Steve's Cycling Blog

What a better ride to celebrate my 100th Triple Crown Double Century than The Grand Tour. It was my first Double back in the late 80's. I have done different versions of the ride. The lowland Double, The Highland Double, The Lowland Triple, The Highland Triple and the Lowland Quad. I did this event many times on my tandem with Brother in Law Vince including the Quad with him in 1993 where we got to ride with six time Race Across America winner, Seana Hogan for a while. Before she just flew away from us on the hills. I did it with my oldest Daughter Cherisse on the tandem in 1997 while she was a junior in high school. (under 12 hours on her first and only double) I took it real easy on the bike the couple of weeks before the event as I had just done three very difficult double centuries for three weekends straight. It has been over three years since I did a double on my tandem so I wanted to be fully recovered so it would not be too much of a suffer fest on the hills. Especi

On this day I completed my 99 th California Triple Crown Double Century. It took much more effort this year on my part to reach my goal by the Grand Tour at the end of June. Mother Nature just made it difficult from the beginning. Most of the rides had weather challenges. I have done 8 doubles in 2011. One of them I did not complete. The Death Valley Double was a wind nightmare. The Solvang Double was rainy and cold. We had heat come out of nowhere on Hemet . Heartbreak was a wind fest. Eastern Sierra was epically beautiful but was a real wind challenge at the end. The rides since the end of April, the last month and a half or so, have involved a large amount of climbing. I calculated that, between the events and training, (and I didn’t train that much between), I have accumulated just under 100,000 vertical feet of elevation gained on the bike. I am not built like a climber but I sure love it! The most beautiful of the rides involve climbing. On this event I definitely felt all the