2014 Joshua Tree Double Century

My 120th Triple Crown Double Century was quite a challenge. My second double of the year would again be the great Mountain High Cycling event which goes around Joshua Tree National Park.
Last years event was quite the challenge with unusually hot winds being the main course for the day which made it a death march.
This years event was supposed to be done through the park but someone at the park service forgot about the re-paving being done on the main road so they cancelled the permit to go through the park.

I drove in from home the morning of the event and got their a little early. The forcast called for quite a warm-up where I live in the San Fernando Valley. I was hoping it was not going to be blazing hot in the desert.
I got a couple hours sleep before checking in at 4:30 am.
I waited around for a few of my friends to start. The plan was to tag along with friends Roland Hoffman and Teresa Beck who were riding Roland's tandem.
Many of my friends rolled out earlier. Some as early as 4am. We left at 5am in the dark under a beautiful setting moon on the horizon.

There is quite a bit of gradual climbing on the way to the first check point and we already had a head wind out of the west. It was about 50 degrees in the coolest spot. I was carrying everything but the kitchen sink again.....prepared for about anything. I was too heavy, I knew, but justify it by calling it good training. With HooDoo 500, solo, coming up in August, I just figure that anything to make these early events tougher is just good training knowing how the Southern Utah Mountains can be.
It was a nice spin to the first check point. Now.......the fun begins.

We stopped for about 10 or 15 minutes at check point one before heading down the hill toward Desert Hot Springs. 
Now the fun......50 plus MPH descent behind a tandem. Well.......I was so over dressed and had my vest unzipped so it acted like a parachute. I could not stay behind Roland and Teresa. They just disappeared and left me and Jeff in the dust. Jeff was doing his 100th Triple Crown Double Century.
Jeff started a little before us and we caught up to him at the first stop.
Jeff stayed with us most of the day although we did all get separated here and there on climbs.

Roland and Teresa with The "Green Horse" and Jeff in the back

After descending that incredible chute down to the Coachella Valley we turned on Indian Canyon Drive for a sunrise spin into Desert Hot Springs. I had to stop at the light where we turned so I lost Jeff and the tandem. Still descending, now it was with a tail wind.
I caught up with them on a climb going through Desert Hot Springs. I passed as I was talking with another friend and then I made a big mistake....I think....on my part as far as conservation of my energy for the day. I kept going and put the hammer down.

Climbing into Desert Hot Springs with Dale Capewell. Dale did The Race Across The West, (RAAW) last year and is doing The Race Across America (RAAM) this year.

Heading out of Desert Hot Springs toward the Indio area. Roland and Teresa are back there somewhere.

I forgot about the long descent going to Coachella. I should have stayed with Roland and Teresa. I was almost to town when I saw them coming behind me. I started to sprint and hoped to get into their draft. No luck.....I didn't have high enough gears to get up that type of blazing speed. They blew by me like I was standing still.  (my friend John Clare and I have talked much about this same scenario).
I could have just enjoyed myself and took it easy on those hills then rolled down hill with them, conserving considerable energy for later.

I arrived at check point number two in Coachella just after them. I said hi to many friends including Colin and Julie Stokes who were supporting the ride at this check point and others.
The wind since we turned east-bound was at our backs and it was a cool wind. Not hot like last year.

I was excited about the climb to Chiriaco Summit on Interstate 10. Since the wind was cool, the long, 26 mile, climb would be somewhat cool, not blazing hot like last year. After the summit we had another 16 miles on the interstate for a total of just over 40 miles. Last year, after the first summit, it was a blazing tail wind to Desert Center where we turn North.

I paced myself and slowly crawled my way up the first part of the Chiriaco climb. It was warm on the first part with the tail wind. As the semi trucks passed we would get a blast if cool air. I really thought that was great. I would grow to hate those trucks in a little while....stay tuned!!
I passed by and said hi to my friend Isabelle Drake on the way up. She looked like she was really steaming hot and I was starting to feel the same whenever the wind would die a little.
I saw Roland and Tiger up ahead and slowly pulled up behind them. They were climbing this grade really strong and were a force to be reckoned with whenever they jumped out of the saddle. I also ran into and rode with my friend Doug from Northern Cali. We rode up together to the summit with the tandem.

Here is video I took while we still had favorable wind for pulling out a camera and riding with one hand.

Roland and Teresa hitting it hard on the climb up to Chiriaco Summit on Interstate 10

As we approached the summit.....BOOM!!!....the wind swithced to a terribly strong crosswind!

We all had to slow waaaaaaaaayyyy down as we were literally being blown off the road. I believe I was listing my bike close to 30 degrees to the left (north) at times with the stronger gusts.
Remember when I said I would start to hate those big rig semi trucks??
Well...Strong cross winds from the left and semi's passing you on the left...do not mix when on a bicycle. I would be riding along leaning and just trying keep from blowing off the road and a semi would pass......I would get sucked into the vortex created.....then.....BAZINGHA!!!...The cross wind would hit me again and I thought the next thing people would see is me and my steed flying through the air like a hang glider into the desert before kissing the ground on the embankment.
 I saw a number of people ahead of me nearly get blown completely off the road.
We had about 10 miles of the most intense cross winds I think.I am not sure if we just were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was wondering how the people in the rear were doing. I could not imaging someone weighing under 150 pounds having to negotiate that. I am 173 pounds and I was having major trouble. Some of the worst cross winds I have ever had to ride through. Roland had his sun glasses blown off his face and down through a fence on the side of the road. He had to stop and climb down a hill I think to retrieve them. He was behind so I'm not totally sure how far he had to go.

We made it to rest stop three which was along a frontage road and under the freeway. Thank God we were protected from the wind there. We filled up with water and were on our way for more punishment.

Heading out after a much needed break from the winds

We headed back onto the freeway for another 11 miles or so to the lunch stop at Chiriaco Summit. The wind now was a little more of a crossing head wind so it was not quite as bad. I stayed with the tandem all the way to lunch. The road was great and it was relief to be out of those cross winds.
We had a great lunch with sandwiches and such. I again saw more friends. We stayed about 30 minutes before rolling out. The food was great and the wind was still blowing but it was not quite as bad.
Now.....back on that noisy freeway again for another 15.8 miles. This section went pretty fast but I was really anxious to get off there in Desert Center.
We had an uneventful roll to Desert Center for a stop at the smoothie stop. I didn't have a smoothie but the stop was nice. The wind seemed to be calming a little.

Rolling into Desert Center with the RoHo-Tiger tandem team

We turned left (north) on Hwy 177 for the 13.6 mile slog into the head wind and mostly climbing to check point 6 at 29 Palms Hwy. This climb was grueling last year in the heat. This year it was much cooler. The wind was not too bad and we were maintaining over 20 MPH behind Roland and Teresa until we reached the better part of the climb.

Heading up Hwy 177. Notice that I caught Teresa texting on the back of the tandem

 It just keeps getting steeper and steeper until you reach the turn but it is never really that steep like our rides in the Santa Monica Mountains. The long desert alluvial fans are very deceiving though. Many times it looks like a descent but you are climbing a 3% grade. Many times the climb you see in the distance looks terrible but it is only about 3-4% and not that bad. They are traditionally very long climbs though. They keep going and going and going.

I started developing the dreaded "Hot Foot" on this long climb to the turn. I just wanted to put my feet into a bucket of ice. By the time we got to the check point, I had so much pain in my feet that I had to loosen my shoes considerably but it didn't help much. I could not have gone much longer.   OUCH!!!! That was one of the worse cases I have had. I had a bad one on the Inyo Ultra 466 but my crew was there to ice down my feet and it really helped. 

On the way to the turn we ran into my friend Steven Burns. Steven had started at 4am and was looking really good. He stayed with us for awhile in the tandem train as we climbed.

We all rolled into the check point at mile 131.4 along with Gerry Brown who was on his tandem with Richard Hoff. He has a really nice carbon fiber tandem that I drool over every time I see it. Those two are strong on the tandem.

I took some Advil for the hot foot, took my shoes off for a little bit, had a Coke and one of my Oatmeal/Greek yogurt/fruit, burritos from the "Feed Zone Portables" cook book. That cycling cook book is awesome. I went through dozens of those things on the 466 event with not one bit of stomach upset.

The tandem train left a little before me but I had to rest my feet a little bit more.

I rolled with one of my fellow Adobo Velo Club riders who I don't know yet. There were allot of Adobo's doing this event. Over 30. Adobo Jerseys everywhere. I was not wearing my Adobo Jersey since it was dirty but some of my buds still recognized me and said hi.

Now came the most beautiful and challenging part of the ride as far as climbing is concerned. The climb out of Check Point 6 is EPIC. A long alluvial fan with never ending false summits that, last year, just about killed me as far my mental state was concerned. Not that steep but never ending. 

The long road ahead. Teresa and Roland I can see already on the climb ahead. I better get going......but my feet hurt!!

I got into the aero bars and just cruised up to the start of the climb at an easy pace then I slowly pulled myself up to them. We stayed together the entire way to the finish. We had about 40 miles to go at this point.....allot of it on rolling terrain and climbs....with one real good descending section.

The 5 of us climbing out of check point 6

I noticed that my heart rate monitor on the Garmin stopped working so I thought it needed a new battery. Turns out that it was something wrong with my computer though because not long after that my Garmin froze on me and never came back. It only recorded about 160 miles of the ride before quitting.

We made it nicely over the never ending climb still fighting a head wind the whole way although it was not as bad as the devilish winds we had on the interstate and the climb to check point 6.

It was cooling off nicely as we topped the long climb for a great descent for what seemed like quite a few miles. The next check point, number 7 was at mile 144.7 then one at 160.2 and the final one was with about 15 to go. This was the perfect place to have many rest stops. Just when you need them.

Bringing it home to the final rollers into town

We rolled over the final climbs which were not easy into the setting sun and we were all getting tired. It was about this time that my friend Kevin Walsh caught up to us. He started an hour or so after us and caught up to us. What an animal. Kevin is a Furnace Creek 508 Hall of Famer with so many finishes I have lost count.

Kevin and Jeff with the Roland/Tiger tandem

My friend Kevin. A beast of a rider.

We were celebrating Jeff's 100th Triple Crown Double Century...WOW...welcome to the club Jeff!!

Riding into town at sunset

Roland Hoffman and Teresa Beck. These guys crushed this very tough ride on the tandem!!

We all finished while there was plenty of light left. 

Start time: 5am

Finish time: 6:55pm

Moving time: Approx. 12hrs

Overall time: 13hrs 55min

I had a great time on this ride.
 It was the first double century that I tried the "Scratch Labs" electrolyte powder in my water. I used it almost exclusively in my camel-back and water bottle, after training with it for some time, instead of liquid fuel. I ate only solid food on this ride and had absolutely no bloating or stomach upset in the desert conditions. Not one sign of a cramp the entire day and I pushed pretty hard at times. I only had a couple of bottles of pure water. If I would have done that with other sweet electrolyte drinks, I would have been cramping and tossing my cookies on this one!! 

I used Hammer Nutrition's, Anti-fatigue Caps and Endurance Amino Caps as usual.  Those thing work fantastic for me!

Thanks to Anny Beck and Mountain High Cycling for another great event. You never know what to expect in the desert and Anny, the amount of check points on this event was just perfect.

Thank you to all the volunteers!! Without you guys we would really be in trouble out there.....especially..... on this type of course. You all did a awesome job out there.

Congratulations to all my friends and everyone else who completed this very tough double century.

Last but not least.....A big congrats goes out to Jeff Dewey. This was Jeff's 100th Triple Crown double. Jeff has been doing it as long as I have and we both have quite a few doubles before the creation of The Triple Crown.

We all finished about the same time

Jeff looks pretty fresh after his 100th double

2014: Happy New Year!! The season begins with some awesome hill training and Triple Crown Double #119

January 2014 is starting out to be a great year for cycling. 

I usually take it easy over the holidays and feel like a slug when I get to the first endurance ride of the year which is the Camino Real Double Century.

This year, I didn't let myself rest much. I did a double century at Thanksgiving time and still kept my mileage up over the holidays. I did eat too much though and gained a few pounds but that just slowed my climbing down.
With The Hoodoo 500 coming up in August I figured I better stay in base mile shape most of the year.

I started off the year with a nice ride on the 4th up in the San Gabriel Mountains with friends. My friend Ken organized a ride up on Hwy 39 and to Glendora Mountain Road from our usual meeting place at Encanto Park in Duarte. We all had a great time.

Bob and Teresa on Hwy 39

Getting ready to head down the hill to meet up with the others on Glendora Mountain Road.

I took this video with my new GoPro camera that I got from Santa. My friend Teresa bombing down the middle section of Glendora Mountain Road. Teresa used to race mountain bikes and is a very good bike handler. This was an e-ticket tide!!!

January 11th: Dawson Saddle
 Ken organized another ride. This one up to Crystal Lake and Dawson Saddle. Close to 10,000 feet of climbing in just over 70 miles and up to one of the highest places on the Angeles Crest Hwy.....Dawson Saddle. Just under 8,000 feet in elevation.
I asked Teresa if she wanted to do it on my tandem bike since we had been talking about doing the Adobo Velo, Tour De Francis century on the 18th. We both thought it would be good training for that ride since it had 10,000 feet of elevation gain in it. This would also be good training for the Mulholland Double in the spring which we hoped to do tandem style.
We didn't tell anyone we were doing the ride on the tandem and just surprised everyone. Ken and a few others left early and we caught up to them in Crystal Lake. Ken, Terri and Teresa were my support crew on the Inyo Ultra 466. It was great to all be back together.

My awesome support crew from the 466

Descending the road out of Crystal Lake

Teresa and I climbing to Dawson on 39

We did it. 39 miles straight up... on the tandem.....wheewwww!!! And of course....the traditional....hold the bike over your head at a summit....Pose.

After doing that climb, I thought it would be much easier doing the Tour De Francis. There are breaks between the climbs. The one to Dawson was all up at once and that was tough on a tandem bike.

We just flew down the hill and back to the park. A great day on the bike!!
Here is our ride data for the day:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/428382666

January 18th: Tour De Francis....Adobo Velo Club event.

This is the first time I have done the Tour De Francis. As a new member of the club, I was excited. This club event is considered to be one of their toughest. Whether it is the winter or summer edition you better know it will be tough and have allot of climbing.
As part of my training on the tandem with Teresa, we wanted to do some real tough tandem rides in training for my "bucket list" ride on the tandem......The Mulholland Double. Mulholland has 16,400 feet of climbing so it is one tough puppy on a tandem. We will conquer it!!!!! (with the right training of course)
Dawson Saddle and Tour De Francis were training rides for Mulholland!!

Climbing above Lake Castaic at the start

We started the ride a little before 7am for the long climb to the Leona Valley and first check point at Lake Elisabeth.

Climbing Lake Hughs road at sunrise

John and Malinda Clare took care of us at Elizabeth Lake

Large moose sighting

Teresa and friends

We made good time to the lunch stop at Quail Lake. The late starting real fast climbers started catching us about there. Thy made up the 45 minutes on us in about 50 miles.

Teresa with TJ and Kevin

We had a nice ride back with some real great climbing. The majority of the climbing was in the first 50 miles so we did not have to gain quite as much on the return.

 Climbing Pine Canyon on the return. You can see the road we came up off to the left.
There were some real grunts though especially with about 10  miles to go and a final climb to the finish that was about 12%.
Kevin Walsh rode with us much of the way back and stayed behind us on the blazing descent back to Castaic Lake.

Kevin rolling ahead of us.

 The descent back to Castaic Lake and over the steep kicker hill in the middle of the descent.    Notice Teresa's comment about being in cardiac arrest. We were really hammering the little hill at the end of the descent to keep up with Kevin!

Click Here for the video of the lower fast drop to the lake.

Grunting up the final 12% grade up to the park above the lake and a great picnic put on by Adobo Velo

 Here is the ride data for the day:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/432075289

January 25th:
I rode from home to meet up with "The Mulholland Prelude" by Planet Ultra and join some of my friends doing it for some of the ride. I did about 74 miles of it with almost 9,000 feet of elevation gain. Another great weekend training ride for early season base miles. Here are some pics from that ride.

Super Climber Karen Johnson on Mulholland Hwy

Video of Karen and Debbie finishing off Mulholland Hwy

Super Climbers Rick Jacobson and Debbie Pearl on PCH with Leo Carillo State Beach in the background

The 17% lower Decker Canyon wall. Karen, Debbie and Rick grinding up!

Debbie still looking happy on Stunt Road

I dropped down Stunt Road and headed home while the rest went on over to Piuma Road and down to Mulholland to return to the finish in Agoura Hills. A great and fun day on the bike with friends.

The ride data for the day:    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/435614634


January 31st: The Camino Real Double Century....."Recon Ride".

I again this year decided to staff the Camino Real Double Century. This would be my 119th Triple Crown Double Century.
Teresa was going to do the event, with my good friend Roland, on his tandem bike but Roland had to cancel.
Teresa expressed interest in doing it on the tandem with me on a staff ride and staffing the ride with me. She loves riding a tandem bike and I...of course....said yes and the plans were made.
We worked out a day to do a recon ride of the course a couple of weeks prior to event day. We would then send the info of our findings to Planet Ultra so they know how the course conditions are.
We were going to do the event "Self Supported" meaning that we would not be relying on rest stops with all the goodies and water. We would have to take care of all that ourselves. This is not an issue on a course like this which is not too rural. It is only an issue on an event where there are no places to stop for food or water.

The Camino Real goes from Irvine to Oceanside along the coast. It then goes inland for a little loop around Bonsall and the Fallbrook area before heading back to Oceanside for the return north. We then head back through San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Ranch Santa Margarita and Trabuco Canyon. Up next is a long climb out of the canyon and descent down to Santiago Canyon where we climb north before a nice downhill descent back to Irvine.

The morning started off with some rain. It took us a little while to get to the start location due to some freeway closures but we started rolling a little before 5:30am.
Our friends Colin and Julie rode from home to meet us. They had some pretty good rain on their way over.

Right to left: Colin and Julie Stokes

Off we go

We rolled through Irvine and Newport Beach before heading to the coast for a ride up Laguna Canyon.

Heading up Pacific Coast Hwy

Heading up Laguna Canyon, we meandered through the hills and back to the coast before heading into Dana Point Harbor.

Dana Point Harbor

In Dana Point Dave Elsberry joined us. He rode from home. He lives in Vista which is in San Diego County to join us.

Dave is a two time finisher,  of RAAM (Race Across America). One of the top finishers in the 60 plus category.  A very strong rider.

Left to right: Dave, Julie, Teresa and Colin in San Onofre

We rolled down the coast to Oceanside on a beautiful morning.

While riding on the very large and safe freeway shoulder I came apon a very nasty, bad, piece of asphault on a bridge. At high speed, I instinctively tried to jump the wheels over it, forgetting I was on my tandem bike. Teresa's head hit me in the back and we had a comical moment until the OH....Sh*%!#t moment where my front tire instantly went flat at 25mph with semi trucks passing me on my left at 70mph!!
We fixed it and headed back out for an uneventful roll into Oceanside.

Now came the nice part of the ride.

From Oceanside we headed through Bonsall and Fallbrook.

Dave with Julie and Colin in tow

We rolled through the hills with avocados and citrus. It was really great. 

We had a great descent on the tandem bike down old Hwy 395 from what we call "Rainbow Bridge".

It was a gas!!!

Tandem descent Here

We then heading back to the coast for some headwinds on the return.

Colin Stokes (The Wyvern). Colin won his division in RAW , Race Across The West, last year

We headed back to Intersate 5 again. We flew up to the offramp this time for an exit at Las Pulgas road. We then went back on the bike path to San Onofre.

Here is the video of us heading trough the tunnel and to the ocean side of the freeway chasing down our friends.

We rolled back to San Clemente where where Julie and Colin stopped for something to eat. We said our goodbyes after taking a short break. They headed on home and we headed into the Friday afternoon traffic for some climbing to Rancho Santa Margarita, through Trabuco Canyon and Santiago Canyon.
We had one more flat along the way while it was getting cold. It was a tough one to fix and took me awhile to fix. I am glad I had my stoker along for the support because I was getting frustrated and cold. Tourettes syndrome was setting up and she reeled me back in.

Not a happy camper

Teresa's friend Evan came out to watch over us for the rest of the ride after sunset.
He had a floor pump which really helped after the flat tire.

Home stretch......as we rolled through the canyons after dark to the finish in Irvine.

Sunset on Antonio Parkway

Blazing down Santiago Canyon Road at about 30mph.

We got finished at about 8:45pm.

Our ride time on the bike was 12hrs 27 minutes.
Overall time was not good since there were so many traffic lights, the flat tires and many other stops.

Here is the GPS data on our ride from Garmin Connect

Here are my ride stats for the month of January. All that climbing on the tandem was a tough one.

Count:	17 Activities
Distance:	828.10 mi
Time:	57:57:43 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	67,753 ft
Avg Speed:	14.3 mph
Avg HR:	142 bpm
Calories:	30,755 C