Bishop ain't big so it didn't take long to find the motel, find the fairgrounds (and check in for the ride), and scope out every restaurant in town for dinner. Around dinner time, started seeing other familiar cycling faces from the Bay area. Wondered where Pete Klein and Mike Ash were and decided to pop our heads into this Italian restaurant.....yep, there they were. Our radar was definitely on during the weekend 'cause we tracked them down quickly at dinner both nites!
The pace at the front was brutal, with the head pack blistering out of the starting gate at warp speed. By the way, Peter Pop finished first with a time of 10:33!!!! Pete, Karl, Paul, Mike and I hung with the group just behind the lead pack....I should say that I hung with the group for about the first 25 miles. I started drifting back to find a place to pee (do you know just how small those desert tumble weeds are???!!!!!!) plus the pace was a bit fast for me.
At this point, I looked back and saw only 1 guy behind me...I was practically dead last and discouragement set in quickly. Karl & Mike found appropriate tumble weeds first so I kept going ahead. Shortly down the road, we hooked up together. I timidly asked Karl if anyone else was behind us, knowing the answer was to be 'no'. I knew it would be odd for Karl & Mike to be at the rear but then again they had stopped at the tumbleweeds and could easily catch AND PASS the pack ahead. Karl said 'Jennie, there are only about 50 people in front of us. The remaining 200 are behind us!!!' Whew, relief. My discouragement dissipated and allowed me to refocus on the ride itself.
While we were on the tumbleweed search, Pete and Paul had continued on. By the way, the first 36 miles headed east toward the White Mountain Range and then southward and westward toward the Eastern Sierra mountain range. We all sort of regrouped at the first rest stop. I say 'sort of' because Pete and Paul took off at different times, then I took off, knowing very well that Mike and Karl would catch me.
My strategy for the day was to 'ride my own ride'. I still had haunts from Davis Double in my head so I had to focus on this day....I WAS going to finish and finish feeling good about the ride. So, I rolled out of every rest stop ahead of most everyone else for nearly the remainder of the day....and Karl and Mike practically always caught me so see, things have a way of working out!
After the first rest stop, we had our first long, grueling climb...up Old Sherwin Grade. It was about an 8 mile climb that wasn't too terribly steep, but it was arduous and had a couple of false summits. I had a good climb and enjoyed passing a guy who was talking about his 21 cog and saying that he would have to put a 23 cog on for Death Ride and a 25 cog on for Climb to Kaiser. I just smiled to myself as I passed him in my 26 cog....that dummy!!!
I caught up with Pete on the last part of the climb and he and I made our way into the 2nd rest stop at mile 51. Pete was feeling the effects of altitude from the get-go today and you could tell....he just didn't have the pep that we're so used to seeing in him. Said his legs felt weak all day. It was awesome of him to have finished this ride!!!! Pete, Paul and I took off first out of that rest stop (note that Pete pulled me on the stretch before Highway 395...even when he's weak, he's strong!). Karl and Mike caught up with us pretty fast and then Karl was off the front, as usual (that animal!).
After a few miles on Highway 395, we turned off and headed towards the Mammoth Lakes scenic loop. More climbing here AND headwinds. Got our first real (aka, a few miles long!) downhill after the crest of the loop. What a relief! Let me say now that the majority of the climbing in this double comes between mile 36 and mile 135.....and total climbing for this double century was 10,070 ft. Lunch was at mile 109 and we had already done 7000ft. After lunch, we did another 2200ft in just 26 miles. But more on that later.
Karl was the smiling greeter at the 3rd rest stop (mile 76) and I gave him the thumbs up as I got off the bike. Things were going well for me. I was drinking and eating good. The weather was fully cooperating (i.e., NO heat wave!). (I peed at every rest stop....I was so proud of myself....life's little successes!)
After another few short miles on 395, we turned onto the June Lake Loop. Actually, it turned out to be a loop that took us past June Lake, Silver Lake and Grant Lake. This was the best part of the ride. It was basically flat (or at least felt flat relative to the climbing we had done) all along these lakes with an AWESOME tailwind behind us the entire way (and believe me, the tailwinds were very few and far between on this ride). After completing the loop, we then headed on 395 to Lee Vining and had lunch at the county park just north of the town. Karl and I were expecting the lunch stop to be BEFORE Lee Vining so we were a bit confused, and ticked off, as we headed closer to town, then into town, then thru town, before finally seeing the park. We compared our mental anguish stories over lunch! Paul, Pete, and Mike weren't far behind and we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch, feeling good about the next set of miles because the wind had turned and would be blasting us back down 395. Some of us, including me, had salt tablets for dessert!
This next section of road would become the 'talk of the ride'.....the long, agonizing, never-ending, full-of-little-false-summits, thank-goodness-nobody-is-around-to-hear-me-cuss, where-the-hell-is-the-top-of...Sagehen Summit! The top, which was at mile 136, was at about 9200 ft (Karl knows for sure) and coincidently we had climbed about 9200 ft for the ride at the point. Yeah, big HA-HA-...no one was laughing! I met Karl and the top and after a brief stop, we took off again.
The next 8 miles or so were the last stretch of tailwind that we would receive for the day. At one point, we were doing 35 mph and hardly pedaling. I turned to Karl and said 'I could certainly do this for another 50 miles!' FAT CHANCE! I'M NOT GIVING YOU THE LUXURY OF THAT! JUST WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE WHAT I HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU .....said the big mean winds! As we hit the rollers and headwind, Karl pulled ahead. He did that a lot all day.....he's just too damn strong. One of these rides Karl should just 'ride his own ride' and not worry about me. I know he'd give those Peter Pop-types a run for their money!
Karl waited for me at the Benton rest stop (mile 164). As he was downing some red potatoes and I some cup-o-noodle soup (Pete said later that the soup stuff helped fuel him all day long...funny what stuff you'll put in your body on a 200-mile ride!), a guy kept telling me how strong Karl was (no surprise there). I guess Karl had been ahead of that guy all day long and that guy was really impressed with how Karl rode!
Soon after eating, we took off for the final grueling 35 miles. Highway 6 from Benton to Bishop? In a word....it SUCKS (OK, that's 2 words). It's straight, nearly flat (maybe 250ft of climbing), there are no downhills, and had a mean cross/head wind......FOR 35 !!($*&(*!# MILES! After a couple of miles, Karl pulled ahead and offered his wheel. I think I said something very short, like just plain 'no', shook my head and was planning to finish the rest of the ride as I had done most of the ride...solo. But then, these strange words came out of mouth that said 'Yes, I've changed my mind. I want your wheel!' Smartest words I've ever said! That last 35 miles were bad enough and had I been solo, I would have been hatin' life! And I probably would have stopped in the middle of the road and begged a ride from one of the many 18-wheelers to pass by. Or I would have begged one of them to run over me. Or I would have just cried on the side of the road. Or perhaps I would have summoned an alien spaceship to beam me up. Or...OK, enough of that already!
Karl and I worked well together for those 35 miles. OK, truth is that I pulled for a little bit and Karl pulled A LOT! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! At one point, I thought I saw a road sign up ahead that read 'Bishop 10'. But wait, according to my computer, we only had 3-4 miles to go! Hugh Murphy has under estimated the distance. OH NO! OH HELL NO!!! But wait, I was hallucinating because as we approached that sign, it became merely a side road sign.
Best of all, Karl and I finished the ride together and finally completed our quest for the Triple Crown! Paul, Mike and Pete hung together most of the time after lunch and had a great finish too! Great job, Pete, for hanging in there... altitude effects and all!
Pete and Mike headed home on Sunday while Karl and I stopped in Toulomne Meadows for a short hike up to the top of Lembert Dome. We hung out the top for awhile, just taking in the incredible views of Unicorn Peak, Mt.Dana, Mt. Gibbs, the meadows, river, Cathedral Range. I hadn't been to Yosemite in a number of years and the beauty just never ceases to amaze me! An awesome ending to an awesome weekend!
p.s., I'm glad that the doubles are over for the year!