Subject: Central Coast Double Century
Well, I made it! Saturday (May 10th, 1997) was the single hardest day of physical/mental endurance of my entire life!
We started at 5:35am in a mass start (140 riders). It was just first light, and we all spun out of Paso Robles. It started off slow, with a 15 mph spin. It was cool, about 60 degrees. We winded around to the coast through Cambria, and then headed North on Highway 1, where we picked up a 25 mph head wind. We road through San Simion, Ragged Pt, Gorda,... After the 40 miles of fighting head winds and going up/down on PCH, we headed inland on Nacamiento/Fergusson Rd. That climbed almost 3000ft in 7 1/4 miles. It got HOT fast. By the top it was close to 85 degrees. The oven had turned on from the chilly foggy coast. From the top, we cruised down through a canyon and out into the open and enterred the Fort Hunter Liggot Army Base. It was interesting that the road was rough through the canyon, and as soon as we hit the base, it was billiard table smooth. That came with a darker color and more radiant heat. The oven was on full now, with something in the low 90's now. We pushed on until we got to the buildings in the center of the base, where we had lunch (mile 113). People were tired and hot at this point. I ate quite a bit of watermelon, and left my friend Brad, who was feeling sick. I hooked up with three guys (one of them I had met before). All three of these guys had done all 9 of the double centuries last year! We continued to climb out of the army base and then some rollers and finally decended on our way back towards King City, where we again picked up a headwind. This time it was about 30mph. It was really blowing now. Finally we made a turn (just before King City) and headed into the lockwood canyon. It was about 4:00 now, and the canyon sheilded us from any wind. It was still and blisterring hot (somewhere in the mid 90's). We had a pretty good climb out of there. This was my all time low point of they day. Mile 135. I reached for my first gu as I saw the guys I was riding with start to put some distance between us. I could not loose them! After 1/2 an hour of pushing up that hill, I finally caught up to them and was at the top. We had a great down hill to the Lockwood School, where we hit rest stop #4. I had sent my light and food there. I packed an espresso I had made the day before in my bag, and was happy to have it there. Most people packed their lights to the next rest stop, but since I had not done this ride I was on the conservative side and sent them 1 stop early. We headed out of there around 6:00, and pushed on. Up another hill. This was the last assault in the daylight! It was another hour of pushing up, with a mellow grade for most of it, but the last mile was pretty harsh. It was now 7:30, and I was still sweatting buckets. I was sick of my cytomax, but kept drinking in fear of dehydration. We made it to the top of this hill and was greeted by a water stop with some boy scouts working, who filled my large Ritchey bottle with ice cold water. From there it was mostly down hill and flat through San Antonio and Nacamiento Lakes. The views were spectacular as we saw the sun begin to set. We made it to the Bradley Rest stop at 8:05 (at mile 180). There was a cut off of 9:45, and we made it with ease. But, it was getting dark. We took 1/2 an hour there. I had at about as much food as I could stomach (2 apple sauces and a bagel). They tried to get me to eat a hot dog (they even had tofu ones), but I feared the consequences. We pushed on in the dusk which turned to darkness pretty quick. The three guys I was with all had night riders. I will never ride this long in the dark with a cat eye again. If I was not with them I would have been an hour later. The 30 mph decents in the dark were wicked fast! We had 2.5 more hours of riding with about an hour of it up and the rest rolling and finally down. We stopped briefly at the last rest stop (10:00pm now) for some water and food and then rolled to the finish and arrived at 10:56pm. Total it was 210 miles, 14,000 ft of climbing in 17 1/2 hours total and about 14.5 hours of riding time. 14.2 mph average speed.
All in all it was brutally hard and I am still a bit saddle sore. Next weekend is the Davis Double! Whoa back to back doubles. Ouch!