Death Ride TR, 7-9-05

Tour of the California Alps
www.deathride.com

For those who don't what the "Death Ride" is, it's an organized road ride (not race) starting just south of Lake Tahoe in Markleeville, CA through and over several mountain passes. The official stats of the ride from the organizers are 129 miles and 15,000 ft. of climbing. However, the thing that makes the Death Ride so cool is that riders have the option of riding as much, or as little, of this distance as they feel like. The ride takes cyclists over 5 mountain passes (Monitor 2x, Ebbett's 2x, & Carson Pass) and since the route is not a loop, riders can return back to their cars after completing any number of passes.

I decided I wanted to ride the Death Ride back in February when I was spending nearly all of my days sweating away in my garage rehabbing my knee on my bike trainer. I figured it would it would be a good goal to set post-ACL surgery. Luckily for me, I was able to recruit a few good friends to join in on the pai..I mean, fun...:D

So really, rather than write up a mile by mile account of the ride I mainly just want to thank Mrs. Shoe, lph, and hardrider/AKA/littlredridingpants for agreeing months ago to do this ride and then following through. You were all great company and made the ride super fun.

Big props go out to Hardrider who only just bought his roadbike one week before, and still managed to ride 4 of the mountain passes (something like 88 miles & 11,000 - 12,000 ft of elevation gain). SICK!


Unfortunately, lph and Hardrider witnessed a pretty horrific crash on Ebbett's Pass, and weren't in the mood to attempt the 5th Pass. I can't say I blame them after hearing their first-on-the-scene accounts. Prayers and best wishes go out to the injured rider.


However, me and Mrs. Shoe pressed on to ride all 5 passes. We had to hustle a bit to make the cutoff time in Woodford (made it by only 15 minutes) because of our late-ish start and our stopping at nearly every rest stop and damn was it worth. Powering up Carson Pass to the top all I could think about were those dark winter days on the trainer rehabbing my knee. Felt so good to top out at Carson and relax up there for a while with some great views of RoundTop Mt. as the setting sun lit it up. Bombing back down the pass at a 35 - 45 mph average was pretty damn fun too. :D

Anyway, here's my stats. I figured it will be awhile before I post any numbers like these again, so I wanted to save them :). They're a little off from the organizers say about the ride, but my computer is probably a little messed up:

126.53 miles (my first official century!)
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...%20Mileage.JPG

14,908 ft. of elevation gain
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ion%20Gain.JPG

Actual Ride Time (not including all the rest stops):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ide%20Time.JPG

Average Speed (includes inching up all the passes and bombing back down):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...vg%20Speed.JPG

Max Speed (definitely could have hit higher, but damn did the winds hold you back):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...Max%20Spd..JPG

Very impressive. Inspiring too. I think I'll get my brothers dusty trainer out of his basement and start getting in shape on my mtb while I rehab my shoulder.

Right on.

Props for completing the mission+++ well done. That ride might be calling my name next year, ouch.

Congratulations.
Now go watch American Flyers, Quicksilver, and Breaking Away and call all those dudes pussies - except Kevin Costner's brain tumor.

It was definitely an eventful day.

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Shoe for completing all five passes. Including battling the wind on #5.

Doing 4 was no problem and I really felt OK afterwards. Not sure if i will ever do 5 as I have no real interest in the 5th pass. No shoulder, too many cars, usually windy.

I rode the 4th, and what would be final pass for us, with AKA. We hit the top feeling good and considered doing 5. We both felt physically we could do it, question was 'Did we want to?'. Unfortunately, that question was taken out of our hands.

Since, I know AKA doesn't post much, I will post what happened from both his and my own perspective.

AKA was bombing down the front side of Ebbet's pass, I was probably a 1/2 mile or so behind him. For those of you who have driven or ridden Ebbett's pass there is a fairly long exposed section that includes a lot of relatively soft 'S' shaped turns with a rock wall on your right and cliffs on your left.

AKA was passing just about everyone as he descended, except one person, who passed him on a flat. A couple minutes later, AKA rounded one of the corners to find that same guy lying in the ditch on the right of the road. These ditches are the collecting ground for rock slide and are filled with scree. AKA got off his bike and found the guy unconscious and not breathing, he was laying on his left side, his body twisted, and blood pooling in his right ear. His helmet was still on his head, but destroyed. He was bleeding from several areas on his forehead. Shortly after he began labored breathing and making an awful gurgling sound, still unconscious. As I rounded the corner AKA had collected a few other people and he was waving me over.

As I arrived, I was sure we were looking at a guy about to die. One of the other riders identified himself as an ER doc and we got the guy on his back with his neck stabilized. Thankfully, he regained consciousness. He knew his name but not much else. We waited for 20-30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and bring him a 1/2 mile down the road to where they could land a helicopter.

AKA and I got back on our bikes, both emotionally traumatized, we knew that was the end of the day for us, and very slowly and carefully made our way back down to the car and headed home.

I know it was hard for AKA to see a guy in that condition, especially being the first one to arrive and feeling unclear as to what, if anything he should do.

The really hard thing to deal with is the thought, that it could have been Shoe, AKA, Mrs. Shoe or any of the people we were riding with. It could have been me. Road biking in the mountains has always been scary for me. The speed is unreal, the consequences of even the smallest mistake can be devastating.

Hopefully, the guy will be alright.

BTW, it was pretty impressive watching AKA do 4 passes, 90 miles and about 12,000 feet of climbing on his second day ever on a road bike. :eek:

Well done. I busted out my Death Ride 2000 t-shirt yesterday in a symbolic gesture of solidarity, but without the pain of riding 129 miles. Definitely a fantastic ride, and a great accomplishment to look back on. :yourock:

Well done Shoe, LPH, hardride....er AKA, and Mrs Shoe. Dumb. But well done. :D

JESUS! Look at this one....Too bad I'll be in Las Lenas while this is going on...yah, that's why I won't don it :D

www.sonofdeathride.com



"1 Mountain Range
1 Monster Pass
132 miles
19,000 ft of Climbing
Avg Grade 8%"

"The Highlights:


One MONSTER pass with grades over 20% that climbs 6,000 feet in 15 miles, topping out at 9,200' Sherman Pass. Then a descent to the desert floor at mile 66, where you turn around and climb another leg destroying 9% average grade up Nine Mile Canyon.


The route averages a grade of 8% over 132 miles with sections maxing out over 20%. This climb makes the Tour De France look flat. Lesser mortals will have two options. Option 1 is 29 miles with 5,000' of climbing. Option 2 is 84 miles and 11,000' of climbing."

Congratulations to all the riders. Although lph and hardrider didn't officially make it, I think they should get credit for it. I talked to hardrider today and it seems like they definitely could have finished. But you know what, they placed someone else's life ahead of themselves. I think that gets them major props.

Great work guys... way to kill it out there!

If you really want to have fun, sign up for Montezuma's Revenge moutain bike race.....

200 miles
crosses the Continental Divide 10 times
climb over 35,000 feet
Ride between 9,000 feet and 14,270 ft

Voted "The World's Worst Race"

well done maggots... here's my "little" TR.

fri night went to bed around 11pm and was planning to wake up at 3:30am since my non-maggot buddy Jan Holan was picking me up to drive down early. (some of you N. Cal maggots may know or heard of Jan since he was a former owner and founder of Mt. Adventure Seminars... a mountaineering, rock climbing, tele skiing guiding service etc. out of Bear Valley). in any case, i went to bed and unlocked my front door... just in case i overslept and Jan could come wake me up. well sure enough, 4:30 am... my wife and i hear Jan saying "hello...." in our bed room. so i jump out, quickly apologizing, and toss my crap into his car. too funny...

after driving 1 1/4 hours down to Turtle Rock, and picking up our race packet, we finally got dialed in and on our bikes at 6:40am.... pretty much a full hour after we had planned. oh well, just roll with it.

after a slow warmup the westside of Monitor, Jan took off and was climbing like a mad man. why? because he had the wrong f*(king gearing and that was about the slowest he could go. i took my time getting my legs warmed up, especially my left leg which i was having some issues with some ITB syndrome. fortunately i started getting loose and put on my head phones are started spinning/hammering. we got the top and ate and hung out and stretched. we then cruised down to 395 and were freaking amazed at ALL the cyclist coming up. sounds like the maggot crew were probably in there. i could not beleive the 4-5 abreast 6-7 mile long pack of riders. just unreal. after, getting to the bottom and taking another break, it was time for the "slow" climb up. i had pretty much psyched myself out about this ride and the climbs because i had no idea how i would do on them. from the Deathride calculator/spreadsheet i had no idea if they would take me 95 minutes or 120 minutes or what. after passing several hundred riders, i smoked that climb in about 60 minutes.

thus began our pattern of our whole ride... ride strong and then lounge at every other stop or so. because Jan had been off his road bike for over 2 weeks and because he literally flew back from a business trip from back East friday evening, we took extra long breaks so he could recover since his gearing had him hammering like Jan Ullrich just to get his pedals over. after 4 passes, i was feeling totally fresh. Jan was a little more cooked, but after we ate and he took a 15 minute cat nap, we decided to gun it towards Woodfords. while that wasn't too bad, the ride to Picketts sucked with the headwind. fortunately we hooked up with some other strong riders and they hauled my ass thru the wind. the best of course was summiting Carson and the little decent to the rest station. this is where Jan took another nap on the warm pavement of the parking lot.

we then loaded up on a Coke for a pick me up and had a fun decent back home. unfortunately, we also saw a woman being strapped to a back board and getting carted off in an ambulance. it doesn't sound nearly, as bad as the rider that you guys came across. i heard the ambulances cruising down from Ebetts, and i hoped that it wasn't too serious. but from what you guys described, i just pray that guy that went off is okay. i know i rode *very* mellow on the downhills because i am just paranoid about stuff going bad *real* quickly on a road bike. i have done that way too many times when i used to race my old mtn bike hardtail... and just riding all the roads for the first time, just made me a little more mellow than normal.

in any case, my buddy Jan and I had a great time and enjoyed the first organized ride that either of us had ever done. we ended up with 9:21 hours of ride time, averaging 13.1 mile per hour, and 122.5 total miles (i think my computer is miscalibrated?!?). we also hit a top speed of 47.4 m/h. of course with all the breaks and stuff we took, it ended up being closer to a 11:30 hour adventure.

i think we will prolly do it again, but stick with 4 passes. i think i even convinced Mrs. OHC to do 4 passes with me next year. the cars, headwind, and traffic made Carson kind of pain, but i guess no one ever said the Deathride was easy. oh well... glad to hear that all maggots are safe and i pray that the rider you guys helped is ok. good job, maggots.

YEAH OHC!! good job mang! I was looking for a Chris Chance bike like you described, but didn't see any...despite your late-ish start, I bet we ended up finishing fairly close to each other.

Oh yeah....and me, Mrs. Shoe, lph, and AKA got to chat a bit with Ingrid Backstrom at the bottom of Monitor when we were en route to Ebbett's..she was there cheering on her friends.

Funken: No. :)

Congrats on the ride to the whole maggot crew. You guys and gals rip it up on snow and the bikes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoelaces

126.53 miles (my first official century!)
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...%20Mileage.JPG

14,908 ft. of elevation gain
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ion%20Gain.JPG

Actual Ride Time (not including all the rest stops):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ide%20Time.JPG

Average Speed (includes inching up all the passes and bombing back down):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...vg%20Speed.JPG

Max Speed (definitely could have hit higher, but damn did the winds hold you back):
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...Max%20Spd..JPG

---

photoshopped ;)

Nice work to all - stoked to hear the Shoes hammered it out - hell of a rehab inspiration Mr. Shoelaces! I was bummed not to be able to do it with ya, so some of you better do it next year too!!

That crash certainly sounds gnarly - I guess it's a good reminder to ride smart on the downhills . . .

CONGRATS! Now, go get on your mountain bikes and stop this silly road nonsense!

Wow - amazing. Congrats to all of you!

That's a terrifying story - I hope that guy makes it.

What a ride - it sounds so incredible!

nice work all! am so sorry that you all had to witness that wreck, hope the guy is OK. The last year I did the DR (2 yrs ago), a guy actually died on one of the descents, prompting them to drop the name "Death Ride" to the more prosaic "Tour of the CA Alps".

way to go maggots!!! that's huge. Triple bipass was this weekend, one of my friends did it, i am thinking about next year. Similar stats, I think: 120miles, 12000ft climbing, 3 passes.

AKA, is a stud, pumping out huge milage with that short of time on a bike is amazing.

Hey.. Congrats to everyone who have done the Deathride.. :p

I have just done this ride too and I have to say that the weather conditions were perfect. I'm sure I wouldn't have finished all five passes if the weather was not so mild.

I'm really sorry to hear about others who have sustained injuries from this ride.. and hope they will get well soon!

ps, what kind of cyclo-computer is that. its fancy

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...%20Mileage.JPG


2 words: Numb Nuts. :eek:




Damn, that is one hell of a ride guys, well done!


And yes, what is that computer, it does look quite nice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by funkendrenchman

Great work guys... way to kill it out there!

If you really want to have fun, sign up for Montezuma's Revenge moutain bike race.....

200 miles
crosses the Continental Divide 10 times
climb over 35,000 feet
Ride between 9,000 feet and 14,270 ft

Voted "The World's Worst Race"

---

I believe that's the one that nobody has ever finished within the time limit.

I kept half an eye out for Shoe and lph, but alas did not see either.

I had a couple of buddies in tow. We woke up around 445a got ourselves coffeed and motivated from Kirkwood over to Turtle rock and on the bikes at 545a.

Got a nice warm up heading up Monitor and managed to pick the pace up past the water stop and over the summit. I spent way too much time in rest stops last year so the plan for this year was skip the summit stops and refuel at the bottom of each pass. Made it over the summit just as the first few guys were cresting the backside climb. I really like the descending the back of Monitor Pass: seeing the road laid out below you and watching the desert quickly approach.

Filled the bottles at HWY 395 and started back up. I was feeling strong and kept to the plan: pace slightly harded than comfortable but no real pain. About 2/3 of the way up I got some real bad stomach cramps that made taking a deep breath painful. I figured f*ck it at least my legs feel great.

Over the summit, then flew down the frontside. Clocked my top speed for the day at 51mph. I am a bad ass; I got passed at 50 mph, on the inside, like I was standing still by some maniac; I am a pussy.

Took and easy cruise up to Scosa's with a stomach still full of nails. Kept it steady up Ebbetts. Once again I blew through the chilly windy summit stop and a few minutes later was off the bike in Hermit Valley. It was pleasantly warm and I spent a few minutes lying on the pavement, stretching and drinking a couple cokes; I really wanted to get my stomach straightened out.

Felt much better heading up the backside of Ebbetts (I suffered a bit on the steeper section last year). It went much faster than I expected and before I knew it I was descending to the lunch stop. Descending this side of Ebbetts is another favorite. To me it is the quintessential alpine 1-1/2 lane road: the granite, the pines, the creeks, the road carved into the mountainside, swooping turns, exposure and views galore. When we rode it a few weeks ago I overcooked a few turns into the oncoming lane where thankfully there was air and not a mass of steel and chrome, so while I enjoyed a little speed I kept it in check for cornering.

At the lunch stop I took along break, about 45 minutes, and got my buddies back together. Between the cokes, lunch and the long break I was feeling real good again. Got on a pretty fast pace line over to Markleeville and went over the hill near Turtle Rock with a couple of riders. My buddy Gary had flatted, a slow leak, and rode it to our car. After a quick tube change we were again on the way to Carson Pass.

The best part of the Death Ride is definitely the first 88 miles and 4 passes. It is a true climber/descenders delight. Really not a bit of flat road, just up/down, up/down, up/down, up/down & done. To top it off the roads on this part of the course are closed to traffic. The only reasons to head up to Carson Pass and back are to say "I rode 5 passes", the ice cream and/or you really enjoy riding 15 miles 3000' uphill into a headwind (that always seems to blow down Woodford's canyon each afternoon).

Settled in for the grind up from Woodford's into the wind with traffic on my left elbow. Rode with a group of about six but only one other guy besides me was willing to put his nose into the wind. Filled my empty bottle at Picket's Junction and caught back onto the train heading accross Hope Valley. Kept the tempo pretty high as we passed Blue Lakes road and started the final pitch. Red Lake came and went and was I ever glad to wrap around the final bend and see the parking lot at the pass.

I got my ice cream from my oldest daughter. For those of you who got an ice cream at Carson Pass it just might have been from my wife or one of my girls; they were volunteering up there from noon until about 6PM.

The only remarkable note on the Carson Pass descent was that I snuck in front of a pickup pulling a boat trailer right at the summit. He held up traffic and I rode unmolested in the middle of the lane down past Blue Lakes Road. Hell yes!

My computer says:
125 miles
9:45 ride time
51 mph max speed
finished up at 530P, 11:45 total time on course
I like the published 16,000' beter than Shoe's computer so since my computer don't do alttitude I'll stick with that.

Lou

Here's the crew:
http://homepage.mac.com/tim_louis/.P...de05Family.jpg

Looooouuuuuuu......:)

Good job mang! You were flying! And funny that I did see your fam up at the top when I got my ice cream.

Crinkle/Buzz: Can't remember the specific name of the computer, but its some sort of wireless Specialized model. It was a gift, so I don't know the exact name.

nice job lou....

i definitely remember getting my ice cream from your younger daughter. made me wish my kids were at the top to great me... maybe next year.

re: bike computers. i wish i had a fancy altitude one, but i have some cheap Avocet that seemed to be off. oh well...