Solvang Fall Double Century

I left home around 3:40 am for the event that starts in Solvang, a quaint little Danish Town in central California not too far north of Santa Barbara.  I had fog and drizzle the whole way on the 2 hour drive to the ride start. I was really hoping it wasn't going to be like that on the whole ride.
After I went through Gaviota Pass conditions got somewhat better and the drizzle stopped.
It was overcast and not too cold at the ride start, The Royal Copenhagen Hotel. Planet Ultra, the event Organizers have used this start location many times. It is right on the main drag into town.

I went in and checked in for the ride and opted to do the second start time. They had two start time windows. 6am and 6:45 am (first light).
I hung out with a few friends at check in before getting my bike ready for the roll-out.

I saw my friend, Bruno at the start and we ended up riding together the whole ride. Bruno supported me on the last 150 miles or so of the Grand Tour Triple Century Staff Ride this year. I  had a great time on the ride thanks to his support.


 I really wasn't sure how I would feel on this day after suffering on the Bass Lake Double the weekend before.
We talked outside for a while and then lined up for the check out procedure. Planet Ultra has a incredible new computer chip program for tracking the riders times. They didn't give us the chips this time due to a smaller number of riders but they used the system to load our start time and finish time so the results come up immediately and are computed instantly. All we had to do is give our ride number at the start and finish and the system did the rest.

The 6am starters rolling out.




We rolled out with the really fast guys and stayed with them on the little loop section which takes us around the outskirts of Solvang. We then ended up back on Highway 246 Eastbound and made our way out of town and into the beautiful Santa Inez Valley, some of the best wine and ranching country in the world.

Heading East on hwy 246

After our little tour of Santa Inez we headed up Foxen Canyon. This climb took us past many wineries including that of the late Fess Parker.
After we crested the long climb up Foxen we had a fantastic descent to the first check point at mile mile 41.5 in Siscuoc.


Chris with Saralie and Bruno talking in the rear.

 On the way down I ran into my friends Chris and Saralie. They had just finished a 600 kilometer, non-stop, event just a week before from Salinas to Moorpark, Ca.  Awesome!!













We then climbed up onto the Santa Maria Mesa. It was harvesting time so there was allot going on in the vineyards along this section of the route.

Santa Maria Mesa



Bruno on Tepusquet Cyn



After rolling through the vineyards for awhile we made our way to our second climb of the day at mile 48.4, Tepusquet Canyon. This is a really beautiful canyon climb!
  Bruno and I were feeling great with the cool weather so far. It was a 9.1 mile climb and then a 5.6 mile descent. The descent to Hwy 166 was narrow and technical at times but nice and smooth.














Hwy 166 goes from Maricopa in the San Joaquin Valley to Santa Maria.

Heading west on 166 we came to check point two at mile 63.9. I put some fuel in my engine, (liquid Perpetuam, PBJ and some electrolytes) as we didn't stay long.

There were some beautiful bridge crossings on 166 as we went over rivers and gorges.

We had a small head wind heading west but it wasn't too bad as we had some small hills and descents on the way until a nice drop into Santa Maria.
Now we turned north and traversed  Hwy 101 until we turned north-east toward Lopez Lake. It was then a left turn toward San Luis Obispo and the lunch stop at mile 105.

Along the way we hooked up with a couple on their tandem who had come all the way from Colorado for the ride. They were pulling a large group of riders with them in a train so we just tagged along for the ride.








At lunch I saw my cousin Ken and his wife Terry who I told about the ride. Ken and Terry live in Morro Bay and they came out to say hi. It was great as I hadn't seen them in quite some time.

I also saw another friend, Mike who lives in San Luis Obispo. He stopped by to say hi. It was great. The timing worked out really well as far as meeting them. I wish I had more time to sit around and talk. I really didn't want to cool down too long before the grunt of a climb which was to come in a few miles.

Bruno and I look like happy campers don't we?

We sat down and had a sandwich along with a mountain dew which really perked me up. My legs were really burning from pushing pretty hard on the first hundred miles. We did the first hundred in under 6 hours. (rolling time). 6:11 when we got to the lunch at mile 105. The thought was going through my head that I may have pushed too hard and may not be recovered from Bass Lake last week where I went out way  to fast at the beginning.



Prefumo Canyon

 After lunch I felt fantastic!! The legs felt strong as we made our way into Los Osos and the infamous Prefumo Canyon Road. 3.8 miles to the summit with sections from 10 to 13%, ouch!



Steeeep



This was the warmest part of the whole ride as it got to about 78 degrees on the road. I geared down and just paced myself up.

Steeper

We had a beautiful view of San Luis from one side and of Morro Bay as we got to the summit.


Morro Bay

 After going through a water stop and checkpoint at the top, we started our descent toward the South. The first part was down a dirt and gravel section before we really had a nice descent to San Luis Bay Drive and Avila Beach Drive, mile 123.7.

Next... Pismo Beach.

On the way to Pismo there was a terrible accident on our route so the Highway Patrol put us up onto Hwy 101 South for awhile to get us past the accident. We actually just blew by all the slow traffic as we made it to the Pacific Coast Hwy off ramp and went into Pismo Beach.

Our paceline blowing by traffic on the 101....wooohoooo!!!

Now we had a pretty good pace line going and we blew through Pismo and Oceano.
We veered right and started the climb up onto the mesa which in the past can be tough due to the sun beating down on you as you climb. Today we had nice cool temps and it wasn't bad at all!

We went through a number of ups and downs on the mesa before dropping down to check point #4 at Leroy Park in Guadalupe, Mile 145. We still had some challenging climbs ahead so I fueled up well and filled one bottle with liquid fuel. It really started to look like it was going to rain.

We stayed on Hwy 1 for awhile with a mild tail wind to our turn on Black Road, mile 153.6.
We had one climb to start on Black, then a nice descent for awhile and then a rather tough climb, (any climb seems hard at this point), up into the Vandenberg Air Force Base area then another real nice descent. On this climb the drizzle started and we started to get wet, but it wasn't cold at all.
We turned on San Antonio road and made our way to the Vandenberg Grade on Hwy 1, mile 164.5.
Before getting to the grade we thought someone was shooting at us. All of a sudden there was automatic weapons fire coming from our right and we almost jumped off our bikes. Was I just hallucinating or was it real? That happens once in a while. The mind plays tricks.
We discovered it was real as we came to a sign that said, "Military Target Range" or something to that affect.
Luckily they weren't pointed in our direction.

Rainy and dark as the sunlight disappears on Vandenberg Grade to the Air Force Base.

Over the top and over a few rolling hills into Lompoc and the final check point at River Park Campground, mile 178.

We continued on Hwy 1 to Santa Rosa Road for a eastbound trek back into Solvang. There was still a little over 1000 feet of climbing to do but at this point it doesn't matter.  Only about 20 damp and dark miles from the finish. It was just getting dark when we made our turn on Santa Rosa. The drizzle was intensifying but it still wasn't really that cold. Bruno and I felt really great on this last section.
We rolled into Buelton. 3 miles to go!!!

We finished real strong and Bruno said it was his fastest double!

Thanks to Debbie and the crew at Planet Ultra for a great event as usual. (The course markings on the road were fantastic this year!)
Thanks to all the volunteers who made our ride so pleasurable!

Thanks to Bruno for the camaraderie!

Stats:

Miles 201.1
Overall time: 13:17
On Bike rolling time: 12:17
Elevation Gain: 10,566 ft.
Average grade: 3%
Maximum grade: 13%

The link to all my pictures of the ride: http://www.stevemeichtry.myphotoalubum.com/

Bass Lake "Powerhouse" Double Century

 Clovis California, the start location for the ride, is a neat little western town with lots of history just East of Fresno.

It has been a few years since I have done this ride and it is one of my favorites. I used to fly to Bass Lake airport with my Dad for camping when I was younger. For those of you who are old enough to remember, there used to be a airport on the North end of the lake jutting out into the lake like a peninsula.  The airport is no more but the lake still looks as beautiful as I remember. I don't know how many times I swam and kayaked across that lake when I was a kid.

I arrived Friday in the afternoon and went for a short little spin around town to prime the legs for the mornings ride. I checked in and got my ride number so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning. The ride organizer reminded me not to miss the turn to Millerton this year. My friends Chris, Paul and I had missed a critical turn in the dark in 08 that sent us way out into the boonies on a major highway that wasn't fun in the dark and he remembered the phone call we made to him to help us get back on course.
 I retired at about 8pm.  Boy....Clovis is a party town. I didn't get much sleep as people, hot rods cruising, motorcycles, made so much noise I couldn't believe it.

I arose around 3 am and had my usual couple of cups of coffee then got ready for the ride.

I opted for the early start to try and beat the heat if possible on the Powerhouse climb. As I would find out later, it didn't help much.



Veterans Memorial Hall


I rolled out at around 4:15 into the darkness and the open fields of a great agricultural land.

The first 72 miles or so was mostly flat with some rolling terrain. We made a couple of different loops using the same rest stop on the first two checkpoints. Again as I would find out later, I think I was my own worst enemy as I went out way too fast, feeling fantastic but not really pacing myself for what was to come. You think after doing so many of these events, that I would know better but that is just me.

The temps were in the 50's before sunrise so it was perfect! As the sun came up we had a beautiful view of the California farmland and the Sierra foothills.

After the second checkpoint the climbing started immediately as we headed into Trimmer Springs and to Pine Flat Lake.  It was a pretty good little climb to get up there but only got harder as the morning went on.

Pine Flat Lake

 After meandering along the North side of the lake for a while we had our next climb, Maxson Road. I looked down and saw that the route slip said "DOWNSHIFT BEFORE THE TURN...Steep climb".
They were not kidding. It wasn't the worse climb Ive been on, but after the first climb and with 86 miles already in the legs, I geared down and just paced myself. That is when I first noticed a slight sign of cramping. I thought, " What is going on? It isn't even that hot." Something was off!
I really do love to climb but it is a whole different animal when the quads start to cramp!

We then went up and down through the Watts Valley and Burroughs Valley before coming to checkpoint 3 in Auberry.

  The course was different this year from the two past years I did the ride in 07 and 08. They claimed less climbing. I think there was more elevation gain than advertised which I don't mind at all. The climbing ended up all in the middle of the ride. Since I haven't done this course before I should have just took it easy on those first 72 miles. I will not make this mistake next year.

 After some moderate climbing to get out of Auberry, we had a steep descent down to the "Powerhouse" on, I believe, Kerckhoff Lake.

Now came the most challenging part of the ride, the climb up the infamous "Powerhouse Grade",Northbound,  to get out of the ravine. The first year I did the event they had a time trial on this climb to see how fast people could do the climb. It is a real grunt of a climb!! My Altimeter showed a max grade of 14% on this grade and averaged more like 8-9% but it was also very long and warm. On my way down on the return trip, I saw many people just walking up.




The steed contemplating: Am I ready for this climb?

 After the top we had more climbing up Road 274 to get into Bass Lake.  I ran out of water about halfway up and started getting some cramps again. I just geared down and paced myself on this 8.5 mile climb to the lake. I rested for a little while at the Pines Resort Checkpoint. I didn't want to sit around too long. I started to feel somewhat better after taking some electrolytes and scarfing down some salty food. I filled my camelbac water pack and headed around the West Side of the Lake past the area that used to be the airport.
The lake brought back many memories. It is a really nice lake.

Bass Lake

After riding around the lake and back toward the South end I started the nice descent back toward the Powerhouse. Wow...was that a fast descent!! The only problem? I had to climb back out of the ravine again to get back to Auberry.

These guys were motivating!!

I had a couple of Furnace Creek 508 vets pass me on their tandem. Wow did they come down that fast!!



Powerhouse

   I ran out of water again on the Southbound Powerhouse. It didn't stop me though, as I knew that the climbing was almost done for the day. I made it over the top and back to Auberry.
The brain is telling you through these occurrences, "why do I do this to myself?"









After the Auberry stop I headed back for Clovis with mostly Rolly to downhill terrain to the final stop in Millerton. There were a couple of cruel little climbs put in for good measure though before the final stop. Less than 20 miles to go now as I had a wonderful bowl of shrimp pasta and some instant sugar. (A coke)
 I was fully recovered now and had a fast fast last 15 miles to the finish. I got in at about 6:15.  I felt really strong at the finish. It is amazing what the human body can endure when you put your mind to it.

 In retrospect, I guess I need to start enjoying these rides more instead of just pushing myself. Once I started the climbing, I was by myself most of the day. That's no fun! There are people though that would say that doing a double century can never be...fun. The fun part is the feeling of accomplishment you feel when you are done.

Thanks to the Fresno Cycling Club and all the volunteers for a fantastic event. One of my favorites and really well supported.

Thanks Clay for giving me encouragement on the climb out of Powerhouse and offering me a "Mountain Dew".

You can view all the pictures at  http://www.stevemeichtry.myphotoalbum.com/

Here is the link a "Ride with GPS" map of the course http://ridewithgps.com/routes/201068

Ride computations from VDO computer:


202.97 miles
Ride time (on the bike): 13:19
Ave speed:   15.20
Max speed: 40 mph
Ave grade: 4%
Max Grade: 14%
Elevation gain 11,100 ft.
Overall time: 14.20 hours