Solvang Double Century (Spring) 2022

 

The Solvang Double Century is one of my favorites. It is one of the older Triple Crown Events and would be my 181st Triple Crown Double Century.

I think I have done this event more than any other. It is just such a beautiful area to ride a bike.

This year I planned to do it on my tandem with my friend Margaret. 

 I did have a little anxiety about how I was going to do at the event since my cardiologist put me on a beta-blocker medication. I have been doing really well on it during training. I just wasn't sure how I would perform on the tandem on a double. 

I am about to turn 70 in a couple months, but my brain tells me I am in my 50s.

Turns out, I felt great!

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Margaret and I have been riding tandem on and off, for a couple years now. We have done some great training rides as well as some virtual double centuries during Covid. 

This would be our first real organized double century after events have opened up with the easing of Covid restrictions. 

The last time I did this on my tandem was, I think 2017, with my good friend Teresa (Tiger) Beck. 

She has since been riding tandem with her guy Chris, who did Solvang with her last year on the tandem.  They are a really strong team. 

Pre-race dinner with Margaret, Ron, Kevin, and Chris

This year we had a forecast of rain, which did not surprise me. This area is known for either wind or rain. Last year it was the wind. This year it was rain. 

Margaret and I both came prepared. We had so much gear that I decided to use my very large rondonneauring bag so we could stow all the stuff. It worked very well.

The Tandem (AKA Stealth) is loaded down with the heavy Rondo Bag. 

I drove up to the event with my friend Ron the day before. This was to be his 50th Triple Crown Double Century. He would now be in the hall of fame. A great accomplishment. 

Our plan was to start the ride at 5:30 am. We ended up starting around 5:40 with many of our usual group of friends. 

Our group consisted of Robert Mann, Phil Auriemma, Ron Iseri, Chris Bergstrom, and Chris Therrien. Kevin Walsh, another in our group, started much later and caught us later. He hung with us for a while. We had a few others tag along at the start who we didn't know. People do like to draft a tandem you know. 

We usually have Robert's wife Dee with us but she sat out the ride and went wine tasting with another of our group, Sybil. Teresa Beck just had a complete knee replacement so she was helping out and then came to meet us at the last rest stop. We really missed having them all with us, especially Teresa (Tiger) Beck. She is always the life of the party and probably the best ambassador to ultra-cycling out there on the road!

Mile 0 to 38.2

Buellton to the outskirts of Santa Maria

As we rolled out, the weather was not quite as cold as in the past but very damp. I had to keep wiping my glasses of all the moisture right from the start. 

We first headed southeast through the town of Solvang to Hwy 154 where we turned west and rode through the Santa Inez Valley for a while.

Solvang and the surrounding wine country is an amazing place to visit. I really need to come up sometime just to sightsee. I have yet to do that in all my years coming up here for this event. 

 It was still dark so there wasn't much to see. It was cloudy but not too much pea soup type of fog which can really be bad in the area sometimes. 

At mile marker 14.5, we turned off of the highway onto Foxen Canyon Road, we had a pretty large train of riders drafting us. (Everyone wants to draft a tandem!!)

 One of our friends got a flat so a couple stayed back with him as we moved forward up Foxen Canyon Road and the infamous "Wall" climb. 

It took me a while to warm up but I was feeling great as we made good time to the foot of the first little climb. We dropped it into the low gears and just motivated up "The Wall" into some very damp clouds at the top. We were pleasantly surprised to see that we were not that far behind the single riders in our group and we were actually catching some other riders that started earlier than us. 

I was very cautious dropping down the steep backside on the damp pavement. I think I was breaking the whole way down. I am a lot more cautious nowadays.

We rolled past the famous Fess Parker Winery on our right just before the final summit on Foxen Canyon which just seemed effortless compared to other times climbing that bump. I was feeling really good. 

We now flew down the other side toward Santa Maria to the first checkpoint at mile marker 38. We accumulated a large number of wheel suckers along the way as we passed many riders. (Some accelerated to get in our draft, some didn't.)

Rolling into checkpoint one.
The checkpoint was manned by our friends Jennifer and Alan.

Mile 38.2 to 78.85

From checkpoint one we had a long flat stretch into Santa Maria before making a right turn at mile 47.8 and climbing Bull Canyon Road to Highway 166. 

Again we did very well on the climb and stayed with all our friends to the top. 

The next stretch to checkpoint 2 was our best as far as speed is concerned. We were able to carry a very good pace all the way to the next stop in San Luis Obispo. We were all just flying on the rollers going from Santa Maria to the Arroyo Grande area!

The course changes somewhat during this section due to construction. We really liked the new approach to SLO and other changes coming later. There seemed to be a bit more climbing but it was a lot nicer. 

We made a very short stop and rolled as we knew we would be coming back soon for lunch.

Checkpoint 2 and later the lunch stop after the loop around SLO.
 The stop was manned by our good friend Melinda Clare and Adam Bramwells family.

Mile 78.85 to 100.1

SLO Loop

Now we're on a loop course through SLO  and to the west. We then looped back on a really nice road that went through Cuesta College then over the hills to Los Osos Valley where we turned back into SLO for the lunch stop at the same location as checkpoint 2. 

These two checkpoints were at a local house owned by Adam Bramwell who is the son of Triple Crown Head, Chuck Bramwell. It was a great stop with a large park and bathrooms across the street. 

We ate lunch and then rolled.

At the lunch stop with Adam Bramwell. 
Thanks for being such a good host, Adam!!

Mile 100.1 to 139.2

SLO to Guadalupe

It started raining pretty well just about right when we got back on the bike. We were lucky thus far with just a few sprinkles. It rained for about 30 minutes before it let up and was nice.

We now rolled over to Shell Beach, which is a neighborhood of Pismo Beach, before climbing the hills to the east through Price Canyon. 

We took a road called Ormonde Road. This had some tough climbing on it!!

 We had one long climb that was a steady 12%. We were climbing for a while at 4mph. It just seemed endless, and Margaret and I were really struggling. 

We got it done although we both felt pretty spent after. We then had another less steep climb before dropping down to the Orollo Grande vicinity again.

From there we got some good recovery for a while before another tough climb, which I like to call "The Mesa Climb". 

This climb takes you from the flats up onto a large mesa overlooking the area. 

We cruised at a steady pace in our low gear to the summit before stopping to strip off the rain jackets. It was now getting too warm for the jackets. 

The mesa has a bunch of rolling climbs with a couple good descents on it. We made good time through this section before dropping down to the valley floor again where we were maintaining between 17-20 mph to the next checkpoint in Guadalupe, Ca., again leading a large train formed behind us. 

We took a good long break here. Maybe too long. 

Mile 139.2 to 165.7

Guadalupe to Los Alamos

The weather looked like it was going to clear up at this point and there was very little wind which is highly unusual for Guadalupe. Last year we had a 25-35 mph tailwind leaving Guadalupe and all the way to Los Alamos.

We rolled out a little behind our group to Ca Highway 1 where we made a right turn and headed southeast. We slowly rolled up the rear of all our friends and I decided to just take advantage of their draft for a chance to recover a little. It was really nice although it was a little more stressful trying not to rear-end my friends with the heavy tandem. I was coasting a lot. 

After passing Black Canyon, we start a long steady climb toward the turn to Vandenburg Air Force Base. We break off to the southeast before the base. 

Many Solvang Doubles in the past went up Vandenburg Grade and right by the base. It is really cool. One year we actually had a missile launch while riding past. 

We were nice and recovered and were able to just sit in the rear and keep up with the group on the climb with very little effort. I was feeling the whole time like I could have gone much harder and passed but I decided to wait until we reached the descent. 

On the downhills, we really had to pass. 

That heavy tandem just drops like a ton of bricks and I would have been on the brakes the whole time. 

We hung back a bit at the top of the climb and then just coasted until we got to the split in the road. 

At this point, Highway 1 goes to the right and up to Vandenburg AFB. We were to take the road to Los Alamos which was the left split, but we had to merge all the way across two lanes of busy Highway to get on it.

As soon as we saw an opening in the cars, we punched it and merged across, passing just about everyone. I then settled into my aero bars and got in cruise mode on the flat road doing about 25mph.

We could see rain squalls ahead which looked like pouring rain in the hills. It turned out to be very light so I didn't put on my rain jacket. I was wearing a wool long sleeve base layer and it did just fine even when it was wet, keeping me warm until the next checkpoint. 

As we started a gradual climb again, most of our group caught up. It was at this time that someone got a flat tire. 

It was now raining pretty well so we kept going, because there was no cover, while someone stayed back and helped. 

I think this was the fastest I have ever done this section without a tailwind. Even with a slight uphill grade, we were making 16-20 mph on this section on the heavy tandem. We again started picking up solo riders who were suffering on this stretch like I had so so many times in the past. We asked them to tag on the back for a draft. 

One of them was my good friend Ron Ng.

Ron did my 100th double century with our group back in 2011 on the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Highland Course. It was a great memory and we had a great time all riding together on that day. We have not done much riding together since he moved up to the bay area. 

Into Los Alamos, we rolled with a huge craving for the "Cup-o-Soup" they always serve there. There is something about that large amount of sodium that really helps a double rider recover for the final hills to the finish.

We always have a lot of fun at this stop. Teresa, Dee, and Sybil were there to greet us. We again stayed way to long. 

I saw my friend Peg Miller there. She was working the rest stop. Peg was my teammate at the Silver State 508 on a 4 person mixed team a few years ago when we raced with the late, great, Grace Ragland. It was such a sad loss losing Gracie. I only knew her for a short time but felt like she was family after that race. 

Peg and I will be racing the 508 again this year on a 4-person, mixed, Team White Owl. 

Mile 165.7-193.5

Los Alamos to Buellton

The rain stopped just before Los Alamos, and then it looked like it was going to clear up. It was short-lived though.

From this stop, we now headed over to Alisos Canyon for a climb through this beautiful canyon to Foxen Canyon and the return to the Solvang area. This is also another great Santa Barbara County wine-growing area. 

Alisos is a nice steady, 6-mile climb to the summit before turning on Foxen at about 6.5 miles. 

Once on Foxen Canyon, we had to climb a couple really tough climbs for a tandem. 

The first took us past the Zaca Mesa winery for a real grind to the summit of the mesa. We were both just spent and it was raining so that drained us even more. We didn't have the legs left to stand and get out of the saddle so it made it a real grind being planted on our seats in one position. We just hunkered down and got it done. 

The descent down the other side was very rainy and scary on the tandem. It was now getting dark and it was very hard to see any potholes so I just crawled down until the road straightened out a bit. 

Now was the final really hard climb..."The Wall" on Foxen Canyon Road. It is shorter on the west side but steeper. Only around a half-mile but at the end of a double century, it feels longer.

Again we crawled up.

The descent on the other side was less technical with fewer turns so I was able to see better up ahead and let the bike do its thing. The road was not that bad either with the better pavement. 

On these last two descents in the pouring rain, I could feel Margaret in the back with her head down against my back just hiding from the rain. I do act like a pretty good windshield.

We now had one more climb...Ballard Canyon Road.

This is a short climb but it's the descent back down to Solvang that is so brutal, especially in the dark or rain. 

The road is very rough, to begin with, but also had many hidden potholes that are so jarring. I don't know how many of those we hit. 

Again I just had to crawl down and let most of our friends go since it was so sketchy. The tandem just accelerates so fast. You have to really be on top of it or before you know it, you are going too fast to avoid something on the road.

We made it through the rough part and rolled into the finish around 8pm. 

Margaret did a stellar job stoking the fire and I felt great the whole time. I am so proud of her. She has not been riding tandem that long and has really become a great teammate and stoker. We felt really in sinc most of the ride. 

Below is a short little video compilation. Conditions were not very conducive to picture and video taking on this event.

A big kudos go out to Ron Iseri who entered the prestigious California Triple Crown Hall of Fame by finishing the Solvang Double Century!

A huge congrats Ron!

Thanks to all the great volunteers on the ride. The rest stops were great and a lot of fun.

A big thanks to Deb and Brian at Planet Ultra for another stellar event. 

Stats:

• 193.55mi
  Distance
 
• 12:13:27
  Moving Time
 
• 8,114ft
  Elevation