# Devil Mountain Double 2011



## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Who is riding? I'll be there with ukbloke - if you see us, say hi!

I've managed to get in a few good training rides and am feeling fairly confident of a 16 hour time. But it's my first double and first DMD so who knows! My biggest concern is having enough clothing to stay warm in the morning and evening temps but not overheat on Mines and Hamilton.

The weather is looking great with temps in the high 40s to mid 70s, wind max 14 mph.

Post your predictions, strategies, stories and pics here...

Edit: I'll be easy to spot in my RBR kit!


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

Wow, that's some first double. The claimed 18K ft of climbing is a pre GPS measurement. A GPS would measure a lot more. You better eat your Wheaties.

Me, I'm going longer and flatter (Davis BC 400 K). Davis - Fairfield - Napa - Calistoga - Healdsburg - Lake Sonoma and back. A great course through the Wine Country, but it looks like headwinds for the first half. Looking at 22 hours. I hope my MagicShine doesn't fail me.

My advice: start slow and taper off.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

robwh9 said:


> Wow, that's some first double. The claimed 18K ft of climbing is a pre GPS measurement. A GPS would measure a lot more. You better eat your Wheaties.


Oh yes.. I'm eating several bowls of Wheaties a day right now. It's ambitious, but overcoming challenges is half the fun!



robwh9 said:


> Me, I'm going longer and flatter (Davis BC 400 K). Davis - Fairfield - Napa - Calistoga - Healdsburg - Lake Sonoma and back. A great course through the Wine Country, but it looks like headwinds for the first half. Looking at 22 hours. I hope my MagicShine doesn't fail me.


I did a 100 mile mountain bike ride last year in 21.5 hrs (midnight to 9:30pm) - MagicShines lasted the whole way. 

400 K is huge!



robwh9 said:


> My advice: start slow and taper off.


Yes.. that's the plan in a nutshell  Oh, and eat.. all the time!


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

ratpick said:


> I did a 100 mile mountain bike ride last year in 21.5 hrs (midnight to 9:30pm) - MagicShines lasted the whole way.


Was that the Henry Coe ride with TahoeBC that was posted on mtbr NorCal? That ride was epic.

I'm hoping that two MagicShine batteries on medium will last me 8 hours. I'll bring a Cateye 4xAA LED light for backup.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

robwh9 said:


> Was that the Henry Coe ride with TahoeBC that was posted on mtbr NorCal? That ride was epic.


No, it was a little more epic than TahoeBC's ride, even..





(it was actually over 20K - my Garmin froze for part of the climb and I didn't realize).

Long recap <A HREF="http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=7507675">here</A>.



robwh9 said:


> I'm hoping that two MagicShine batteries on medium will last me 8 hours. I'll bring a Cateye 4xAA LED light for backup.


Easily, unless you have a bad battery. I had two MSs on that ride but plymmer had just one (with the newer battery) and it lasted right through both the start and end night rides. Use the lowest power setting you can get away with.


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

This was the post I was thinking of. If you can do that I don't think you'll have any problems with the DMD.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=660250&highlight=ratpick


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

robwh9 said:


> This was the post I was thinking of. If you can do that I don't think you'll have any problems with the DMD.
> 
> https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=660250&highlight=ratpick


Oh, yeah, that's the one.. TahoeBC wasn't on it though (thus the confusion) - I think he had to paint his toenails or something like that!

We actually did this ride twice - the first time we failed to finish and only got 80 miles done. With much training and an earlier start time, we got it done the second time.

This is me (in the middle) at the end of that ride.. I full expect to feel just as zombie-ish at the end of DMD!

<IMG SRC="https://californication.mtbguru.com/pics/HardCOEre100b/CIMG2378.JPG">


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## Tort (Nov 4, 2008)

I had 2 friends ride the DMD last year, they did about 21k vertical. That is a serious double for your first. 

If I remember right the organizers will have a DMD bag available at whatever rest stop you chose to stow some of your gear, lights-clothing ect. and will forward it to your rest stop of choice to gather up later in the ride. Saves having to haul the lights and jacket when you don't need them.


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## vontress (Jul 19, 2009)

I did my first double last year and if you finish after dark, as I did, you may very well want some gear back. When you extremely tired and uncomfortable, it's no time to add cold. Keep at least leg and arm warmers with you. You can always pick up a stray bag or paper to tuck under your jersey for Long cold decents. I think the hardest part in riding that long is hydration and food. When I'm tired I tend to lose track. Know how many calories minimum you need at each stop. Even if you can't eat them you can put calories in a drink or stuff in your jersey. Good luck. I've got a couple more on my calendar too.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

Good luck, guys. :thumbsup: Wish I was up to joining you.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Done.. we had a successful ride in that we finished and came in under our target of 16 hours (official time will be around 15:45 hrs). Great course, very well organized, great group of riders.. quite an event!

I'll writeup the ride here later, as a reference for those considering tackling it in the future.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Mission accomplished! 12 hours of sleep - that's a new PR for me. I was aiming for 9, so getting to the half-day mark was a big accomplishment. I thought about trying for 15 hours and 45 minutes, but just couldn't make it.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> Mission accomplished! 12 hours of sleep - that's a new PR for me. I was aiming for 9, so getting to the half-day mark was a big accomplishment. I thought about trying for 15 hours and 45 minutes, but just couldn't make it.


No 7am wake up? 

Weirdly, I was up at 7am. But then I had to go and get more ice for the keg for the MTBR BBQ today and beer is important!


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## chidonchea (Jul 14, 2008)

Here is my 9 1/2 minute video of the ride.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

ratpick said:


> No 7am wake up?


Thankfully the 7am wake-up call didn't happen. ukgirl slept in until almost 8am and then kept herself entertained for a while. She woke me up to make her breakfast and find some toys for her, but otherwise I was able to sleep in until 11:30am. Unprecedented!



> Weirdly, I was up at 7am. But then I had to go and get more ice for the keg for the MTBR BBQ today and beer is important!


My celebratory beers had to wait until last night. Probably a good thing - it took me about 24 hours to rehydrate and start feeling normal again.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

chidonchea said:


> Here is my 9 1/2 minute video of the ride.


Nice job with the video! I can show it to my family so that can see what I was up to all day Saturday. I thought about bringing my helmet camera too, primarily to shoot the descents but decided not to at the last minute.


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## pmarshall (Jul 18, 2010)

ratpick said:


> Done.. we had a successful ride in that we finished and came in under our target of 16 hours (official time will be around 15:45 hrs). Great course, very well organized, great group of riders.. quite an event!
> 
> I'll writeup the ride here later, as a reference for those considering tacking it in the future.
> 
> ...


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## RedRex (Oct 24, 2004)

congrats, a formidable opponent for sure. I'm a three-time DMD finisher and I can tell you that is one hard day on a bike. Missed it this year but plan to be back, my favorite double of them all.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

chidonchea said:


> Here is my 9 1/2 minute video of the ride.


Just watched this and relived the ride.. thanks for taking it! Over 9 mins but I was wishing it was longer 

I've heard Palomares after dark can be rather exciting - we were lucky to get through just before sunset although I feel like we missed out on part of the ride


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Here's my version of the ride. My data is slightly different to ratpick's. I use an Edge 500 and the elevation gain for mine came out a little less. The mileage came out more though - I'm using the GSC-10 for distance (wheel revolutions times wheel circumference). My wheel circumference calibration might be slightly off, though it is hard to know which is the more accurate approach - the GPS data literally cuts corners (usually to a very small degree but it all adds up).

Maybe I'll write something else more interesting about the ride later.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

pmarshall said:


> Nice work!!! And you got the keg for the next day too? Jeez you are truly not human.


Thanks! All the keg running around was done on Friday - I just put it on ice and hoped that the ice would last through Saturday since I couldn't babysit it 

Pleased to have passed my test of manhood!


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

*Devil Mountain Double Recap*

Warning - This is long! I learned a great deal from reading the reports from other riders so I thought I'd contribute my own to the internet machine and maybe help out future riders.

My first double century in the bag! So much anticipation with lots of "damn that was hard" ride reports out there, and the Quackcyclists capital-letter warning, "THIS SHOULD NOT BE YOUR FIRST DOUBLE" and, of course, the sobering thought that Tom Milton, an experienced long-distance rider, died on the course last year.

Meh, I thought, challenge is my middle name! I was considerably more comfortable when ukbloke also signed up. I know from experience that long, suffering rides like this are so much better as a shared experience. Ukbloke, with whom I'd done the Death Ride in 2009 is much stronger than me, but I was better prepared for a long-distance ride so it was good match for this ride.

*Training*

I've done some big rides before - 156 mi solo and unsupported on the road bike and my biggest ride to date, a 100 mile 21:30 hr Henry Coe mountain bike epic. But this was a different challenge altogether. Most of the climbs I was not familiar with at all. So I did several long training rides either for distance or cumulative climbing. I think both are important - you need to be comfortable with your bike fit to sit for 14-16 hours on it, and you need to be able to climb repeated long, steep climbs all day. I also managed to do training rides that took me over all of the course except the last 15 miles. So I felt well prepared.

*Preparation*

With a 2:30am alarm, I managed to get about 4 hour sleep after mandatory watching of the Sharks game the night before. But it was good sleep, unlike the previous night where anticipation of the ride made me restless all night! I love driving Bay Area freeways late at night when they are almost deserted - on this night, roadworks caused a significant unplanned detour but I had left plenty of time so it wasn't an issue.

I checked in and received my number and route instructions. The DMD spends a lot of effort on rider safety, requiring check ins by number at every rest stop where they radio it back and make sure everyone is ok. Really, really impressed by this. It also, presumably, stops people cheating and taking shortcuts since it is a timed ride.

The start weather was warmer than forecast - about 55°. So of course I had doubts about whether to take a heavier jacket or not. I decided to take it, not knowing how cold the tops of the peaks would be. Good call in the end. I was also outfitted with a MagicShine light on my bars, as well as a light, cheap Knog 2-LED light as a backup and a blinky. The MagicShine battery is relatively heavy but I figured its light would be perfect if we end up descending Palomares in the dark. I'd taken it on my training rides to get used to the weight and presence of it on the bars and found the battery, normally strapped under my top tube, to be annoying on bumpy roads. So this time, I used an extension cord and ran it to my saddle pack which worked really well.

I found ukbloke in the parking lot and we joined the other 200 riders at the start. The majority started with us at 5am with an elite group of around 20 starting at 6am.

*Riding Out* - 5:03 am

After the mandatory safety talk and 30 sec silence in memory of Tom Milton who died on the ride last year, we rode out on a mass start at 5am. Immediately the plan of "start slow and taper off" was forgotten as the pack sprinted towards Diablo! Winds were high but in the middle of the "peloton", it was easy riding so we went with it. I was surprised to see folks putting out so much effort right at the start of the ride; there were clearly some very strong, experienced double century riders here.

Diablo climb was easy; we set a comfortable, but not slow, pace, battling the strong winds but in awe of the sunrise. I was a little worried we would end up chasing the very fast climbers, but we settled into our own comfortable pace. A cloudless, clear day, we could see all the way across the bay to home on the peninsula. Only my 3rd climb of Diablo but the first time I had seen the breathtaking views.

We passed a guy who had written "eat" and "drink" on his bars. I complimented him on the idea - it's so easy to forget, especially at the start when you're feeling good. I immediately ate some of the food I had brought with me  I also ran into Tom from Western Wheelers, whom I had heard was on this ride. Although we rarely rode 
together, we always seemed to catch up with eachother somewhere along the route, right to the final rest stop.

A rider with a heavy-looking commuter bike, complete with rack and a bag that made it look like he was trying to be self-sufficient for the ride, passed us. It was a bit too much for us considering all the angst about what to take and what not to take to keep weight down for such a long ride! So we jumped on his tail and got a bit of shelter from the wind.

And the wind was really blowing as the sky lit up. I heard later that someone was actually blown off their bike! 

About a mile from the summit, the first descender passed us. Wow, we weren't that far behind the leader! We only counted about 15 ahead of us before the road split. We guessed we were about 20th place.

As we neared the summit, the guy with the heavy bike seemed to tire and we went ahead to attack the final wall. People moan about the wall but it's not that bad - about 17% for 500 or so feet. And there were volunteers with cow bells cheering us up - how could we not feel good?

*Mt Diablo Summit* - 6:51am, 20 mi, 1:48 hrs

So, first climb done in a respectable 1:11:37, just under 4K footies and 20 miles in the bag and feeling great. It was warm at the start but very chilly up at the summit so I was finally glad I had taken the weight penalty of a heavy jacket and full-finger gloves. I was also carrying normal gloves and a light wind shell for later so was quite heavy on the first two climbs.

I felt sorry for the volunteers up at the summit - very windy and very cold. But the food was very good - the potatoes they provided were the best I've had - boiled (I think) with oil, some herbs and, I suspect, some salt and sugar. These became my favorite rest stop snacks all day. I had sucked down all my starting Perpetuem + Heed mix knowing that they had Hammer products at the stops. I filled one bottle with water and the other 2 scoops of Latte-flavored Perpetuem + water as I did at every future stop. Without extra Heed, I worried a bit about electrolyte replenishment but never had a problem all day (I did take 2 endurolytes later just as a precaution when it got warm).

We spent about 12 minutes at the top, although it didn't seem that long. Time for the bathroom, water bottle refills and eating some food. A large pack of riders arrived about 7-8 minutes after us and the rest stop suddenly got quite full; we decided to try and stay ahead of this group to avoid long lines at rest stops down the road.

Dry roads meant a fast descent, although the gusty wind did require caution. Not half a mile from the summit, we passed a woman who got an ominous clicking noise from her rear wheel (sounded like a broken spoke to me) then bang, her tire deflated. At least she was only a 5 minute walk back to the summit to have someone take care of it. 

As we descended, some motorcycles accompanied a peleton up the climb - these were the 6am starters, the very fast group that aimed to finish in the 12-14 hour range. They looked serious! I wondered how long it would be until they passed us.

The descent otherwise went quickly. Everyone was taking it very slowly on the descent but I was feeling great and conditions were good, so I let it fly. I was still very cautious passing others, not wanting to ruin anyone's day with an early crash! ukbloke took a pull as the road flattened out and soon we were climbing Ygnacio Valley Rd.

We began to play leapfrog with some other riders from here; mostly they seemed to push the smaller climbs while we caught and passed them on the descents and longer climbs. It was fun to catch and greet the same folks throughout the day.

Riding through the small but quaint town of Clayton, the route was blocked, or at least disrupted, by the setup of a farmers' market. It was here I was glad that I had pre-ridden and realized that there was an easy bypass. I saw other riders wondering around not sure where to go where we didn't lose a second!

*Morgan Territory climb* - 8:10am, 43 mi, 3:00 hours

I had set the course into my Garmin with an average speed of 14 mph which was what we figured it would take to get us in around 16 hours (14 hrs riding, 2 hrs stops). So we watched our average speed to see how we were doing. By the time we turned onto Morgan Territory Rd, our average was at about 14.5 mph. With breaks, this put us pleasingly right on schedule.

Morgan Territory Rd starts out double-laned, with more traffic than you would expect for such a road. Again, I was glad for my pre-ride so I knew what to expect; a long (9 mile) climb with steadily increasing grade, some steep parts at the end, but always short. I knew we could push these climbs since each came with a recovery landing. We covered the climb to Rest Stop #2 in 45:19 mins, 3 mins faster than when I had done it solo the week before!

On the way up, we were passed by a couple of riders both of whom we caught up to and passed without accelerating ourselves. The climbing felt really good. It was still cool and I began to wonder if it would be too cool to ditch my jacket at the rest stop. DMD provides an excellent service to bag your lights and cold weather gear and send them onto a later rest stop. It was one of my concerns that we wouldn't make the Sierra Rd "Pet the goat" rest stop by sunset and I'd have no light and no warm gear.

*Morgan Territory Rest Stop* - 8:55am, 52 mi, 3:45 hrs

So, we pulled into the rest stop, hit the restrooms, and refilled bottles. I took off my heavy light and decided to strip my jacket off and see how it felt. With my light wind shell on it actually was plenty warm, even if very windy, so they all went in a bag and were sent forward to Pet-the-Goat.

Somehow, we spent another 12 minutes at this stop (it really felt like we were rushing!), which probably explains why so many riders we passed on the climbs ended up back in front of us. Still, taking time to eat was important and paid off.

A little more climbing to the summit then the famous "Plunge" off Morgan Territory. Unfortunately there were quite a few cars coming up and worse, a large pickup going down. Fortunately, the pickup driver was careful and willing to let us cyclists pass; ukbloke got ahead fairly quickly and disappeared down The Plunge out of sight. 

About 3-4 mins later, I got my opportunity and also let fly.

When I pre-rode this part of the course, the wind was a headwind which made getting speed difficult. On this day, it was favorable or cross, so speed came easily. And I found out why folks rave about this descent. I managed to hit over 50 mph without realizing it! Quite a thrilling descent. From when I passed the truck I averaged 34.3 mph for 5 mins. Tons of fun!

The next section is a series of 90° turns heading over towards the base of Altamont Pass. The wind was blowing hard here, from a strong cross wind to an awesome tailwind. UKbloke had the legs and flat riding skills to push the pace on the cross-wind sections but it was taking more energy than I wanted to use to keep up so I dropped. 

Ukbloke saw that and dropped back, keeping our pact to ride together (which I would later inadvertently break!). He pushed us up to over 30 mph on the downwind sections so by the time we rolled into town to begin the Altamont Pass ascent, our average was at 15 mph. We were making excellent time.

*Altamont Pass* - 9:43 am, 65 mi, 4:20 hrs

Traffic lights bunched us up with other DMD riders so we had a 6-7 rider paceline headed up to Altamont Pass. Ukbloke led out, with some other riders jumping in front to share the pull. Unusually, the wind was in our face over Altamont making it a harder climb, but giving me much hope that Patterson Pass would be without the usual headwind challenge. About half-way up Altamont, something happened up front and the brakes were used; there was quite a lot of dodging and weaving but nobody went down - well done all.

Near the summit, I jumped in front of ukbloke and pulled us over the top then down the other side to Midway Rd. With a strong tailwind, Altamont had taken me just over 20 minutes on my pre-ride, but over 30 minutes today. 

Nevertheless, I was excited, now sure that we would have a good tailwind up Patterson Pass. It had worried me that this pass would zap our strength for the climb up Mines Rd.

With a tailwind, we completed the Patterson Pass climb in 32 minutes, 5 minutes quicker than my wind-blown pre-ride time. On the climb up, we were joined by a rider named Jeffrey who was rider #1. We chatted with him a bit and it turned out he received #1 as an honor from the club for assisting with CPR on Tom Milton, the rider who died on Mt Hamilton last year. Dude is a hero - really nice guy, very strong rider, and we would meet up with him often from then on. 

DMD had a mini-stop just below the final mile to the summit. It felt wrong to interrupt a climb but we didn't want to leave ourselves short of water or food so made a brief 3 min stop to refill. It was here that the majority of the fast 6am pack passed us. We tried to stay out of their way - these guys were on a mission! I felt good to have stayed out in front of them this long, but ukbloke pointed out that they had already taken an hour off us in just over 5 hours of riding - sobering!

At this rest stop there were some figs. Seemed like good riding fuel so I ate a few. Tasted good. But 10 minutes later, my stomach started to get upset. I switched to just water until the next rest stop and it went away - had me worried for a while!

We pushed to the summit, enjoying the scenery then ripped down the descent. It helped to know the course because here we were intersecting with a road bike race that shared some of the roads. They had marshalls all over waving cyclists to their course which wasn't always our course. The nice part was that they stopped any cars at intersections so we were able to blast through safely.

*Mines Rd* - 11:24am, 91 mi, 6 hrs

I figured it was time for me to take a pull at the front so I pulled us through to Mines Rd. On Mines Rd, we relaxed for the first 4 miles until the rest stop, getting ourselves into climbing mode again. We spent only 6 minutes at this rest stop, eating and refilling bottles. It was 25 miles to The Junction and lunch, but there was a mini-stop mid-way.

Mines Rd is somewhat deceptive - it has long periods of flat or almost flat (1-2%) which lull you into riding faster than you should. It climbs from 667' to just under 3,000' with a couple of steep sections. We took our time up the first steep part so that when it flattened out then made some time back on the flatter sections. The whole climb to The Junction took us about 1:41 hrs, only about 4 mins slower than my pre-ride where I thought we had hammered it!

Fairly early we started passing Mt Hamilton Challenge riders coming the other way so I had my eyes open for Don and some others I know were on that ride. I was pleased to eventually see him and hours of anticipation went by in half a second as we waved to each other!

*Lunch at The Junction* - 1:16pm, 115 mi, 7:40 hrs

We had planned to take a good lunch stop at The Junction. We had maintained our average speed at just over 15 mph so had plenty of time to eat real food and relax a little. I took my one and only photo here having not had any time at other rest stops. I did regret not having my camera, even if it did mean extra weight.










The wonderful volunteers were making sandwiches or we could order from The Junction. I chose a terryaki chicken burger from The Junction and it was worth it. Perfect for what was to come. I also downed a Mountain Dew, having experienced its magic recovery powers on recent rides.

Actually, at this point I was beginning to wonder how it could be that I felt so good. No tiredness or pain in my legs at all. I put it down to all the training, eating just the right amount, and taking it easy on all the climbs.

We spent 32 mins there before heading off to Isabel Creek and Mt Hamilton. The 13 miles between The Junction and Isabel Creek are very scenic, with large green meadows, streams and ponds and farm houses. Unfortunately wildflowers weren't plentiful as they would normally be about this time of year - it has been a strange year for flowers.

So we rode along at a comfortable pace, making sure to keep about 15 mph to keep our average up, but again taking it easy on the 2 climbs just before Mt Hamilton began. 

*Isabel Creek* - 2:40pm, 128 mi, 8:31 hrs

The rest stop was on the west side of the bridge, which was a bit annoying because it meant that the Strava segment would have "rest time" in it. I briefly toyed with going back over the bridge before beginning the climb, but then got my priorities back in order! The last thing I needed was a reason to not pace up the climb!

The climb starts almost immediately, but we took it really slowly. We still passed a few other climbers. I had so much energy at this point that I wanted to just go! I'd never felt so good 120 miles into a ride! UKbloke was doing a much better job of pacing himself which helped me to reign in my desire to push.

The nice part about taking a climb easily is that you have time to look around. The bridge over Isabel Creek remains in view up much of the climb, giving you a great reference for how far you've gone. There are some really great views of the road from above, snaking up the ridge. 

*Mt Hamilton Summit* - 3:30pm, 133 mi, 9:18 hrs

We completed the climb in a respectable 47:30 mins, just 5 mins off my pace from 3 days earlier. Not bad and I was still feeling good at the top. I began to think this ride could end up being "easy" given we only had one big climb to go. But my struggles were to come!

Water refill at the summit and ukbloke led the way down. He is an excellent descender and we made great time down the mountain to the rest stop near the bottom. This descent was when I began to feel a bit sore (being tucked into the drops for long periods hurts my back - need to work on this). With ukbloke's lead, I had set a new PR for the Mt Hamilton descent segments!

At the Crothers Rd rest stop, someone's home that they open up for this event each year, I began to start feeling some pain. My upper back was sore and my feet began to hurt. For the first time, my legs began to feel used from the jarring descent and accumulated miles and footies. But I resisted taking vitamin-I since it wasn't that bad yet and we had some further easy descending and flats before Sierra Rd.

*Sierra Rd* - 4:45pm, 156 mi, 10:29 hrs

We traversed the streets to Sierra Rd somewhat leisurely. I took a pull into the wind since ukbloke had done all the work down the mountain (and it was work into the wind at the bottom).

We turned onto Sierra Rd. I admit I was quite excited about this climb. It is the real test of this ride, being so steep and coming after so many miles and so much climbing. I was feeling good and wanted to attack it. Ukbloke even taunted me to do that, jokingly. But I kept it slow. we were joined on the climb by a few other DMD riders and what I didn't realize was that one had attached to my wheel. I thought it was ukbloke and that he was feeling good so I lifted the pace just a little. He stayed with me so I maintained it. It was a good 5-10 mins later when I turned to say something to him and realized that I'd dropped him! I felt bad, but decided to press on and regroup at the top. So, I caught back up to the other "fake ukbloke" and marked him up the rest of the climb at a good pace. At the last half mile, I saw him start to suffer so without even thinking, I dropped the hammer and rode to the top. Just under 37 mins for the climb - I was elated! Only 6 mins slower than my PR!

*Pet-The-Goat Rest Stop* - 5:38pm, 161 mi, 11:12 hrs

I continued on down the other side almost euphoric to the "Pet the goat" rest stop. I had to collect my jacket and light and refit it to my bike so I figured it might actually work out well that I got ahead of ukbloke (he had not dropped anything off).

I got my bottles refilled, retrieved my bag and fitted my light back on the bike. I was still quite hot from the climb and not relishing having to wear a heavy, warm jacket. So I sat in a comfy chair to cool down. That was when I realized that something was wrong. When I push really, really hard on a climb, my body can get to a point where I can't eat and that's what I was feeling. This was bad news because there was still 44 miles to go with some small but not insignificant climbs to come. I needed more fuel!

Ukbloke arrived a few minutes later and congratulated me on my climb. I apologized for abandoning him, against our plan. I still felt bad about that, especially since he had slowed deliberately when I fell back earlier in the ride. UKbloke pet the goat while I sat and panicked about not being able to eat. I thought about forcing something down but even the thought made me want to gag! I settled for a Mountain Dew which actually went down reasonably easily. Yay for sugary sodas!

I realized as I was fitting my light that I hadn't recharged my Garmin at all yet. I had thrown an external battery in my saddle pack to make sure that I would capture the whole ride but forgotten to charge the Garmin at rest stops (I had intended to do this at lunch). So I attached the battery and threw it and the Garmin into my jersey pocket for the whole Calaveras segment.

We were only at Pet-the-Goat for 13 minutes, but it felt like half an hour. Rolling out just before 6pm, the sun was still high and I began to feel good that we would complete Niles Canyon and Palomares in daylight.

Starting down Felter Rd, the temperature suddenly dropped leaving me very happy that I had my jacket. Apart from not being able to eat, my body was otherwise feeling good so we kept a good pace up down Felter and then Calaveras.

We caught up to the guy I had paced up Sierra Rd and a very strong woman rider on Calaveras. They were strong on the rolling climbs but slow on the descending and cornering which might have annoyed me at another time. I was happy this day as it gave me some recovery time to ride easily. I let them get a little ahead on the climbs then caught them in the descents - perfect! I began to feel quite hungry so knew that I was back in the game again.

We caught up to a rider with a Death Valley 508 jersey. He seemed a slow descender but I knew nobody wearing that jersey was a slow rider! Sure enough, once we hit the flat part of Calaveras, he took the lead and steamed to the Sunol rest stop at unbelievable speed; so grateful for that! Unfortunately, I couldn't find him at the stop to say thanks!

*Sunol Rest Stop* - 7pm, 181 mi, 12:14 hrs

I was very hungry at Sunol so had a hotdog and other food. We were thrilled because we reached this spot while the sun was still up. All the ride reports I had read said that Niles Canyon was unpleasant if not dangerous after dark. We would easily get it done in good daylight.

With the strong pull from the 508 rider, we had covered the 20 miles from Sierra Rd in an hour. I took my Garmin out, a little worried that I might have accidentally hit a button and stopped it from recording, but finding all in order and the battery back at about 2/3.

At Sunol, the Niles Canyon train has a station and there was a wedding reception party about to pull out. It looked like a great way to celebrate a wedding! The bride and groom arrived just as we began our descent.

I took the pull down Niles Canyon since I'd been in recovery mode on ukbloke's wheel the whole way down Calaveras. But I didn't have the legs to fight the wind at high speed. Our friend from Patterson Pass, Jeffrey #1, jumped in front of me at speed and I immediately jumped onto his wheel. He pulled us to Palomares at a new PR pace for me.

We thanked him as he took off up Palomares, and ukbloke and I climbed at our comfortable pace. Palomares is steep at first but then a very comfortable grade to its summit. Apparently it is quite interesting to ride in the dark with a lot of animal noises. I felt a little bad at missing out that well-documented part of this ride but still very happy that we would get the backside descent in the light.

I asked ukbloke to lead the descent rather than hold him up. He led us down and over the small rollers to the side streets next to I-580. It was now 8pm and daylight was just beginning to fade. Only another 12 miles to go!

We began our climb up Crow Canyon with light fading fast. I was feeling strong again, and with the better light thought it would be best to lead so jumped ahead of ukbloke. We made the turn onto Norris Canyon which would be our final climb of the day. Hard to believe it was nearly over!

Darkness descended upon us as we climbed the final hill. I hadn't pre-ridden this part of the course and my light could only see so far, so I didn't know what to expect. The climb was steep but not all that long. We didn't rush it and some other riders with small (or no) lights attached to us.

At the summit, I let out some kind of growl of success! 3-4 miles to the end, all downhill. I had a burst of energy and no there was no reason to hold back! With the strong light, I led the way down Norris Canyon and caught up to a few riders ahead who had to ride more slowly; lugging the heavy light finally paid off!

Although we weren't riding to compete, it occurred to me that the riders I saw up ahead were all places ahead of me and they were all catchable. I put everything into it, catching and passing them. Unfortunately we hit a red light on a major intersection and regrouped. I think everyone was ready to sprint, however - I got the jump and was the first to make the final turn. Sadly, I didn't know these roads and didn't know where the finish was so was passed trying to figure it out. Oh well, just a few places lost 

*Finish* - 8:45pm, 206 mi, 13:52 hrs

Ukbloke and I checked in at 8:45pm, 15:42 hours after the start. We did not miss any check ins at rest stops so we expect to be official finishers.

Good lesson for me on this ride on the benefits of pacing on doubles, even if I'm feeling good enough to push. I'm eager to reach for the CA Triple Crown now (3 doubles in a year). As my first double century, this was one of my biggest challenges to date and I'm very pleased to have pulled it off in a great time and with only one hiccup.

In the end, it was all about getting the jersey..
<IMG SRC="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_AAWYXSJV_TI/TcBzxeaEHeI/AAAAAAAAj6I/b3VSOz9uGfw/s800/photo.JPG">


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> Here's my version of the ride. My data is slightly different to ratpick's.


I saw yours was different.. weird considering we rode side-by-side for all but Sierra Rd!


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Wow, awesome job with the write-up! There's really nothing I can add to that. But I did manage to transcribe some of the Sierra Road coverage from my "inner Phil Liggett"!

PL: "Welcome everyone to our continuing coverage of the Devil Mountain Double 2011, by far the longest and hilliest of the Spring one-day classics. Earlier today we saw the formation of a two man group with ratpick and ukbloke from Team RBR. They've been over Mount Diablo. They've been over Morgan Territory. They've been over Altamont and Patterson. They've been over Mt Hamilton, the biggest of them all, and they're not done yet!"

PS: "Yes, Phil, and the parcours today reminds of a certain Tour De France stage up Mount Ventoux, only this one is longer and quite a bit hillier."

PL: "They've been working well together as a team, sharing the load, and taking turns to pull into some formidable headwinds. These conditions are not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. And now they approach the famous right-hand turn onto Sierra Road and face one of the most brutal three-and-a-half miles of climbing in all of professional bike racing!"

PS: "Yes, Phil, and in 2008 a certain Levi Leipheimer rode away from the peleton on the Tour of California to an unassailable lead, right here on these very slopes."

PL: "And it is a very select group of bike riders indeed working their way up these steeper grades, and this is most certainly where the fireworks will go off today. ratpick is stamping on those pedals with impunity, eeking out an advantage, pedal stroke by pedal stroke. Where is this man's strength coming from? But ukbloke is responding ... he's not quite done yet."

PS: "Yes, Phil,	and until recently he had a top 10 Strava time on this climb - that's only 50%	slower than a professional bike	rider!"

PL: "Well, we won't be seeing those kinds of times today, that's for sure! And as they approach the mid-section of the climb the gap is steadily increasing. It was one bike's length, then it was five, then ten. But now the elastic is well and truly broken! Yes, indeed, and ukbloke is going backwards! He dug deep into his suitcase of courage, and it was empty - he'd forgotten to pack his bags today. Earlier he was pedalling squares, well now he is pedalling triangles! He's done for the day, the lights have gone out and it is game over! ratpick takes the KOM points and a five minute advantage over the summit. And now here comes ukbloke, in dire need of some nutrition and Advil at the famous Pet-the-Goat feeding zone."


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

I have to say, that is awesome 

[Edited mine to fix some spelling/grammar errors.]


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## poff (Jul 21, 2007)

Do you guys even have jobs?


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

poff said:


> Do you guys even have jobs?


At the end of a contract as it happens.. want to hire us to write up your ride reports?


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

ratpick said:


> I have to say, that is awesome


Thanks! And no worries about dropping me on Sierra. I had alluded to that just before the climb, in jokey fashion, but I thought it likely since you'd been doing better on the climbs than me since Patterson. I had my purgatory on the climb, you had yours at the rest stop. It was curious how we were often out of phase with each other like that. It worked out well though - when one was feeling bad, the other would lead the way.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> Thanks! And no worries about dropping me on Sierra. I had alluded to that just before the climb, in jokey fashion, but I thought it likely since you'd been doing better on the climbs than me since Patterson. I had my purgatory on the climb, you had yours at the rest stop. It was curious how we were often out of phase with each other like that. It worked out well though - when one was feeling bad, the other would lead the way.


Yeah.. one reason why company is really good on these big rides 

And you reminded me of when I had some stomach problems after eating the figs on the Patterson Pass rest stop. Edited to add that in. I wonder what other details will come back!


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## bddbb (Dec 8, 2001)

Thanks for the great write ups and video. I was out there too and must have finished just ahead or behind ratpick and ukbloke. 
My purgatory came on Mt Hamilton. I probably didn't eat or rest enough at the lunch stop and paid for it near the top. Had a slow descent because my eyes couldn't focus on the road (very dangerous). Got to rest stop 5 and stayed there and recuperated for quite some time. Felt good going up Sierra and on Calaveras and ended up finishing strong just as darkness set in.
Now it's time to get ready for the Terrible Two.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

bddbb said:


> Now it's time to get ready for the Terrible Two.


Just signed up for Terrible Two as well.. maybe see you there!


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## RedRex (Oct 24, 2004)

The Terrible Two is all about the lunch cutoff time. I broke a chain once early-on and had to hammer a Shimano pin back in (quicklinks from then on) on a guardrail, so I ended up missing the cutoff and sagged from Ft. Ross aid station. Went back and redeemed myself.

Another hard ride for sure. It is common to give birth on either Skaggs Sprints or Ft. Ross. I once fell over climbing Ft. Ross when I popped a wheelie unexpectedly.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

You're making it sound awesome.. I'd better schedule some pre-rides!


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Any more photos? I'd like to copy this in to a Roadbikereview Featured Story.

fc


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

francois said:


> Any more photos? I'd like to copy this in to a Roadbikereview Featured Story.
> 
> fc


Sadly not from me. I really wanted to take my camera but my internal weight weenie won out and all I had was the iPhone. 

I won't make that mistake next time


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## RedRex (Oct 24, 2004)

ratpick said:


> Sadly not from me. I really wanted to take my camera but my internal weight weenie won out and all I had was the iPhone.
> 
> I won't make that mistake next time



on a double, there are far more important things to worry about than carrying a camera.


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## poff (Jul 21, 2007)

Yeah, I think that I will do TT as well. I did not get to ride much this spring due to work, rain, and 35+ days of skiing, so I am building up my strength. By the time of TT I should be OK after Seq. 200 and Alta Alpine. I have done 1st loop of TT a couple of times in the past. I hope it is not going to be 105F this year.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

RedRex said:


> on a double, there are far more important things to worry about than carrying a camera.


Yes, here are the very important things that I worried about:

Will I get to the start on time?
Have I got everything?
Did I remember to bring my shoes?
Am I going too fast?
Am I going too slow?
Can I do this?
My butt hurts
My feet hurt
Did I push start on the Garmin?
Can I take more Advil now?
Where's the next rest stop?
Can I spend more than 3 minutes at this rest stop?
If I sit down, will I be able to get back up again?
God, I hope I don't get dropped
When did I last pee?
Are we there yet?
Why am I doing this?
This is bloody stupid. Why did I sign up for this?
How can I be passing the same person for the 5'th time?
Are we there yet?
Why does my average speed keep going down?
Will this hill ever end?
How dark will it be on the last climb?
If I get a puncture now, I'm going to cry
My feet hurt
My butt hurts
Are we there yet?
(repeat ad nauseum for 200 miles)


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

RedRex said:


> on a double, there are far more important things to worry about than carrying a camera.


I guess I wasn't doing it right.. I thought "damn, should have brought a camera" at least once every 10 miles! It's probably the mountain biker in me.

But, then, if I had brought a camera, perhaps the extra weight would have been just enough to start ukbloke's cycle of other things to think about!


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

poff said:


> Yeah, I think that I will do TT as well. I did not get to ride much this spring due to work, rain, and 35+ days of skiing, so I am building up my strength. By the time of TT I should be OK after Seq. 200 and Alta Alpine. I have done 1st loop of TT a couple of times in the past. I hope it is not going to be 105F this year.


Hey Poff, I decided against Alta Alpina this year.. after DMD, I'm eager for a CTC jersey so going to do Terrible Two (with ElHombre) and very likely Mt Tam Double - conveniently, these are the three CTC stage race stages, so I'll have a result on that too, albeit hardly competitive!

Will save Alta Alpina and Climb to Kaiser for next year's suffering!


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## chidonchea (Jul 14, 2008)

Bring a camera. You get to say, "I would have finished the ride 4 hours faster without the camera."


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

chidonchea said:


> Bring a camera. You get to say, "I would have finished the ride 4 hours faster without the camera."


Bingo!

Hey, would you mind describing your setup? I was trying to figure out how you had the camera mounted, especially when you were able to swivel it around so easily (and steadily)?


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## chidonchea (Jul 14, 2008)

ratpick said:


> Bingo!
> 
> Hey, would you mind describing your setup? I was trying to figure out how you had the camera mounted, especially when you were able to swivel it around so easily (and steadily)?


 Thanks! Just got it a few weeks ago at Sea Otter. 
Gopro w/LCD back and the open back cover to record sound. Set at [email protected] It was all hand held. I used a small strap in case I hit a pot hole.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Preliminary results are up.. I came in 51st place with a time of 15:44 hrs.

12:02 hrs for the winner.. crazy!


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

That will do nicely! Being at the bottom of the top 25% is a common theme for me.

I see now that they round the times to minutes and aggregate the riders at the same "hours:minutes" which is a good approach. There wasn't so much need to worry about scrambling for a few seconds and positions at the very end!

The winning time is amazing, though if it was me I'd be rueing those couple of minutes though.


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## bddbb (Dec 8, 2001)

Good job ratpick and ukbloke! I was right behind you at 15:48.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

bddbb said:


> Good job ratpick and ukbloke! I was right behind you at 15:48.


Great job yourself!


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

bddbb - were you the guy sat on the road recovering near the top of the Mt Hamilton back-side climb? If so, great job getting it back together!

ratpick - I see that one can pick a team name for the final results. Should we go with "mtbr.com" per the Strava competition?


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> bddbb - were you the guy sat on the road recovering near the top of the Mt Hamilton back-side climb? If so, great job getting it back together!
> 
> ratpick - I see that one can pick a team name for the final results. Should we go with "mtbr.com" per the Strava competition?


Yes! Mtbr.com it is


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## bddbb (Dec 8, 2001)

ukbloke said:


> bddbb - were you the guy sat on the road recovering near the top of the Mt Hamilton back-side climb? If so, great job getting it back together!


No, that wasn't me. You guys probably passed me at the last rest stop. I took way too long getting out of there. I was there for a good 20 minutes or so. My ride time was 14:20, so all of my time was lost at the stops. I'm usually a splash and go guy, but the DMD kicked my butt! My hydration was okay, but my food intake was way too low.


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## chidonchea (Jul 14, 2008)

chidonchea said:


> Bring a camera. You get to say, "I would have finished the ride 4 hours faster without the camera."



Another reason to bring a camera: They don't have me on their preliminary results. I've emailed Scott about it. Waiting for the update. Maybe got DQ?


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## Fogdweller (Mar 26, 2004)

chidonchea said:


> Here is my 9 1/2 minute video of the ride.


Awesome job!! Thanks for posting the vid and including the mandated food shot at the end. Congrats on your double.


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## Watoni (Aug 14, 2006)

ratpick said:


> Warning -
> My first double century in the bag! So much anticipation with lots of "damn that was hard" ride reports out there, and the Quackcyclists capital-letter warning, "THIS SHOULD NOT BE YOUR FIRST DOUBLE" and, of course, the sobering thought that Tom Milton, an experienced long-distance rider, died on the course last year.
> 
> <IMG SRC="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_AAWYXSJV_TI/TcBzxeaEHeI/AAAAAAAAj6I/b3VSOz9uGfw/s800/photo.JPG">


Congrats! The jersey looks great on you. BTW, I am Jeff (#1 or not). Unfortunately my friend Vlad and another rider Marco were unable to ride this year. Marco was first on scene last year when Tom collapsed and Vlad knew Tom fairly well.

In any event, it was a tough year for me (I was intentionally hit by a car on a fast descent in December), so I was struggling for miles and fitness. The good news was that DMD was my first double in 2002, and I have ridden it a number of times so I felt good winging it. By the time you saw me at Sunol, I was just elated to be finishing and perhaps got over exuberant pulling ...

Man, I need to get as skinny as you guys are ... any notions of riding Central Coast or Terrible two?


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Watoni said:


> Man, I need to get as skinny as you guys are ... any notions of riding Central Coast or Terrible two?


Hey Jeff! Very impressed you did DMD with little preparation!

I'll be at Terrible Two. I failed to convince ukbloke that another double century is the appropriate followup to DMD although I will have more European company, ElHombre. I'm counting on his Flemish Boonen genes to pull me to the end of that one just as ukbloke's Cavendish genes got us through the sprint sections of DMD 

Have you done TT? How does it compare with DMD? The writeups of TT make it sound much steeper, even though there is overall less climbing.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Nah, you don't want to be as skinny as me! I have no reserves so I'm done if I go 30 minutes past a feed time. This reminds me about the gels on the ride. I took along a couple of GU gels just in case, but was disappointed not to see similar items to grab at the rest stops. It turns out that there were gel flasks at the beginning, and you could refill them from those big Hammer syrup jugs at every rest-stop. I completely missed that.

And as ratpick said, no more doubles for me, certainly not this year anyway.


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## Watoni (Aug 14, 2006)

ratpick said:


> Hey Jeff! Very impressed you did DMD with little preparation!
> 
> I'll be at Terrible Two. I failed to convince ukbloke that another double century is the appropriate followup to DMD although I will have more European company, ElHombre. I'm counting on his Flemish Boonen genes to pull me to the end of that one just as ukbloke's Cavendish genes got us through the sprint sections of DMD
> 
> Have you done TT? How does it compare with DMD? The writeups of TT make it sound much steeper, even though there is overall less climbing.


Terrible Two is a very different ride, in my experience. Everyone starts together (no early/late start groups as with DMD), so it is much more like a very disorganized race at the beginning. Also, it helps quite a bit to work with others from the base of Trinity to Geysers, and often huge pacelines get formed. 

I actually like the comparative serenity of DMD and rode almost entirely on my own other than pulling along Norris and then again from the bottom of the Palomares descent to the finish.

Anyway, it is nice to ride your own pace from Geysers on, since at that point it is lots of climbing. Many of the climbs are double-summit, so knowing them does help mentally. In terms of overall difficulty, opinions vary but DMD is harder in my view, in particular since it just takes longer, and 1.5-2 more hours in the saddle is nothing to sneeze at!

In terms of the course, though, it is an absolute beauty! Definitiely one of the best rides/doubles around.


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

Watoni said:


> In terms of overall difficulty, opinions vary but DMD is harder in my view, in particular since it just takes longer, and 1.5-2 more hours in the saddle is nothing to sneeze at!


I agree the DMD is a bit tougher, usually, but on a hot day I think the T2 is tougher. The descents are more technical on the T2.


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