# Not the Death Ride



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

I'm trying to come up with a Bay Area Route to "simulate" the Death Ride. Here's the familiar Death Ride elevation profile:


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Here's my first attempt listing the 5 passes:

Page Mill Road
Alpine Road West
Kings Mountain Road
Old La Honda East
Tunitas Creek
This is 112 miles and an estimated 12,500 feet. The elevation profile looks pretty close! It is a little short, not quite enough hills and the hills are a bit too steep. Also, OLH isn't high enough, though the addition of Haskins makes up for that.


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

*Mr. Bill's Nightmare*

http://bushnell.homeip.net/~bill/bike/ride_stories/mr_bills_nightm.1994.05.08.htm

He says 127 miles and 15K ft, but I bet a GPS would show more climbing because of its higher sampling rate.

I believe the main climbs are Page Mill, Bohlman, Black, Alba, and Mt. Charlie.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

This one's just plain nasty:

Mt Hamilton (front)
Mt Hamilton (back)
Sierra Road
Welch Creek
Quimby


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

robwh9 said:


> I believe the main climbs are Page Mill, Bohlman, Black, Alba, and Mt. Charlie.


Thanks for the link - that is quite the read, and clearly the work of a deranged mind.  I see that recent editions of the Sequoia 200k are quite a bit simpler than that!


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## balzaccom (Oct 11, 2006)

But to really get the effect of the Death Ride, you would also have to do these with tape over your mouth, to simulate the higher altitudes!


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## tosa (Aug 23, 2010)

The Quimby/Mt. Ham front/back ride looks like fun  Who's up for that?


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## sometimerider (Sep 21, 2007)

And then there's Cooper's Triple Crown. Shorter, but 9800 ft of climbing in 82 miles.

View attachment 223071


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## poff (Jul 21, 2007)

Double this, 

https://www.inl.org/bicycle/images/deathride-map.gif

and it is 15K in 80mi. Here is the story:

https://www.birthdaychallenge.com/aaronbaker/2004.html


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Those both look tough - thanks for the links.

I wasn't trying to make the hilliest course possible. What I'm looking for is a route that approximates the Death Ride profile - similar length, similar height game, and 5 passes at about the right intervals. My first effort gets pretty close, the second much less so. It's not easy because we don't have 2500-3000 foot climbs in close proximity.

I have no particular reason to try this, just one of those weird things that pops into your head while out on a ride.


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## CoLiKe20 (Jan 30, 2006)

another option, based on my own life.
I have a busy life and taking a whole day off to train cuts into husband/wife time. I still need to train for the Death Ride last year so I dragged the wife up and down the climbs on my long days. While the climb isn't as long, dragging her up made the King's Mountain climb effectively about 20-25% longer. I get to ride and don't get in trouble for spending my day off away from the wifey.
For those lucky enough to have permission for time off from family, I guess try climbing with a bike laden with heavier wheels/frame or even MTB. That should effectively makes the climb "longer"


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

CoLiKe20 said:


> For those lucky enough to have permission for time off from family, I guess try climbing with a bike laden with heavier wheels/frame or even MTB. That should effectively makes the climb "longer"


How about Sierra Road on a mountain bike ... with a child in a trailer?


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## Tort (Nov 4, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> How about Sierra Road on a mountain bike ... with a child in a trailer?


I'm beginning to think there is something wrong with you. You are one twisted climber aren't you.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

I was thinking that using the climbs down off Hwy 9 might get a good profile. Closest I could get to was this one at 93 mi, 12K

- Start Steven's Canyon
- Up & down Montebello
- Up Redwood Gulch & Hwy 9
- Down Hwy 9 (W), 236 & China Grade
- Up Jamison Creek
- Down Empire Grade then down Felton Empire
- Up Alba
- Down Empire Grade and down Felton Empire (again)
- Up Zayante, Bear Creek, Skyline back to Saratoga Gap
- Down 9 & Redwood Gulch

<IMG SRC="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_AAWYXSJV_TI/TVECunN4_2I/AAAAAAAAiVM/nr56XlCL2H4/s800/baydr.png">


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

*Here's the route sheet*

http://www.westernwheelers.org/main/sequoia/routes/1995/Sequoia1995_Mr_Bill_Nightmare_Route.pdf

Edit: Slightly different from the ride report. There's an Alpine - Old Haul - Camp Poponio - Alpine in there, El Sereno Ridge Trail instead of Montevina, and China Grade - Hwy 9 instead of Mountain Charley.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

robwh9 said:


> http://www.westernwheelers.org/main/sequoia/routes/1995/Sequoia1995_Mr_Bill_Nightmare_Route.pdf
> 
> Edit: Slightly different from the ride report. There's an Alpine - Old Haul - Camp Poponio - Alpine in there, El Sereno Ridge Trail instead of Montevina, and China Grade - Hwy 9 instead of Mountain Charley.


Wow.. that is quite the nightmare.. I have a new challenge for this summer...


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

The thing about the Death Ride is that the passes are long, and that, more than steepness, is what you should be looking to simulate. Saddle time. Constant climbing. Off the top of my head, the first three passes are roughly 8 miles long, the backside of Ebbets is only a couple of miles, and Carson is 14 miles. You need to find the longest climbs you can, and you don't have a lot of options in the SF Bay Area.

You don't need to put together a monster ride. Those are fun, but you could just do Hwy 9 five or six times and get close to simulating the effort of doing the Death Ride. It's one of the longest roads we have here, and while it's not as steep as Monitor or Ebbets, it's a decent enough grade.

A better choice is West Alpine. It's about as long as Hwy 9, but steeper. Go up Page Mill, down Alpine, then do a few repeats of Alpine to the top and back, and finally descend Page Mill when you can't take it anymore.

The best choice is to go to Mount Diablo. Start at the South side, ride to the top, descend to the north gate, turn around, climb back to the top, descend to the bottom on the south side. That's roughly 7,000 feet in roughly 55 miles (starting from Diablo Vista Park in Danville), and unless you are descending, you are climbing. There's not a lot of flat. (I've actually done this, and it hurts.) Repeat for 14K in 100+ miles. That is a worthy ride.

You could also go down to Santa Barbara and do Gibraltar a few times. It's as steep and long as the Death Ride climbs.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Thanks for the info. Note that I'm not preparing for the Death Ride. I've done the Death Ride before, and might do it again in a few years time. On the other hand I do especially enjoy doing the ride from Arnold to Markleeville and back, which IMHO covers some of the best parts of the Death Ride without the crowding and logistical overheads.

Anyway, this thread was an attempt to try to come up with a Bay Area route that has a similar elevation/distance profile to the Death Ride. Maybe I'll ride a route like that one day, but mostly it was an academic exercise that popped into my head while riding last week.

I had another stupid idea based on the observation that the Sierra/Felter/Calaveras/Piedmont loop can be done in about an hour. This leads to the concept of "x Hours of Sierra Road" (where x is 8, 12 or even 24!), but I didn't dare broach that one.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

mohair_chair said:


> The best choice is to go to Mount Diablo. Start at the South side, ride to the top, descend to the north gate, turn around, climb back to the top, descend to the bottom on the south side. That's roughly 7,000 feet in roughly 55 miles (starting from Diablo Vista Park in Danville), and unless you are descending, you are climbing. There's not a lot of flat. (I've actually done this, and it hurts.


I've done that, gotten some more food from the car, and gone up to the top again for three ascents. Doing South gate, north gate, south gate gives you 10k feet of climbing in about 65 miles. I did it about eight times last year, training for the Everest Challenge. 

One advantage to Diablo vs the coast is that, at least in the summer, it's pretty hot out there. That gets you acclimated to heat for the Death Ride.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

mohair_chair said:


> A better choice is West Alpine. It's about as long as Hwy 9, but steeper. Go up Page Mill, down Alpine, then do a few repeats of Alpine to the top and back, and finally descend Page Mill when you can't take it anymore


Yeah.. now that you say that, I remember mudworm did exactly that before the 2009 Death Ride. Her profile from that ride (she was starting in La Honda)...










I'm not sure I could handle the same climbs back to back like that


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## tosa (Aug 23, 2010)

"I had another stupid idea based on the observation that the Sierra/Felter/Calaveras/Piedmont loop can be done in about an hour. This leads to the concept of "x Hours of Sierra Road" (where x is 8, 12 or even 24!), but I didn't dare broach that one."

1hr/loop * X loops! Training for the Tour?


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## zender (Jun 20, 2009)

mohair_chair said:


> Go up Page Mill, down Alpine, then do a few repeats of Alpine to the top and back, and finally descend Page Mill when you can't take it anymore.


+1 on the above. 

In addition to tape over the mouth (or breathe through a straw) to simulate the altitude, don't forget to turn up the temperature to 90+ degrees and have it rain on you about half way into the ride.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

tosa said:


> 1hr/loop * X loops! Training for the Tour?


I wish! But in an ideal world I'd be training for this.


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## CoLiKe20 (Jan 30, 2006)

ukbloke said:


> How about Sierra Road on a mountain bike ... with a child in a trailer?


Alp du Huez?


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

tosa said:


> "I had another stupid idea based on the observation that the Sierra/Felter/Calaveras/Piedmont loop can be done in about an hour. This leads to the concept of "x Hours of Sierra Road" (where x is 8, 12 or even 24!), but I didn't dare broach that one."
> 
> 1hr/loop * X loops! Training for the Tour?


Best I've heard of is 16 times in one day


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## coachstevo (Sep 11, 2009)

here's the loop i used on tam 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18627586


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