2018 Planet Ultra Mulholland Challenge Double Century

This Blog Post is dedicated to my cousin Eric Webster. 

We lost Eric early this year to a very rare Thymus Gland cancer. Such a tragic loss!

Picture of Eric who surprised me when I was riding my 100th double century event a few years back.
Riding up Lynn Road in Thousand Oaks, all of a sudden, a guy on a mountain bike comes flying out from a side street and starts riding along side my tandem and the train of riders following us. It was Eric. A few blocks up was his wife, my cousin Tricia, standing out with her camera taking pictures. A very memorable moment for me.

Eric was an avid mountain biker who also liked to ride road bikes. He did very well on the mountain bike over the years. He finished a number of times on the podium at The Sea Otter Classic mountain bike race up in the Monterrey Bay area.

Eric was probably the nicest and most humble person anyone could know. Always there to help anyone in need. A great guy.

 Eric's memorial mountain bike ride at Sycamore Beach was the day after my event.

 We rode from Potrero Road down to the beach for a memorial with his cycling friends. A great moment. It was really nice seeing his son Jordan out there riding too. I hope that some of his friends who read this blog post will put some comments and pictures in about his life. I do not have any pictures other than those above.

Your family and friends really miss you Eric!!

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2018 Planet Ultra Mulholland Challenge Double Century

This year I waited until a couple weeks before the event to do a staff ride. I was going to do it with my friend Quynh but he got attacked by a dog on the Joshua Tree Double Century and went down hard on the pavement. He got hurt pretty bad so he was not ready for our staff ride.

I asked my good friend Tony to join me and he said ok. Tony is a beast of a rider. A fixed gear specialist and former 24 hour fixed gear world record holder.  He did this course with me a couple years ago on his fixed gear also. Wow……18,600 feet of elevation in 200 miles on a fixed gear bike. Just amazing.

Joining us also was one of my old friends Kevin Walsh. Kevin is an amazing endurance cyclist and also a 508 Hall of Fame inductee. He has done the 508 over 10 times. (I lost count). We have been doing double century events together since I started. He is much stronger than I am.

We all just decided to take it easy and stay together and enjoy the day.

We started next to the course in Calabasas about a mile from Mulholland Hwy at about 4:40 am.

Kevin rolling up Topanga Canyon in Woodland Hills.

Tony on his Fixie with Kevin in the rear.

It was a perfect morning but a little bit cool. We cruised up the first climb on Topanga Canyon in the dark and made the cool descent down to Old Topanga.

Rolling up Old Topanga about half way up.

Old Topanga is a great climb. Beautiful oak trees and a summit just above the San Fernando Valley area of Calabasas. We cruised over the top just as it was starting to get light out.

Down we went to our left turn on Mulholland Hwy. (At the point of this turn is where the first check-point is on event day.)

Here is a map of the first section from the the official event start and the climbing profile.

It was pretty cool out at this point and we were glad to get to our next climb on Stunt Road. Stunt is a favorite among us locals. About 1,400 feet of gain in about 5 miles. A really nice climb to the summit up on Saddle Peak.

From the top there is a great view of the Santa Monica Bay and Santa Catalina Island when it is clear.

We didn’t stop at the top for long. It was great watching Tony climb these hills on his fixed gear and even more impressive watching him descend. You can’t coast on a fixed gear bike!!

We dropped down off the mountain on Piuma Road for our first water stop at the fire station near our turn on Cold Canyon. We took a little break here before continuing.

Now we had a short but pretty steep little climb to get out of Cold Canyon and a return to Mulholland.

From this point, the course takes you the entire length of Mulholland Hwy to the coast at Leo Carrillo State Beach. We planned to make this point our water re-stock area for the massive climb to come after that.

Just before we reach the next major climb is the official check-point on the event where I will be staffing on event day, Peter Strauss Ranch. 

Once we got out of Cold Canyon we had a nice descent down to Malibu Canyon.

Below is a video of Tony descending and spinning like crazy on his fixed gear.

Below is the map and elevation profile for the second leg of the event:

Next big climb……The Rock Store!

Kevin climbing at sunrise just above Malibu Canyon Road

We meandered up a few small climbs getting to the Rock Store. We now started the climb up to the summit. This is a famous climbing section among cyclist, motorcyclists and hot rods.

I rode a little up ahead so I could get a picture of the boys near the summit.

Tony climbing the final section of Rock Store

Kevin climbing the final section of Rock Store

We took a long break here and chowed down on some food. It was a beautiful day and was really warming up. This is where we stripped off our cold weather gear.

We rolled over the summit, made our way past The Malibu Winery before cruising over to the Decker Canyon area and our descent to the coast. We would be coming back up this way a couple times. Once in the morning and again on the second loop in the late afternoon.

What a nice descent Mulholland was to the coast for us on geared bike. Tony, I know hated it because descending is the hardest part of riding a fixie.

We stopped at Leo Carrillo State Beach and loaded up on water. We now had the first really steep climb ahead of us.

Below is the map for the next section of the ride. The climb up Yerba Buena and Cotharin to Deer Creek Summit:

We now headed north on PCH for our next climbing section, Yerba Buena Road and Cotharin /Pacific View.

Yerba Buena road is a long slog to the intersection of Cotharin Road. We cruised easy up Yerba. I rode up ahead most of the way while Tony and Kevin were behind talking on the way up.

When we reached the turn, we stopped for a short break and took some pictures. It was an amazingly beautiful day up in the Santa Monica Mountains. After the early spring rains we had just had, everything was really green.

I told the boys to hang back a little bit while I went up ahead to the usual vantage point near the top of the 18% section of the climb. I just had to get a picture of them coming up. Especially Tony on his fixed gear.

Every year I seem to forget how tough this climb is. It kicks your butt.

 This year the entire ride didn’t seem that hard to me.

Not sure why but that is usually how it is with these things.

 Maybe I has to do with the point that I had finished a double century on my tandem the week before. Riding my heavy tandem is like training on a heavy mountain bike. (My tandem weighs 50 pounds just by itself. It is pretty heavy.)

I got up to my vantage point and got a great video of the guys coming up one of the steep kickers on Cotharin. Here it is. It is amazing to watch Tony grind up that thing.

We rolled up to the summit after that and now had a great and beautiful descent down Deer Creek to the coast.

This can be a dangerous descent. The grade averages around 11% and just dives from the summit. Many have had tires and rims self-destruct on this descent from over braking, including yours truly.

Here is a video taken while doing the event on my tandem a few years back.

We made it to the bottom safely and now started up the coast for the next climb, Decker Canyon.

I got a little ahead of the guys as I dropped in cruise mode riding in the aero bars. I then noticed they were not behind me to be seen. I turned around and rode back a ways to find them on the side of the road fixing a flat.

This was the first flat of the day.

Kevin had gotten a little piece or wire from a steel belted tire lodged in his tire causing a slow leak. He first noticed it at the bottom of the Deer Creek descent. Boy…..that could have been disastrous!

We used tweezers to get it out, fixed the tire and were on our way.

We made another stop at the water spigot in Leo Carrillo State Park for the long slog up Decker and were on our way. Just one little coastal roller and we would be at Decker.

Here is the map to the next section of the ride. Decker Canyon to the century ride finish. The half-way point.

Decker Canyon is a tough climb. We hit it and immediately were faced with the lower wall up to a hair pin that gives you a little respite before kicking up again.

On the old course, this climb is done at 160 miles into the double century and usually in the late afternoon with the sun beating down on you.

This year we only had 70 something miles in the legs but more climbing to this point. It was pretty cool but not much wind so it felt pretty hot when climbing. There was some fog at the bottom section which was nice.

I stopped at the hair pin and got some pictures of Tony coming up while Kevin went up ahead. This beast was tough on Tony.

He had to dismount a few times to get his heart-rate down but after we reached the top, Kevin and I didn’t wait too long before Tony showed up.

We took a nice long break at the fire station before heading for the final long climb of the first century, Upper Encinal Canyon.

I hate this little climb. It is straight, averages about 8% but is just boring. It takes a lot out of you after doing Decker and resting at the top. Your legs are always kind of locked up from the rest and you have to get it a climbing rhythm all over again.

Now it was down, down, down, with a nice descent past Malibu Wines then dropping down the Rock Store Grade.

We rolled past the Rock Store and then made a stop for lunch with a little off-shoot on Sierra Road to the Canyon Store. Grilled cheese sandwiches, a Coke and chips were in order. We took a nice long break.

Lunch.....Thanks Tony!!

After lunch we rolled around Malibu Lake and back to the event start location before heading out on the second hundred part of the course.

Here is the map of the section to start off the final half of the double century. The map was drawn with the start of our staff ride a few years ago which was just over the freeway from the official start.

The first part of the second loop is pretty tough. We climb back up Westlake Blvd. which becomes Decker Canyon a few miles down the road. We had a 17% grade to get up to the top of the Santa Monicas where we joined Mulholland again.
At that point we make a left turn on Mulholland and head back eastbound on the course we were on earlier in the day before descending to the coast.
Now comes the really fun part. We climb the north side of one of my favorite roads to train on, Latigo Canyon Road.
Once we reached the top of Latigo on this course we had almost 15,000 feet of elevation gain in our legs. Only about 3,600 feet left in the final 70 miles.

We stopped for water near the top at the famous gas station house. The owner made the front of his house look like a vintage gas station with gas pumps and all.

Tony rolling to a stop at the gas station house.

Now we had close to a 10 mile descent to the coast. It was getting cool so we put our jackets on for the descent. I bombed down and could see Tony and Kevin behind me as I went around a few of the hair pin turns.
I almost got to the bottom and decided to wait for them. It seem like I waited forever. Turns out Kevin got his second flat tire on the way down.

Looking down the lower part of Latigo while waiting for the guys

Finally they came and we made it to PCH.

Here is the map of the final section.

The cruise up the coast was really nice.  We did not have too bad of a head wind like in years past but there was a little bit. We worked together in a pace line and made it to Point Mugu pretty fast for our turn on Hueneme Road.

In the dark we cruised to our next stop at the Chevron Station in Camarillo where we stocked up on supplies and got some caffeinated drinks.

Now the cruise up Santa Rosa Road into Thousand Oaks. We all got the chills when we started out in the cold because we allowed our engines to cool down too much. Once up to speed and the blood was pumping we warmed up.

Just about that time, Kevin got his third flat tire......arrrghhh!!! All his flats were from the small thin wire left from steel belted tires that have blown out on the road. Really hard to find in your tire and really hard to remove.


After that repair we cruised easy on the final climbs to the regular ride start area in Agoura. Up Norwegian Grade, Lynn Road and Upper Portrero Road we went and down to Hidden Valley.

Once we reached Agoura we still had close to 1,500 feet to climb to get back to where we parked our cars in Calabasas. We had to ride the first part of the route which we skipped early in the day since we started on the South end of the course.

Up Mulholland we went to the Old Topanga area where we made a left turn for about a mile ride to our cars.

Another epic day on the bike.

We pretty much took it easy on the course this year and we were off the bike a total of 4 hours due to the flats and just plain stopping to enjoy the scenery and take pictures.


Miles:                                            196
Elevation gain:                            18,660 feet
Ride time:                                          16:40
Speed:                                                11.9 mph
Max speed:                                        42 mph
Heart Rate Average:                        132 bpm
Max HR:                                            161 bpm
Calories:                                           8,008
Av temp:                                          57 degrees