Road Ride Report Hemet Double Century results

Well, I'm quite happy with the results. I haven't done a double in about 2 years and neither of us had trained for one either. Brent planted the seed in my noggin a couple months ago. My climbing has been coming along and although I can't hang with the kids (20 and 30 year old guys/gals) I've got a lot faster and I no longer die on the climbs.I went back and checked all last year for my longest ride and I'd only done one ride of 135 miles in two years but I really couldn't take it to see Brent riding this alone as Lincoln (Brent's brother) isn't around right now. So Friday I decide to give it a go. I knew that we would be coming back in after 100 miles and if I felt like if there is no way I could finish I could stop then. But all the other century rides we've done in the last couple of months I always felt like I had a lot left in the tank and the next day is easy to ride.

The day started out early around 3:45 am. Brent went out fast and I mean fast. Neither one of us could tell how fast, as we both had Garmins and didn't want to use up all the battery life with the back light.We get to the first stop, early and Brent throws a temper tantrum because they didn't have the right kind of cookies. I didn't care because I can't eat food on these rides and just go with the high calorie food replacements from Hammer Nutrition. I look at our average and thought it was a mistake, it said we had a 22 mph! So we get back on the bike and take off again. Now we are completely out front with Brent doing the work of domestique and navigator as I can't see the screen without my glasses and I'd have to take them off after looking at it, it's a big hassle. So we keep hammering and Brent read the route sheet wrong and we end up going 3 miles in the wrong direction. Thankfully the road we took dead ended otherwise we might still be out there. So we turn around with Brent still leading the charge and I do mean charge. We get back on course but now we are with about 6 other riders. Gradually we pull away, they tried to hold my wheel with Brent pulling us all but I heard them complain they couldn't do it as they'd never finish; spending this much energy so early in the ride. I was aware it might happen to us too but Brent was doing so good I couldn't ask him to slow down. We motored all the way through to the midpoint/lunch stop. We went in and Brent ate a little chicken and I loaded up my bottles. We thought we'd be in about 20 minutes but it took 40.
Second double started out fast and furious as our main competition had got a jump on us and started 15 minutes before us. Brent set the tempo again at a very high speed. I soon had to ask him to slow it some as I couldn't hold the pace. He did for a while but eventually got away from me. Now about the 7 hour mark I got passed for the first time of the day by a rider (number 68 ). Seems he skipped the lunch break altogether and had a couple doubles this year already to his credit. He hammered right on by all of us. I'm not sure where but we soon passed the guys who had left 15 minutes before us. I got passed 300 feet from the top of Sage road ( the only tough climb with two short 20% grades).Their other rider soon joined us and we all left somewhat together. We kind of let them go but kept them in sight. Then we started playing leap frog with them but it helped to keep the pace high.We all rode into the nest SAG together and stayed a little long talking but it was a good break as it was 93 degrees and we were all starting to feel the miles. Now we head off towards Lake Elsinore and we get out front by a long margin but we both run out of water, so we stop and buy some drinks and water as the next stop is 11 miles away. We see the other two guys and wave to them thinking they might join us but they ride right on by,fast. So we finish our drinks, fill our bottles and off we go. Now somewhere along the way they had to stop for water as they ran out too. We didn't see them and when we got to the next rest stop and ask about the other riders and they tell us, no you guys are 2nd and 3rd. So I figured they had rode on by. Soon they show up and we all got a good laugh out of it. Now this is the turn around where we start working our way back to the start/finish. Now we are back out front so we set a moderate pace. We ride for over 10 miles and then we start seeing the next closest riders to us (we had a 20 mile gap) and we have a good 1.5 hour lead over these folks. But I now kind of hit the wall. My legs are feeling it and I'm getting cooked along with butt and feet issues. Neither of us complain though and Brent is holding back for me as we work our way through Murrieta. Now the other two guys who had been behind us caught up. So we rode together as a group into the next rest stop. Again we stayed a long time here. Once Brent starts talking to everyone he doesn't want to leave. So I borrowed a crowbar and pried him out of his chair and on we went. We left together and rode at an acceptable pace for a few miles. We got to a section that was new to the route and I wasn't familiar with and we come up on this little hill. So I stand up and think I'll just knock this one out and be done with it, WRONG! It wasn't a little hill it kept going and going. I cracked hard here and fell way off the pace. Brent slowed for me and we watched the other two guys ride away. We still kept them in sight for quite a while but we made another wrong turn as the route sheet was off and they explained this at the start but we both missed this. So now we add another 4 miles to go with our previous 6 so now we have 10 extra miles into our tired legs.From this point on I dropped my speed almost in half but Brent pulled for me and we worked our way back up to 15-17 mph. Finally we get in and the other two guys had just came in 8 minutes ahead of us so with out the wrong turn we would of caught them. I really had a fun day out there and I'm very happy with the results. Not sure how many more I'll do this year but I do want to do a couple more.





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Dang Mike that is great and crazy. Did Brent ride with us up 39? So what did your total ride time and overall ride time turn out to be? I would like to do a double either next year or the year after but I dont think I am ready for that seat time.

 

No Brent wasn't on that ride.

We finished in 15 hours total time. Brent's Garmin had us at 16.5 mile average and 13.7 hours ride time. I found calories to be funny at 15,000+ burned. But when I weighed myself this morning I was 5 ounds lighter even after eating everything in the cupboard and refridgerator.

 

well done Mike! proof that you should never write-off the little guys...with big gears and goals

 

That seems like an awesome average for the distance!