2 24 oz. bottles of Cliff Electrolyte drink, so I'm still not sure what was happening. At this point, I started playing leapfrog with LouD-Reno's tandem (I was the one in the TnT Death Ride jersey) - if my legs were cooperating I'd climb a bit faster, but I was stopping frequently and really struggling.

After that stop, I never did get my legs back. The last 3 miles up to Scotty's (after the Ubehebe Crater turnoff) were torture - steeper stair steps of up to 10 % grades, but if I tried to get out of the saddle my legs would cramp up to a point where my knees would lock up. It took me an hour to do those last 3 miles, which really shouldn't have been that hard.

At Scotty's, they had just sent the last of the double riders out towards the Nevada border - a 25 mile out and back that included the rest of that 25 mile long climb. Chris (the ride organizer) basically told me that even if I managed to recover quickly, there was already no way for me to make it out to the turnaround point before they closed it up. The prospect of no water (I was carrying 3 24 oz bottles with me, which may have been enough but....) along with the sorry state of my legs was enough to convince me to camp in the shade for a while. After about an hour, the fastest of the double riders started coming back through after their trip to Nevada. Time to get back on the bike!

I muddled through and rode the rest of the route, except I bypassed the last 6 mile climb. Ubehebe Crater is pretty incredible, but the 5 mile out and back to get out there covers the worst roads of the entire ride - frost heaves that would make Michigan proud. As I rode along, I recovered better than I thought I would and still did 140 miles. I rolled backing into Furnace Creek at 8:10, or about 13 hours after I'd started. Even with all the time spent off the bike (my riding time was 10 hours and change) I wasn't all that far off the average pace I would have needed to maintain to finish the double within the 17 hour limit. Given the lack of fitness, not finishing was not completely unexpected, so now I have some new targets for next year!

JB