VanceMac

Damn. Anyone owed a favor by the wind gods?

Vireo

any idea who those two girls were that were kicking my ass on Saturday?

Scootcore

from what i know about EC none of saturdays roads will be like that, nor do the two rides share any of the same roads. the road from bishop to mammoth is just looong. i think its about 40 miles from one to the other! from 395 up into the actual town of mammoth lakes is short but kinda steep, maybe two miles or so, i dont know any of the %'s im afraid. deadmans summit is somewhat challenging but not bad. sagehen will be the only toughie. lots of false summits and "step ups", plus the added fun of no shade and possible heat. but man is the ride down a hoot!!!! all in all nothing is crazy steep, just long.

Brandy

How far ahead of you did they come in? They cheered me on when they passed me and told me that I was doing great. They were hauling ass! They dropped me on the rollers and I tried to close the gap in that long straight section, but they were rockin' it!

Scootcore

dunno there names but they were hardly sweating when they got to the top of heartbreak....they seemed almost cheery...weird

Vireo

actually they passed me on that long flat section. I wanted to VMac to get on my wheel to chase them down and catch you. Once we caught them they kept sprinting over the rollers and exhausting me. Both of them were strong. And then (the one without the KOM jersey) said "don't step on Superman's cape" in reference to the Superman on the back of my bike. I thought that was so funny at that very instant because I felt like crap the way they were working me over.

VanceMac

Sorry, not sure who they were. All I remember is not even being able to stay on your wheel in that section!

Vireo

and then eventually as Phil Legget says "the elastic broke" and you dropped me just before the descent on Frazier to the finish

maddmike

+1

There's hills but nothing terribly steep, about 8~9% if my garmin is right from last year.

There's one road that's a really bumpy downhill, I think it's when you leave mammoth before you hit 395 and go up deadmans summit -- a lot of heat buckles.

Scootcore is right, the climb up to sagehen will be pretty hot, it's in a forest but a lot of it is burned so there's not a lot of shade.

The last 38 miles from can make or break your time. I did the century ride about 3 years ago and we had a 20 mph headwind at ~90 degrees and it was brutal, we were trying to ride in packs and still it took 3 hours. So far NOAA's web site says the wind doesn't look too bad.

Brandy

I specifically remember that from one of the ladies at TE's report last year. She said those expansion joints were a total *****. I'm really looking forward to this ride though.

Happytime

Okay, okay... you guys found me out!
I didn't want to say anything, but that was me and my twin sister, Jason's college friend, who put the hurt on.

Oh, and carbon shmarbon... our bikes were made of pure Kryptonite!

VanceMac

But seriously... will you be joining us on next year's KOM??? No bathing suit required.

Happytime

Vance, I can't even climb GMR in my double (yet)!

Vireo

yet!

VanceMac

That's funny, because I seem to remember you at the top... and, you have the perfect climbing physique. I can easily envision you becoming a monster on the hills.

Happytime

I showed my coach the pics of that ride.

The first thing he said was, "What the **heck** are you doing in your small ring!?"

EDIT... But I am seriously thinking about BA next year. I have to rethink my tri future, as I don't have the endurance base (nor time) to train for both.

Vireo

there was Kryptonite all over the place.

jpconrad

The Motionbased summary I posted a link to above shows a ascent grade of 18.3%, but without seeing the data itself I couldn't tell you if it was accurate. However, I did see summaries from 2005 with a 15% grade and another with a 21%. When I ran through the plot on Google Earth it didn't appear to have anything that steep, however.

Scootcore

there may be small pitches....but nothing sustained....

Go_Fast

he's saying you have a great assos.

VanceMac

On that point, we seem to agree.

Happytime

Well, that's because I am more memorable on top. After all, I've spent the last hour or so with an elevated heartrate, breathing heavily, sweating profusely through sheer effort. My shoulders ache with tension and my quads are hot, activated and honed to a fever pitch. At that point, I'm anticipating the approaching apex, the pinnacle, and the exhilarating rush that comes afterwards... the headlong plunge into the abyss of the mad, mad descent...

We are talking about hill climbing aren't we?

merider1

I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm now completely turned on...

Happytime

Perv.

merider1

Well, it takes one to know one... And besides, I'm pervfect.