Death Ride
7/12/08
Coming into the week before the
Death Ride I couldn’t have been more stoked, I had tied my personal best around
Lake Tahoe with a time of 3:11 hours with a 22.2 mph average speed and was
feeling strong. The rest of the week was rough as I found myself getting many
hours of sleep but not good quality so my coach and I backed off a bit so I
wouldn’t get sick and this left me with a big question mark on how my ’08
edition of the Death Ride would pan out… I was pleasantly surprised!
My friend Seth Wealing and I drove
to Markleeville Friday afternoon to pick up our ride packets and the smoke from
all the fires around the area reduced visibility to less than a ½ mile. I wasn’t
concerned about the effects of the smoke but was bummed for Seth that he
wouldn’t be able to see the amazing beauty that the terrain has to
offer.
On Saturday morning we were
greeted with blue skies and 10 miles of visibility… what a gift! In years past
I’ve always started this ride at 5:30 am but as fast as we tend to finish we end
up sitting around waiting for the post ride meal so I decided that a 6:30 am
start would not only be more humane but that we’d finish up and get showered in
time to step into line for some recovery food!
We ended up rolling out at 6:45
and were greeted with clear roads as we made our way towards the day’s first
pass. As we began the climb we started picking off riders and kept this up as we
crested our first trip up Monitor Pass. Descending towards Topaz we were flying
by countless riders climbing and descending as we made our way to the turn
around to climb back up and over Monitor for pass number 2. Note: The
Death Ride is a 125 mile ride through the “California Alps” with over 15,000
feet of climbing. The first two passes we ride twice (up, over and back) with
the last pass (Carson) being an out and back. I usually start to feel pretty
solid on the second climb but after the week I had I was keeping up with Seth
but not feeling too “spunky”. As we made our way towards Ebbetts Pass Seth was
like “do you feel up to pushing it on the 4th pass?” and I was like
“we’ll see…” gulp ;-) As we made the turn around Seth asked me how I was doing
and I was like “I’m not feeling it today so why don’t you just take off.” Seth
went flying up the road and I hunkered down and kept ticking over the gears
maintaining a steady rhythm, now I was doing all the passing and not getting
passed so this was good for my moral and as I crested Ebbetts and began my
descent to the start finish I was pretty stoked to have the 4th pass
behind me! I found some guys to work with and made up some time on the way to
Carson Pass. As I began the climb up Woodfords Canyon leading up to Carson I was
starting to cramp but felt my speed start to increase and my attitude getting a
lot more upbeat and motivated! As I began the final climb up Carson I was
feeling good and saw Seth coming down with about a 25 minute gap on me. Later
Seth said he was pretty surprised that I didn’t lose a bunch of time because he
thought I was toast at the start of pass number 4, I was happy not to disappoint
;-) When I got to the top of Carson I topped off “the tank” and started the
super fun descent to the finish. I was caught by a couple of solid riders and
was ready to start working with them until the cramps nailed me and I had to
back off. The cramps soon subsided and I caught back onto their wheels and
proceeded to stick myself out front and put the hammer down. We ended up
drilling it to the base of Woodfords and we were truly flying… too fun! As we
made the final turn to the finish I kept the tempo high and was pretty stoked
when I dropped our little group that had grown to five. After the week I had I
was thrilled to put in such a strong finish after my longest ride of the year to
date. At lunch I found out that Seth had finished with the second best time of
the day and was shocked when I heard I had put in the days 4th
fastest time! I really feel that all the work my coach (Jack) and I have put
into peaking in August came into play today and even though I felt pretty tired
my body was strong! Looking at the heart rate numbers I saw that it was where it
would have been even if I was more awake… sweet!
Well that’s the scoop… thanks for
reading!
Jeff
