Sunday, July 12, 2009

Death Ride Report – 3 passes

Coming up to Tahoe mid-week to get ready for the Death Ride, I had more or less decided that I could really only do 2 passes rather than the 3 I had originally wanted to tackle. Work had been utterly ridiculous the past few weeks, really interfering with my training schedule. Then everything came to a head this past week and I had only gotten a few hours sleep each night. I was really not very optimistic about my performance on Saturday.
We arrived Wednesday evening and did a quick ride up Blue Lakes road. Checked in on Thursday and again did Blue Lakes. Friday I just did an easy, flat ride around South Lake Tahoe and got the bike ready for the big day. Saturday morning I was up at 3:30 am and over to pick up CCB by 4:20. We were out at the ride start and on the road by 5:20am.

From Death Ride 2009


Monitor Pass was once again a real pleasure to ride, and it seemed just a little bit easier this year than last. My post-ride data analysis shows that I climbed up Monitor slightly faster this year than last, this despite the heavier bicycle (Artemis) and my lack of fitness. [Speaking of Artemis, I must have gotten over 2 dozen compliments on the bike at various stages of the ride.] I think the granny gears on the touring bike probably helped since I was able to spin more and feel more relaxed on the climb. CCB and the others were all spread out over the course (all doing the 5 pass ride) but I ended up riding for a while with a woman from Portland who was going the same pace. I arrived at Monitor summit at 7:50am, feeling good.

After the beautiful, thrilling descent down Monitor, I headed in the direction of my second pass, the front side of Ebbetts. I saw Richard at Ebbetts base camp rest stop, and John, CCB, and Craig all passed me on the way up. I was feeling really comfortable up Ebbetts, even thinking that I could definitely go for the third pass. But then I got to within 3 miles of the summit and the nasty steep parts hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to stop every mile to catch my breath and let my heart rate drop down to something reasonable. Finally I made it to Ebbetts summit at 11:30am, and I was prepared to have a quick snack and call it a day.

I was standing next to my bike and someone asked me how many passes I was doing (this is the main conversation small talk at the rest stops). I broke down my initial plan to do three but then said I had decided not to do the back side of Ebbetts. This woman who was relaxing nearby said, Oh you should totally do the back side of Ebbetts. It’s the easiest of all the passes, it’s only 5 miles, and the first mile is flat and the last mile is flat. So it’s really only 3 miles of climbing.

I was all, “Really?” Cause my riding crew had said this pass was pretty tough. The woman assured me that I could do it and that it would only take me an hour. An hour.
I don’t know if it was the heat or dehydration or what, but I decided to go for the third pass. I filled up my water bottles and headed down the back side of Ebbetts to Hermit Valley. Then the deal is, you turn around and climb back up the same way. It’s about 5.5 miles and 1700 feet of elevation.


As I was descending to Hermit Valley, I was looking at the road grade and watching the hordes of people struggling up the ascent. My first thought was , Fuck. It was clear to me that it was not easy, nor flat, nor an hour’s worth of climbing. But at that point I was committed, so I cruised all the way down to Hermit Valley, got more water and used the pit toilets, then prepared to head back up. I ran into Craig down at Hermit Valley too. He had spotted my bike on the rack and was surprised to see me at Hermit Valley. We headed up the pass but he didn’t dawdle since he still had Carson Pass to climb. It was 12:15pm.

So I rode up the back side of Ebbetts, which took me an hour and 45 minutes to go approximately 5.5 miles. I had to stop every half mile or so to get out of the sun and take a breather. The pass itself isn’t that bad, but after doing Monitor and the front side of Ebbetts, I just didn’t have any reserve energy left. There were lots of people struggling up this pass.. people hanging out at the side of the road, slumped over their handle bars, some people walking their bikes, several people being SAGed up to the summit.

One guy passed me and said, "remember, we paid to do this." Clearly everyone up there was a glutton for punishment.

As we neared the summit a rider pointed out stray red vines on the ground, a sure sign we were getting near the rest stop and goodies. Sure enough, I spotted the orange cones of the rest stop and actually teared up at the sight. I was really happy to be done with that pass.

After that, it was downhill to the lunch stop (which wasn’t that great.. weird sandwich wraps) and then on to Markleeville and up the 500 ft gain to Turtle Rock. Just like last year, that little hill nearly did me in. It was hot out by this point.. 95 degrees.. and there’s no shade on that approach, just the hot winds blowing in your face.Yuck. But I finally made it, rolled up the car at 3:45pm. Yay!


P.S. Congrats to CCB, John, Craig, and Richard, who all completed 5 passes. Nice job guys.

Ride Stats
Begin/End: 5:20am to 3:45pm
Mileage: 68 miles
Elevation gain (total): 8923 feet
Passes: Monitor Pass (3000 ft), Ebbetts front (3000 ft), Ebbetts back (1770 ft)
Max speed: 53.1 mph, coming down Monitor
Slowest speed: 2.5 mph, climbing up Ebbetts from Hermit Valley