Road Ride Report Death Valley Double C (Roadie)

Went out to Death Valley for my first try at the Spring Version of the 200-mile ride after doing the Fall Version last year.

Put on by AdventureCorps-same guys who put on The 508 and Badwater Ultramarathon...two of the 10 toughest endurance races in the world. (http://www.adventurecorps.com/index.html)

Started out at Furnace Creek Ranch with the first wave of 50 riders at 6:00am with temps in the low 50's, high overcast, and barely a puff of wind. A paceline quickly developed driven by the stronger riders and it kept together at 22+mph until we blew past the first water stop at Badwater where it split up a little bit, then regrouped with 10-15 riders...then the road got rough...1/4" aggregate in the asphalt with tar sealing, but not smoothing, the cracks running across the road every 8-10 ft.

Suddenly, the guy in front of me has his tailight come apart and pieces of it hit my front wheel and I hear a bad, high-pitched, noise like I've broken a spoke or two on my relatively new Dura-Ace Wheels. I pull out of line and look..spokes are ok, my spare light had de-velcroed and fallen into my wheel. Crisis averted, but now 30 seconds off the back of the lead pack means the next 175 miles are likely to be solo.

I catch up to the tailight exploder whose nursing a water bottle cage that has sheared 1/2 off, dropping his gel flask, and we try to work together to get the tail of the pack, which is agonizingly close, but since we've got a long way to go, its not smart to red-line this early so we let them go. We become a party of three shortly before we stop to refill water and HEED at mile 45. We pull out a few minutes later as a small group of 7 or 8 pulls in.

The next 20 miles climbs from Sea Level up first Jubilee Pass at 1290', a teasing 1 mile of 10% downgrade, followed by a mind-numbing 5% climb up to Salsberry Pass at 3315'. Tempo-climbing at 8mph at its finest to keep the HR from spiking above 140. You know you're at the top when the road suddenly kicks up to around 10% and the "25mph" turn signs on a 60mph stretch of highway appear. Then down to the turnaround at Shoshone at 1500'. A few miles out, the first person on the climb back up passes, then the second in a full-on Bike Religion kit, third is the single-speed guy. A few more pass, then the Recumbant Bike heads back up the climb as I check in at the turnaround at mile 74. Water break, refuel, then back up the climb...shorter from this direction..only 1500' of climbing.

The descent back into Death Valley is long and fast...35mph+ in the aero tuck for a good 25-30 minutes and after waving to the rest of the 150 of us trying to ride 200 miles today, I'm back at the mile 45 stop (now mile 103) with a bunch of people who are doing the shorter 100 mile version.

As I pull out, there's a little bit of a breeze, but not much, and although it feels like a headwind, it probably isn't. For the next 45 miles back to Furnace Creek, I hopscotch from century rider to century rider, hoping to get into a paceline to conserve energy, but only doing so when a couple on a tandem offer to pull me along for a few miles. I try to return the favor, but I look back and find that they've dropped down to their previous pace. The sun comes out around Badwater (there's a lake filling the salt flat beyond with the recent rains) and is with us for the next hour or so to Furnace Creek (mile 149).

The Furnace Creek start/finish/checkpoint is littered with Century riders lingering over the post-ride pizza, sandwiches, cokes, and banter:beer: as I refill the water bottles and head out, skipping the first song on my shuffle as its already starting to repeat songs. North out of Furnace Creek there's no-body. Cars pass from time-to-time, but nobody is headed to the north end of the valley or out the west at 3pm unless they're in a hurry.

I don't see another rider until I'm 15 miles out from Stovepipe Wells...and the guy is on pace to finish the 200 miles in 10 hours...about 1/2 hour later I see a second rider, then spaced out by 10 minutes or so I spot riders three, four, and the Recumbant bike makes five about a mile from the Stovepipe turnaround...so somewhere a few have dropped out or dramatically slowed.

At the turnaround (Mile 172) the talk is about the weather and how fortunate it is that the rain hasn't come yet and the wind has been almost non-existent. The hope is that it will hold enough until the course closes at 11pm and everybody is safely at home. Famous last words as I turn the corner, climbing up out of Devil's Cornfield 20 minutes later and see several downpours higher up on the slopes of the mountains on either side of the Valley.

Then the wind picks up. 4% downgrade from +200 feet to -150ft, and I can only manage 12mph. This doesn't suck at all for the next half-hour until the "light" rain starts to fall. Light in that there are few drops, but they are large and driven by what is now a 20-30mph headwind...strong enough to get the loose dust, salt, and sand into the air and scurrying northward through the valley.](*,)

Finally...5 miles out...the wind seems to die, the raindrops are still there, but don't seem as bad. Taking advantage of it, I buck up and push it at 25+ mph across the flats to get to the finish. I don't know how many of the 150 who started the Double Century finished it, but passing them while my finish was in sight, I knew they had another 2,3, or even 4 hours of riding after I was done.:-({|= Congrats to all who attempted.:clap:

Riding Time:11 hours 35 minutes:bang:
Total Elapsed Time:12 hours 15 minutes
Elevation Gain/Loss: 9400 ft (only one big climb, but lots of 100-200ft rollers)
Miles: 195.8

Best double time so far, both Riding Time and total ET...

The adventurecorps website has much better pics of the ride than I could ever post, and the Death Valley NP website and Google Earth images do better justice to the area.

Yep...long description...long ride.

 

Double Century???? Looks like you came up a little short. #-o

 

Computer says 195.8...route sheet says 196.4...I probably could have added the extra few miles by swerving more in the wind.....I'm more impressed that you actually read through the whole thing.

 

I am sitting here with a broken leg and can't ride.....so I have waaaayyyy too much free time. :lol:

 

If you used a GPS it calculates the miles projected onto a flat earth.

 

good job..

 

That sounds like a tough day, but well worth it. Congrats!

 

Very nice!

Miles: 195.8....sounds close enough to me to claim it! :clap::clap::clap::clap:

 

Awesome RR man! And awesome ride you are an animal...or should I say Danimal! lol I texted you a couple of times but I figured you either didn't get a signal or you were busy doing other things...like riding your legs off! Way to go! :bang:

 

Great job and wonderful RR! It was almost inspiring enough to tempt into trying someday.

 

Nice work! I'm contemplating doing the Solvang Double at the end of the month. I've hardly been able to ride due to two back-to-back injuries. Going to do something around a century on Friday to see if I have the legs.

 

This is one of the doubles I've never done. I was signed and paid for it once but had a funeral come up so I missed it. Your ride time is very impressive. I know some very strong riders who have done it and most are in the 12+ time frame. I'd love to get that time. Seems this ride always has to deal with weather as a factor so I'd say you were fortunate. I liked your rr but you make it sound so easy. :lol:

I can't wait to get back on the bike. I love long distance cycling.

 

I just spoke to a good friend of mine yesterday. Hadn't spoken to him in a while. He set a new course record this year at 10 hours 5 minutes, and felt sorry for those who were still out in the rain as he was driving back to Simi.

He and his wife will be doing the Solvang Double on a tandem. I thought about doing it, then I saw the entry fee. Maybe next year...

 

Great read! Thanks for sharing...

 

I was there with my daughter March 1st to March 4th, we drove everywhere and saw a few riders. I am not a road rider, but if I rode, Death Valley would be on my list. We took a lot of pictures, here are a couple...

 

Adventurecorps runs several camps a year that ride through the valley...they had one the week before the ride and there are apparently more than a few who work at Furnace Creek that put in 20-30 mile rides several times a week.

 

Good job, my time was 14:10 with a very long break at Badwater to eat the best Subway sandwich EVER! Ok maybe I was hungry. I was disappointed in my overall time, but I felt a lot of accomplishment in just finishing. I'll be back in the fall to get under 12 hours.