I was up soon after, but my plan was to start from camp at 5:30. I wasn't in a hurry, but I did want to try to stick to my schedule. And I did have a schedule - it was very detailed and showed when I would arrive and leave at each place along the route. I knew that if I could stick to my schedule then I would be fine. At 5:30 sharp I was starting out, right on schedule. Miguel was a bit behind me, while everyone else had already left.
At Turtle Rock I just went on by, a few minutes ahead of schedule. I passed Jennie and Karl who were waiting for their friend Dave. I was riding strong and managed to pass many people along the way, much more than were passing me. Even though I was going fast, it felt to me as if I was just cruising, and so I went. At the start of Monitor, I stopped to eat half of my first PB&J sandwich. I had decided to not try to eat while riding, so if I wanted to eat, then I would stop. Five minutes later I was on my way again. It was about five minutes per half sandwich all day long.
At the top of Monitor Pass, I just rode on by the reststop, and instead stopped in at the "real" Monitor Pass and ate the other half of my PB&J. Jennie passed me by while I was stopped and eating. Jennie's secret is that she can manage to keep her reststops short, much shorter than mine.
Then it was down the backside of Monitor. I didn't go too slowly, as I managed to go 35 to 40 mph. I kept to the right and tried to hold my line, as most of the other riders are much faster than me on the downhills. I don't mind this, though, as I can get them back on the uphills.
Towards the bottom I saw a group of people in the middle of the road, so I slowed down. Getting closer, I saw that I recognized LeRoy, Jennie, and Karl. I didn't like what I was seeing. LeRoy said that it was Pam - that she had hit a bull.
Soon the Highway Patrol and an ambulance arrived. After being checked over, Pam was up on her feet. She wanted to continue the ride, that is until she saw the condition of her bicycle. One of the handlebars was completely bent over, so that the brake lever was touching the stem. Surprisingly, the front wheel and fork seemed to be just fine - they must have gone under the bull, leaving the handlebars to make first contact. Pam said that she was doing about 40 mph when the bull jumped out in front of her. Witnesses said that Pam went flying through the air after she hit the bull. I didn't find any scrapes on Pam's bicycle helmet, so I don't think that she hit her head. They said that the bull was knocked down and landed on another cyclist. In trying to get back up, the bull managed to completely destroy the carbon-fiber bike. A third cyclist was also injured.
Nobody thought they were hurt bad enough to require the ambulance, so instead they were loaded into a SAG vehicle and taken down to the Hwy 395 reststop. At the reststop it was decided that they would be taken back to Turtle Rock, but that they would go the long way around, up Hwy 395 to Minden. Since Pam's friend lives along the way, she was dropped off at her house. From there she went to the hospital. About two hours after Pam was at the hospital the other injured cyclists arrived, having just wasted two hours by going to Turtle Rock.
I remained with Pam while she was at the accident scene and again while she was at the Hwy 395 reststop. Once she was on her way, though, it was back to the work at hand. I had mixed feelings about this. One part of me wanted to just bag the ride, as I wanted to go see about Pam. The other part of me knew that Pam was now in good hands, and that she would want me to continue with the Death Ride. So I continued.
At the top of Monitor I again skipped the reststop, but stopped just past it to eat another sandwich. I knew that I had to eat and so I ate. I watched the other riders going by, but there was nobody that I knew, as they had already gone ahead by this time. People passed me on the downhill, but that was normal. I made up for it on the flats, though, and continued to feel strong as I went up the hill to Turtle Rock.
Pam had managed to leave her Davis Double waterbottle behind when she left in the SAG, so I had brought it along with me. At Turtle Rock I found Pam's car and stopped to put it inside. An ambulance was parked nearby, and I happened to overhear them - "One lady even hit a cow." Word gets around, and by the end of the ride I'm sure that everyone had heard the story about how this girl had hit a cow. This was a first for the Death Ride. Pam was starting to be a celebrity.
On the road again, I quickly dropped down to Diamond Valley Road, and then on to Foothill Road and the long trip out to the start of Kingsbury Grade. I felt strong and was passing people the whole way. I'm pretty sure that I had a headwind (meaning a tailwind for the return trip) but I was still doing 20+ mph. I stopped for water at the start of Kingsbury Grade, and had another half sandwich.
Just as I was starting out again, I broke a spoke. Bummer. This happened a few weeks ago, also. In less than two minutes I was going again, having loosened the tension on the adjoining spokes so that the wheel was now reasonably true. Hopefully I could finish the ride with the broken spoke.
Soon I passed a pizza box along the side of the road. Somebody had made it into a signboard. It said "Good Luck! Go,Pam". I figured that it must have been put there by Pam's friend (and it was). Pam needed that sign over on Monitor Pass.
About half way up I saw Jennie, Karl, and Paul coming back down. I noted the place and time and later figured that I was about 40 minutes behind them. Up at the top, I wasn't too disappointed to find that the reststop was a good half mile short of the summit. The man directing us said that "The top is just an illusion. Just ignore it, you're already there." That was good enough for me.
A quick reststop, long enough to eat another half sandwich, and I was off again. Another water stop at the bottom, then back the long road to lunch at the Diamond Valley School. I still felt strong and kept passing people all the time. Nearing the school, a paceline came by and went out in front. I was just doing my own ride and made no attempt to hop on. About 100 yds in front of me the leader pulled off to let the next one take over, but nobody did. The paceline just disintegrated, and before long I was passing them all one by one.
At the school I found John Blaine and Scott and Sandy Campbell. They said that Jennie and the others had just left. They said that when they had got there, the line was very long. I guess that I got there just in time, as there was absolutely no line for me. I just went in, made myself two sandwiches, then came back out. I then ate one there and packed the other one. I had finally caught back up to my schedule, and was now a few minutes ahead.
Going up Woodfords Canyon I still felt strong and continued to pass people. I think that I was doing about 7.0 mph while most everybody else was doing 6.0 mph. Another half sandwich stop at Picketts Junction, then on up to Luthor Pass. I continued to pull slightly ahead of my schedule, especially now because I had alotted myself 20 minutes at both Luthor and Carson passes. I didn't see Jennie and company on the road to Luthor Pass, so I knew that they were still far ahead of me. I caught up with Pete at the top but he was just leaving as I arrived.
On the way towards Carson Pass I initially made great time, as there seemed to be a tailwind. Once the grade started, though, I began to feel a bit tired. I was still passing people, but now it was not nearly as often. I saw Jennie and Karl coming down, now about 45 minutes ahead of me. I again found Pete at the top, and this time our stops overlapped a bit more. I finished another half sandwich, then it was off again.
Even though I had a broken spoke ever since the start of Kingsbury Grade, it didn't seem to slow me down too much. Going down from Carson Pass I managed to hit 48.5 mph and could have tried to go higher, but better sense prevailed. I slowed down and kept it under 40 mph for the rest of the downhill.
At Woodfords I passed up Pete who had stopped to take off his windbreaker or something. I felt strong all of the way up the hill to the finish at Turtle Rock. I arrived at 6:08 and was immediately greeted by Jennie and Karl. They finished about an hour in front of me, and Jennie was the 4th female 5-pass finisher. Not too bad. Jennie finally had a great Death Ride to replace her disappointing DNF from last year.
I picked up my pin for climbing all 5 passes. I then asked if I could get another pin for the woman that hit the cow, and was happy when they gave me one. I felt that Pam at least deserved this much. And besides, she did manage to do all five of the passes, as she had done them during the campout.
At the friend's house in Gardnerville, I was disappointed to find that Pam was no longer there. She had supposedly gone to pick up her car and would be back soon. I waited, and as I waited I completed my stats for the Death Ride, figuring out riding times for each section, and length of reststops. It seems that I had lost 24 minutes due to staying with Pam after the accident, but that I had been able to make that time up and to improve on it, finishing 27 minutes ahead of my schedule. That prooved what I already knew - my Death Ride was anything but leisurely - I was pushing my limits the whole day. I'm sure that it was Pam's accident and the fact that I could not see her again until I had finished that had me working so hard. Now I was finished, and I still couldn't see her. Waiting was hard, but I waited some more.
Finally, after a full hour's wait, I decided that I'd go on back to camp and see what I could find out there. Back at Turtle Rock, I saw that Pam's car was still there - strange. I then headed on down towards camp, and I then met Pam and her friend coming the other way. We both stopped so that we could talk. The waiting was finally over.
Pam had first gone up to Turtle Rock to see if any of us were still there, but everyone had gone by that time. People said, "Oh, you're the cow lady", and then Pam would have to correct them and say "the bull-lady. It was a bull that I hit." Pam then came down to camp and spent alot of time there seeing if I would come back. They gave Jennie directions on what we should do with Pam's car and her stuff. Pam was going to spend the night at her friend's house and then would meet us the next day in Markleeville for breakfast.
We all sat around the campfire, talking over the day's events. Since this was our last night, we had to use up all of the firewood, so we had a good long fire. It was 11:30 before anybody decided that it was time to go to bed.
I picked up Pam at her friend's house in Gardnerville. She seemed to be much more sore today than she was yesterday. It was painful for her to climb up into the front seat of my van. At the restaurant, Pam had to remind me that she had to be dropped off at the front door. The people coming out as we were going in did the Death Ride yesterday, and they too had heard about the cow lady. Now they knew that the story was true.
For the ride home, Karl was going to drive Pam's car, as he had come up with Jennie. Everyone else at the campout had come up with their own car. Pam was to ride with me, as my van was bigger. Together the three cars drove to the exit to Jennie's house in Danville. Since Karl's car was parked at Jennie's, he would leave Pam's car there also. I then continued on to San Jose, taking Pam directly to her home. Pam's husband, Mike, met us there. After getting Pam situated and all of her stuff put in a pile in the garage, I drove Mike the 50 miles back to Jennie's house to pick up the car. I finally made it home by about 5:00.