May 2005 Archives

The "Flat" Double

After successfully completing the Devil Mountain Double (DMD) three weeks ago, I was ready for an "easy" double century. Not that there's anything easy about doing 200 miles in a day, but the Davis Double certainly isn't as arduous, and indeed, it's the one that most experienced double-riders recommend doing for a first double century. By completing Davis, you gain valuable experience and confidence, which enables you to graduate to the harder doubles. Doing a double century is as much about mental endurance as it is physical endurance, plus it takes experience in knowing how to manage time spent at the rest stops, the amount of food to eat, and making sure to stay hydrated. This is also important on shorter rides such as centuries, but mistakes made on a double century tend to compound over the course of the long day. Doing Davis allows you to work out all of these issues on a relatively easy course, where the chance of success is much higher.

Tina and I did the Strawberry Fields century on Sunday May 15th. The support was good, and getting strawberries and chocolate at the end was worth riding 100 miles.

The weather was excellent and more importantly, this was Tina's first century of the year. She did great, and looks really good in this post ride photo, almost as though she hadn't broken a sweat all day.

Her next challenge is the Sierra Century on June 4th. She's in great shape now, so she'll do very well on that ride, especially tackling the infamous Slug Gulch.

The Devil Mountain Double results have been posted here. When I finished at 7:30, I was about the 16th cyclist who had arrived. However, there were about 9 or so cyclists from the 6:00 am start who arrived after me, but still had a lower cumlative time. So I ended up in 26th place overall, out of 126 finishers and about 150 starters. There were more people riding this year than last, and I would have finished 14th last year if I had the same time. However, I'm pretty happy with my effort and the results of my first double century. To finish while there was still daylight was more than I expected, so that was the real victory for me.

Tina and I have the Strawberry Fields Forever ride on Sunday. We're worried about the weather a little for this one, as the long range forecast is for possible rain, although it's probably more likely that it will be dry. We're hoping for a good day for Tina's first century of the year. She's ready for it, and it's a great ride, with excellent support, so we'll be very happy if the weather cooperates.

The Idea

I’m not sure when the idea of riding a double century (200 miles) first originated. I was pretty sure it was before I ordered my custom Titus bike last August. I had worked with Titus Bikes on making sure the ride would be comfortable over the long haul, a quality that my previous Trek 2300 lacked to some degree. Not that there was anything wrong with the Trek. It had served me well as my first performance road bike when I bought it at the beginning of 2002, and I had successfully ridden it on my first century (100 miles) and first double metric century (200 km, or approx. 125 miles).