Death ride next month?

[accordvsick]

Anyone doing it this year? It will be my first and I've never ridden/driven through any of the passes. My normal riding is at 1000ft of elevation(bay area) Words of wisdom for a newbie?

Got some training in at elevation in a couple weeks back (road tioga pass) and felt pretty good still at the end of it.

[Gibran]

Ridden the DR the last 10 years in a row and am planning on this year too. Looks a bit easier with the new route, good riddance to the Woodford/Carson last part! Anyway, shoot me a PM and I’ll tell you everything I know.

[Richard]

I did it twice many years ago. Most effective training I found (used it for the second time) was to find the longest climbs in the area (Catskill Mtns.) and climb, descend and repeat until the fifth time up was not a horror show. They don't have to be super steep, just long, as I found the Death Ride climbs to be very long, but not horribly steep for the most part. As to the ride itself, drink a lot, be prepared for sudden changes in temperature and eat as much as you can without getting ill.

[poff]

Originally Posted by accordvsick

Anyone doing it this year? It will be my first and I've never ridden/driven through any of the passes. My normal riding is at 1000ft of elevation(bay area) Words of wisdom for a newbie?

Got some training in at elevation in a couple weeks back (road tioga pass) and felt pretty good still at the end of it.

Drive to Diablo and try to do it 3 times in a row. If you can do it, then you are good to go. If not, train on Diablo. Elevation kicks in for me at 8,500ft, so I am OK on these. I feel elevation on Sonora and Tioga, especially on Sonora's 15% parts.

[Spdntrxi]

Originally Posted by poff

Drive to Diablo and try to do it 3 times in a row. If you can do it, then you are good to go. If not, train on Diablo. Elevation kicks in for me at 8,500ft, so I am OK on these. I feel elevation on Sonora and Tioga, especially on Sonora's 15% parts.

this.. and if you can do it this wed/thur/fri/sat in the heat all the better.

[Buzz]

Originally Posted by poff

Drive to Diablo and try to do it 3 times in a row. If you can do it, then you are good to go. If not, train on Diablo. Elevation kicks in for me at 8,500ft, so I am OK on these. I feel elevation on Sonora and Tioga, especially on Sonora's 15% parts.

Yes. This was always my Mt. Diablo formula as well. When I lived in Mountain View it was two - three times up west Alpine Road including the initial ascent up Moody/Page Mill rd. A stiffer climb than Mt. Diablo but slightly shorter.

[shrimp123]

i am gonna try Diablo tomorrow. If i can survive, may be i will look for company to pool there from bay area.

[Bob Ross]

The missus and I briefly considered it for this year, but as she's still recovering from neck surgery decided it might be premature.

We did the Death Ride in 2010. We arrived at altitude only two or three days before the event. I was fine with the altitude, but she suffered tremendously and struggled through the first four passes, only got into a groove after lunch and going up the final pass.

Ironically, when we did the Triple Bypass ride in 2018, it was exactly the opposite: She was fine (in fact, she crushed that ride!) but the altitude -- or something -- kicked my ass and I just crawled from mile 50 to the end.

Altitude is a weird thing. If we do decide to do the Death Ride again I think we'll try to spend a week at altitude in advance, see if that helps. My sister has a house in Truckee which oughtta make that easier.

[Upcountry]

The science has recently seemed to come to the consensus that you're better off at altitude with less than 24 hours of acclimatization, or more than 10 days spent at altitude.... So getting up to altitude 2 days, or one week before your event will only be detrimental.

[dftjunkie]

Originally Posted by shrimp123

i am gonna try Diablo tomorrow. If i can survive, may be i will look for company to pool there from bay area.

The group I ride with has 14 people training for the Death ride this year. We did 3x Diablo a couple of weeks back and 2x Ham + Reverse Ham yesterday. The biggest variable is the heat. Both rides were same mileage and elevation gain but yesterday’s ride just about nearly exhausted us. So make sure to rain in and for the heat


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[Gibran]

Originally Posted by dftjunkie

The group I ride with has 14 people training for the Death ride this year. We did 3x Diablo a couple of weeks back and 2x Ham + Reverse Ham yesterday. The biggest variable is the heat. Both rides were same mileage and elevation gain but yesterday’s ride just about nearly exhausted us. So make sure to rain in and for the heat


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Probably saw you as part of the large group I rode up to at the top of Mt Ham yesterday.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by Upcountry

The science has recently seemed to come to the consensus that you're better off at altitude with less than 24 hours of acclimatization, or more than 10 days spent at altitude.... So getting up to altitude 2 days, or one week before your event will only be detrimental.

Yeah, we'd actually heard exactly that going into the 2010 Death Ride and decided to wing it. The problem then -- as in 2018, and probably as in any future riding at altitude -- is that it's really difficult to plan a short trip that doesn't leave you at altitude but does leave you close enough to get to the start on event day. And long trips aren't really in the cards for us until at least one of us retires.

[poff]

All of you are taking DR too seriously unless of course you want to beat some kind of time record like finishing in 5hrs. I did Alta Alpine 8 passes once, DR is OK, tough only if it is 100F+ at 7,500ft.

[dftjunkie]

Originally Posted by Gibran

Probably saw you as part of the large group I rode up to at the top of Mt Ham yesterday.

Yes, it would have been us. The team has been bummed by the DR cancellation this year due to the fires. In order to not let our training go to waste and show our support for the community we are going there over the Labor Day weekend to do it as a self supported ride. Hope the weather and the fires play nice


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[shrimp123]

Originally Posted by dftjunkie

show our support for the community we are going there over the Labor Day weekend to do it as a self supported ride.

please keep us (me) posted. I will join if my family commitments dont interfere.