2nd Triple Crown Done!
 

Got my second triple crown in ... Grand Tour, Knoxville, and Bass Lake. And I only decided to go for it at the end of the season ... so who got their CTC, and which ones did you do?

BTW, on Bass Lake, I saw a ton of Gold CTC jerseys out there ...

Ron, I had a great time riding with you, it was fun. Congratulations on your Triple Crown! I got mine, but it was a while ago. So far this year I've done Camino Real, Solvang Spring, Hemet, Central Coast, Davis, Grand Tour and Bass Lake. I hope to complete Solvang Fall and Death Valley Fall.

First CTC - Solvang Spring, Davis Double and White Mountain Double.

That's great Ron. It is very fitting that the one who inspired (should I say teased) several of us with his CTC jersey did it again this year after several hiatus seasons.

Great job Ron! :thumb:

I knew you could do it Ron. Great job.

2010 for me:

Death Valley Spring Double (recumbent)
Mullholland Double
Devil Mountain Double
Bass Lake Powerhouse Double (recumbent)

Still to do

Death Valley Fall Double (recumbent)

Trying to do first Triple crown on a recumbent this year.

Ron, it is generally considered to be your fault, so it's only fair that you've had to do it twice.
Congrats.

Congrats Ron! It was in large part you and your CTC jersey that inspired me to ride my first double centuries this year (Solvang, Davis, and Terrible Two)

Also congrats to dl33 who was plagued by stomach issues on a couple longer rides but bounced back to finish three doubles. Now you never have to ride longer than 120 miles in a day again! Just out of curiosity what did you do differently on Knoxville and Bass Lake?

Kudos to you Ron, and to everyone else who met their CTC and (yee gods!!) TMC goals.

Cheers! :beer:

Thanks everyone. I'm still flabbergasted that I inspired some of you to go for your own triple crown. I think it's also amazing that we always see the same people at the same events. This is truely a small world ... don't let everyone fool you ... California is not as big as they lead us to believe it is ....

What's funny was I announced defeat in mid-May, and then I said screw it ... just try Grand Tour at the end of June, and it all turned around at that point. Gee, imagine if I had kept this up from March onwards ... maybe I could have gotten a gold jersey too. Oh well.

Really, Spin. (can I call you Spin?? Cool.)
I think this internet thing is totally unreal, like magic. I've meet so many inspirational folks here. (That's you, frequent lurker Taxi777) and LanceOldStrong, and RedRider, and Marco+Ruthless and PrincesZippy and BigBossMan and BikingShear and and and and and (gpelpel, I already knew you) and I'm not going to type all nightso on. I'd never have done what I've done without all the folks here. It's been a grand ride thus far.

thanks Ben. I finished Solvang/Grand Tour/Bass Lake and DNF at Davis.

During the first three I had stomach issues, dehydration, vomiting. On the Bass Lake double, except for the morning chill and sore rear/neck from spinning in the saddle for the first 70 flat miles, I felt good during the whole ride. Things I did differently diet wise was using GU Brew/Gatorade/plain water only and a steady diet of PBJ sandwiches. I tried to stay away from any meat, sodas, Perpetuem, Cytomax. Pace-wise I took it easy on the first 100 miles, my rolling time was ~6:30 for the first half and ~6:00 for the second.

Spingineer Rocks, as we all well know, but did you know is also famous in Bluegrass music?

"The Crazy Spingineer"

The black road tires were humming
His calves made them pedals groan
And behind that screaming whistle
You could hear that engine moan
The bike was reeling and rocking
Passers by were screaming with fear
For the bike was being ridden
By a crazy Spingineer
Then from the lips of this madman
Came a crazy cycling song
I'm riding this bike right up to the moon
He laughed as the road sped on

(adapted from Hank Snow's "The Crazy Engineer")

Congrats to you sir, and like everyone else, thanks for the inspiration.

Very cool. I think I'm going to try and snag me one of these in the early part of next year. Like one in Feb, one in March and one in early April.

Last year I did Solvang, DMD and Davis.

Next year I'm thinking Death Valley Spring, Solvang, and DMD again.

I think the early season base miles I did really helped me this year. I think doing them again, early, will help with racing next year.

Good to hear. That was exactly my thought process.

Let's start a band and learn to play "The Crazy Spingineer" !!!

I'm also planning on LKHC Saturday and the A-ride Sunday for any weekend where I'm home over the next few months. You should come down.

Agreed.


Though we might try the "cycling/high elevation fun/etc" vacation next summer as well.

- Start with White Mtn Double Century
- Ride all the cool climbs: Whitney Portal, Onion Valley, Horseshoe Meadows, Tioga, Sonora, etc.
- Hiking: Summit Mt Whitney, lots of other hiking, camping, etc.
- End it with Everest Challenge!

but yeah... definitely want some doubles around spring time for base.

A-ride? That's way too fast for me. How's the Sunday Social LGBRC ride? Or is anyone up for a Hicks ride?

I am thinking of skipping DR next year in favor of taking 3-4 days to ride the EC climbs, and the other things in that area. DR is fun, but it's expensive and nothing approximates the 20-mile 6k climbs of EC.

Imagine doing one (or two) of those per day at high intensity. It would be awesome training!

that's what I was thinking. Doing all 6 EC climbs, 2 per day at hard tempo would be 3 days of 60-70 miles and 8-10k climbing.

Plus a short drive south there's Onion Valley, Horseshoe Meadows, and Whitney Portal.