CALIFORNIA - DEATH RIDE 1998
- L.P. Danna -
129 miles, 16,000 feet of climbing, that's how it's
advertised. They refer to it as "The Tour of the California Alps".
I'm not sure that anything in California compares to the Alps but
this route does feature some mountain passes that would be right at
home in Europe. The route changes slightly each year mainly due to
prevailing road conditions.
There are always five major climbs in the ride. This year the
route took in three mountain passes, two of which you climbed from
both sides. The mountain passes were Monitor Pass at 8,314', Ebbets
Pass at 8,731' and Carson Pass at 8,573'. Monitor and Ebbets were
scaled from both sides. The idea is to climb all five and get your
pin which tells the world you made it. This is a timed ride wherein
you must reach certain checkpoints by a certain time in order to
continue to the next pass.
The ride starts at 5:30am and the course closes at 7:00pm. If you are in decent shape and have had some experience in climbing at this altitude you should be able to complete all five passes. I personally started right at 5:30 and finished at 6:05. If you want to make all five passes you need to reach the cutoff for Carson Pass by 5:15pm. As long as you get there by then, you will be allowed to finish. At that point you have close to two hours of riding left without counting any time for the rest stop at the top of Carson Pass.
For me it was without a doubt the toughest ride I have ever
experienced. Prior to the ride, the most climbing I had done in one
day was maybe 9,000', and that was not at these altitudes. The
start/finish is at Turtle Rock Park on Hwy. 89, 3 miles outside of
the little town of Markleville, at an elevation of 6,000'. From the
start, you get a brisk downhill through Markleville and head out
towards the junction of Hwy. 4 and 89 at mile 8 wherein you begin the
first climb of the day, the west side of Monitor Pass. The
lower portions of the ascent have the steepest grades, ranging from 8
to 10%. These are steady grades, not just little pitches here and
there. The climb to the summit is 8 miles with a vertical gain of
2,700'.
Monitor Pass is one of the routes over the Eastern side of the
Sierras but it is always closed in winter. The road is closed to auto
traffic during the ride. The scenery is wonderful. As you approach
the top the grade lessens and you seem to ride from one plateau to
the next. Once over the top after a little more (for me at least)
than an hour on the climb, it's a thrilling 9.5 mile descent to the
valley floor (5,000'). You can easily reach speeds of 45 to 50 mph on
the descent. The curves are wide and well banked with a very good
road surface.
I might add that we had an absolutely perfect day to ride, clear skies, relatively little wind and the temperatures topped out at about 80 degrees. If you were going to tackle the Death Ride for the first time, this was the day to do it. This part of California experiences some strange weather. It may be sunny on Monitor Pass and either raining or even snowing on Ebbets Pass and their respective summits are less than 20 miles apart. I can't imagine tackling these roads in poor weather conditions but it has been done.
The second climb up the back or Eastern side of Monitor is a little tougher than the front side. First of all you've already got about 3,000' in your legs, the climb is longer and has more vertical gain (3,300'). The other point is that the sun is on you the whole time on this climb and while it initially feels good to get warm, about half way up the climb it starts to get downright hot, and this is around 9:00 in the morning.
After another thrilling downhill (I was doing 51 mph at one point
and got passed!) you end up back at 89/4 Hwy. junction except this
time you turn left and head out towards the granddaddy of the ride,
Ebbets Pass. This is a stunning climb. In total, it's about 13
miles long but with two distinctly different sections. The lower
portion of the climb is very mild and rises an average of only 150'
per mile. Like Monitor Pass, Ebbets is closed in the winter from
7,000' on up. Just before you hit the 7 mile mark of the climb, the
road turns mean and pitches up rather abruptly. A little further
along you notice gates to the road that are used to close the upper
sections of the road. Now the fun begins. It's only 1,750' of climb
to the top in about six miles; not the toughest grade in the
world.
For some reason, however, this section was extremely difficult. I
forgot about two rather important points. First, I had been on the
bike now for about five hours and had already exceeded my heretofore
one day maximum of 9,000' of vertical climb. Secondly, I had never
ridden at these altitudes and never for this length of time. It
seemed like everyone on the ride passed me up.
I just put it in my 26 (more about this later) and made it up the
hill at about 5 mph. Not that I was paying too much attention to it,
but the road surface was smooth as glass. Apparently, last year
Ebbets Pass was resurfaced. This was to be much appreciated on the
downhill run off the pass later on in the ride. At about the 8,200'
level you come upon an absolutely pristine alpine lake. The scenery
here is spectacular and rivals another California wonder, Yosemite
Valley.
Eventually, I made the top and breezed down the back side of the
mountain to the checkpoint at 7,000'. I think the organizers did a
very smart thing with the route because once you descend the back
side of Ebbets, there's no turning back. The fourth pass retraces the
last prior downhill. You have to climb out to get back to
civilization so there is a certain motivation at this point to make
it back up the hill knowing further that a 13 mile downhill
rollercoaster ride awaits you. At this point in the ride I was pretty
tired but, as I said, there was only one way out.
The fourth climb is the shortest of the group. It measures a little over five miles and climbs about 1,700', a steady 6.5% grade. While you don't have to contend with cars on the Ebbets climbs, the one thing you do have to watch out for is cyclists coming the other way since the route retraces itself. This is particularly unnerving on the first climb up Ebbets since some of the really strong riders have already completed their fourth climb and are screaming down the pass while you're trudging up the road. It's not the safest of situations but it does bring up one good point. This ride is not only for people who are in decent shape; it's also for those who have better than average bike handling skills. The downhill speeds can be extreme and there are some sheer cliffs on Ebbets Pass and, bless Caltrans' heart, there are no guard-rails on the road. Make a mistake and they may never find you again! (Caltrans is the state agency that maintains state roads in California and all kidding aside, they do an excellent job, particularly in the winter time.)
All that hurt I experienced going up Ebbets now turned into sheer
(no pun intended) bliss as I started what to me is the most thrilling
downhill ride I have ever experienced. The road surface was perfect,
the weather was perfect, the turns were well banked; a true test of
your skills. You just wished it could go on forever. Even on the
semi-flat lower sections you could go pretty much flat out (remember,
no cars!). I kept noticing that my speeds on the longer and
straighter sections were significantly faster than I'm used to going
on the hills that I train on at home. It's not because the grade is
any steeper. I really think, though I'm not sure, that it must have
something to do with the thin air at that altitude which provides
less resistance. Something to ponder I guess.
After coming off Ebbets you head back towards the
start/finish line for your final decision: do I just bag it now or do
I try for the fifth pass and the all-important little pin they give
you if make it all the way. I was still filled with euphoria from the
downhill run so by the time I reached the start/finish, I knew I was
going for it. I was way ahead on time at that point so reaching the
final check-point by the cutoff time was not an issue. At this point,
it was about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was starting to get a
little hot. Off I went for the last challenge of the day, Carson
Pass.
Unlike the other climbs of the day, Carson Pass (Hwy. 88) is
pretty much open all year round since it is a major road that can
lead into Nevada or the Lake Tahoe Basin. This road is not closed to
traffic during the ride so you now have to contend with cars for the
first time. From the start/finish, you have two sections of serious
climb to deal with. All told, once you turn onto Hwy. 88, you will
gain about 3,000' of elevation in about sixteen miles. At the final
checkpoint before the final 10 mile ascent, you are at about 7,000'.
On the ascent, we had a fairly stiff headwind but it really didn't
seem to bother us too much since you're going slow anyway. Carson
Pass itself gains most of its elevation in the last 3.5 miles. The
first six miles barely have any elevation gain at all, maybe 300' at
the most. Those last 3.5 miles are really tough. At this point you're
really looking at this last push as being the end of the ride even
though you still have to come back down the mountain to the finish
some 20 miles away.
I thought everybody on the ride had already passed me on Ebbets but they seemed to all go by me again on this last climb. I even got passed by an eleven year old who ended up doing all five passes. Amazing! I caught up with the kid at the top of the pass and, while everyone else at the rest stop looked pretty wasted, this little boy looked like he could do it all over again.
Well I made it to the top and got the all-important sticker on my jersey number that signified that I cleared the fifth pass. You have to have all five of those stickers on your number when you finish, otherwise no pin. Coming down Carson Pass, again just reversing the route up, I again hit speeds of over 50mph. The thought that one little pothole or rock could otherwise ruin my day at this point never crossed my mind. Eventually the grade smoothes out and you slow down to a more reasonable 35 to 40 mph before you hit the flat section, then speed up again as you drop the last 1,500' before you make the final turn for home. As you come down the final two mile stretch you receive kudos from people lined up along the road cheering the riders home. It's a pretty neat feeling.
Would I do it again? You bet.
A few notes about the ride.
The support was the best I have ever had on any long ride. They
had plenty of rest stops with a wide variety of foods and sports
drinks (not just water). The route itself is really easy to follow.
You really don't need to refer to a route sheet. It's practically
impossible to get lost or make a wrong turn.
I never saw so many neat bikes. I would not recommend aero bars on this ride but I would recommend very low gears. I usually ride with a rear 12-23 cassette with 53-39 front chainrings. I got smart and bought a13-26 cassette for this ride. You don't need the 12 ring because I guarantee you'll go faster than you want just by gravity alone. For me, a 28 would have been nice but everybody has their own setup. The point is take a lower gear than you otherwise think. That air gets pretty thin at 8,000'. Always bring a jacket and some layers. We were very lucky this year but if the weather turns bad you had better be prepared, and it can change unpredictably.
I suppose this ride can be compared to Le Marmotte in France or maybe the Dolomite marathon in Italy. I have not done either one of those and I suspect they might be a little tougher. The Death Ride is still pretty tough. I don't think you'll find a setting anywhere else in the USA where you have such tough mountain passes so close together, allowing for one ride to include them all. It's a great ride and I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to test themselves.
(Originally produced for OCD Magazine "Cycloclimbing" Issue 83, Summer 1998. Confirmed July 1999/Sep.2000 to remain on OCD website.