Alta Alpina 2012 'Steady On'

[Carl Sanders]

Bad math?

198 miles + 20,300' worth of climbing + 8 High Sierra passes = FUN.

On the backside of Monitor Pass, somewhere into hour twelve, blasting down the smoothest wide open descent on the planet, clocking just over 50 mph, my bike began to wobble un-controllably. Squeezing the top tube between my thighs and pulsing the brakes couldn't stop the increasing oscillations from one end of the bike to the other. First thought: flat? Second: wheel tension gone? No matter. Stay upright! Drifting across the on-coming lane, I attempted to slow, without going down, quickly scanning for a run-out. Heart pounding, I finally rolled to a controlled stop on the opposite side of the road. Glad there was no traffic.

Checked and re-checked the entire bike. No flat. Spoke tension good front and rear. Wheels in true. No obvious frame cracks. Nothing loose. Strange. Guess I better slow down.

I viewed this event as more training than racing. I moderated my intensity, so that I would be able to finish what is billed as 'The world's hardest double century'. Just keep pedaling, fueling and hydrating. Steady pace. Simple enough. 

For some, the day started at 3:30 AM. For me, 5:00 AM was just fine. Similar to the more infamous Death Ride, we started at Turtle Rock near Markleville, except we ran north first, instead, and added a few more passes to round things out.

First up Kingsbury Pass, near Heavenly, eat and fill the bottles, then head back down at the 45 mph speed limit. Then, up and over to Luther Pass, via Emigrant Trail. More eats, more bottle fills. Then, a quick jaunt up Carson Pass only to turn right around head over to Blue Lakes for more food and drink. Keep moving. Then, a sweet fast and incredible long drop back past the start (skipped the 'lunch' option) for another aid stop. Off again to Ebbetts Pass and down to Hermit Valley -- still more eats and fluid. Then, back over Ebbetts one more time toward Monitor Pass. Up and over and down to HWY 395, we fueled up only to turn around for the second go and final climb of the day back up Monitor, rolling out 20,000' worth of climbing just prior to the summit.

With the cause of the strange high speed wobble still a mystery, I unfortunately had to keep on the brakes on the final drop back toward the start.  

Rolled in, satisfyingly fatigued with just over 15hrs total elapsed time. Without posted results, I'd guess a dozen or so riders completed all 8 passes. Others either opted for less at registration or came up short of their goals. 

That was an incredibly difficult double.

Max speed: 50.8 mph

Ave. HR: ~130 X 15 hrs = 117,000 total heart beats (@ ~60 beats/minute)?

Ave. Speed: 13.1 mph

54,000 crank revolutions (ave. cadence ~60/minute)?

~4,500 cals consumed

~5,400 cals burned?

However calculated, it was a long day in the saddle.

 

Tahoe Sierra 100 up next!

 

 

 

[Ryan Gibson]

OMG Carl, you are not human. Nice work! Reading this ahead of the Death Ride, which I was really looking forward to again this year, makes me depressed :) The knee is getting better though, and so excited to ride hard again soon.

[Paul Montgomery]

OK, that's nuts...I think a RAAM is in your future...

[Adam Nuyens]

Sounds like a great event, Carl

I would like to do that one some time.

Good job!