by Vince Cummings

I rode my first double in Davis on Saturday. I was happy to finish and I really enjoyed it, even though the last 45 miles were painful
and slow.

My weekend started on Friday morning. I packed up everything I needed and was on the road by about 10:00 am. The drive to Davis was uneventful but the freeways were crowded even at this early hour so it wasn’t much fun.

I arrived at the Motel 6 ready for lunch and was pleased to see a Subway across the street. I got my sandwich and checked in. The lady at the desk was nice enough to give me a corner room as I was dreading being kept up at night by the all night crowd. I gave her a tip for the kind service and found my room, unloaded the car and ate lunch.

It was now about 1:00 pm and I called Dave and he was on his way as well. When Dave got to his room we talked about the strategy for the evening as well as the ride. Dave wanted to ride as soon as he got into town to acclimate to the heat. I felt I would be better served with a nap because if it was noisy in my room and I couldn’t sleep at least I would have a couple hours of sleep to spare.

After my nap I got up and rode my bike down to the check in. I was a bit early for dinner so I just checked in. I brought my bike in with me and I later learned that was against the rules. Well I guess I saved myself a possible 4000 dollars by not knowing about that rule.

Davis is a town divided by a big freeway and I didn’t bother to pick up a map at AAA so I had to stop and ask people where the over pass was as I couldn’t find the exact way back as I came to the check in.

When I got back Dave was ready to go check in. I hopped a ride to get my pasta fix.

My next errand was to get a thermos of coffee from Cindy’s next door to the Motel and a burrito at the Guadalajara Grill.  Dave and I were planning on meeting Steve at around 5:00 am. This meant an early rise even for myself as I get up early anyway. So I spent about 45 minutes getting everything ready to ride except the air in my tires.

Now it was about bed time but I was still dreading about who was going to be renting the next door room. So I watched “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” on HBO. I must have liked the movie since I watched the whole thing but looking back on it I’m not sure what made it watchable. Maybe it was Veronica Mars playing the bad girl.

After that it was 11:00 pm and I slept fairly well until 2:30 am when I decided to get up. I ate the burrito and drank the coffee and loaded the car and it was time to meet Dave to drive to the ride start. We got there a little early but Steve was already to go at 4:50 am.

So we took off. Steve had no light and Dave’s wasn’t a big spot light either. So it was nice to have my new Night Rider Mini Newt USB to spot the pot holes after we got out of town.

Steve was keeping a very nice 20 mph pace and I was parked on his left shoulder trying to give enough light for the three of us to see.

My strategy had changed because of the anticipated heat later in the day so 20 mph was fine with me. I wanted to cover as many miles as possible while it was under 90 degrees. I even took an occasional pull at the front. After awhile I looked back and saw what seemed to be about 50 lights behind us. None them wanted to work however so Steve and Dave and I did the majority of work up front until the first rest stop.

After the first rest stop our little peloton was gone and it was just the three of us again. That didn’t last long though as our now 17 mph pace was shattered by a 25 mph chain of about 6 bikes. We all hopped on for a ride and a guy with a Fresno Cycling shirt took over the pulling. He banged out a 30 mph pace for over a mile and Steve was next in line. Just at that moment the tandem cavalry showed up with three or four tandems leading a line of around 30 cyclists that included Paul Vlasfeld.

These three tandems bumped up the pace to 36 mph on flat ground with little wind behind them and I was really struggling just to grab a wheel. The pace slowed to the high twenties occasionally hitting 30 and I was quite happy when the road starting going up. Then we hit Cardiac Hill and the free ride was over. I kept my eye on the Fresno Cycling guy and kept my chain on the 50 tooth. Cardiac was a really fun climb. I know I went way too hard on it but it was fun to listen to the heavy breathing of faster riders knowing they too were probably hurting their chances to have a fast finish.

My party ended on top of Cardiac as I was not in the same class as the Fresno Cycling guy and two of the tandems had made it to the top near us as well. So on the downhill I was dusted and left to ride by myself to the next rest stop.

I used the bathroom at the next rest stop and grabbed some food and water and took off again with Dave and Steve who had chosen not to hit 180 bpm on Cardiac.

The next few miles were fun and beautiful as we met up with three guys from Ukiah one of whom was extremely fast. The six of us worked together quite well all the way to last rest stop before Cobb Mountain.

It was now getting quite hot and Rick McKaw who was working the rest stop suggested more sun screen and more fluids which we were all beginning to need.

I was starting to feel the pace of the morning but at the 99 mile mark I was quite proud of my 18.7 mph riding time pace. Of course all that speed work in the morning did nothing for my climbing legs and Cobb was the only climb above Cat 3 on the whole ride in my opinion.

I started out fast and ended up slow on Cobb. The rest stop was located about a mile and half from the top of the climb. I really didn’t need a rest and if I had known it wasn’t the top I would have kept going. On a day as hot as this though any chance to take on more fluids and electrolytes was advisable. So I stopped and Dave was right behind me.

The next climb was Resurrection. Once again I realized the recurring theme of this day was that I had barely enough fuel to make it to the rest stops. I started out climbing fast but started to slow and didn’t have much fuel left.  All three of us took a nice long break at the rest stop. Dave and Steve were ready to go before me so I let them go. As I was mounting my bike Barry Schwartz showed up and asked how I was doing. We both agreed that it was officially hot.

Resurrection has a very nice descent, at the bottom of which was a construction site, where I was forced to wait for about 10 minutes. I chatted with the flag man a bit and he was dismayed to learn that more of the same weather was predicted for the next few days. They are working seven 12 hour shifts so I can understand his dread.

After that I was on my own for the first time this ride. I met two riders, one of whom couldn’t keep pace on the rollers, and one who was faster than I was. I left them behind as the faster rider was trying to pull his friend to the next stop.
I was now officially soloing it and at about mile 160 I was starting to feel the heat and the miles. Once again I was running out of fuel before the rest stop which was at mile 164.

Dave and Steve were still at the stop and we took off with Andy but Steve stayed behind. My legs were now gone. I couldn’t keep up with Andy or Dave’s pulls so I told them to go on. I pulled over at a shady spot and rested.  Back on the bike my pace was still slow and Steve came by and pulled me for awhile. Now I couldn’t really put any power into the rollers and I fell back again. At a shady spot I told Steve to go on and I rested again.

The next rest stop featured cup of noodles and that seemed like the right fuel. I didn’t want to get up but when some ladies pulled up scouting for a place to sit I gave up the lawn chair for my Aliante.

I felt pretty good as I left the rest stop but then I started to cramp a bit. I found another shady spot and rested a bit more.  The last rest stop of the day had chili and grill cheese sandwiches but it was really too hot in the fire station to enjoy them much.

Back on the bike I was feeling a little better but also still pretty slow. Then, with 5 miles left in the ride I picked up the wheel of a guy on a CR1 and got back to a nice 18 plus mph pace. We soon met another group and we pulled into Davis with a pack of about 10 riders.

I heard there were showers at the start/finish but by the time I got to my car I really just wanted to get out of my sweaty bike stuff and have some recoverite and a stretch and go home. Fortunately I had some handiwipes to help get rid of some of the sweat and I used the blanket trick that Troy Stenstrom taught me long ago to change. Andy was parked near by and I said goodbye to him and Barry as well.

I was all ready to just hop in the car and go but I had to go in to the check in to use the bathroom. That’s when I remembered that I had ordered a t shirt so I picked that up and couldn’t resist the smell of barbequed chicken. After a quick barbeque fix I was finally ready to drive to San Jose.

The drive wasn’t really all that bad with all four windows open. I made great time all the way to the Monterey Ave. Denny’s where I had a Western Burger and a chocolate milk shake.

My final statistics for my first double are 4:50 am start time and a 7:40 pm finishing time. My riding time was 11 hours and 45 minutes for a 17.1 mph average for 201.5 miles. Yes I took nearly 3 hours of breaks, but the thing about the Davis Double is the support is so great it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. The heat made this ride hard but it also made me stop and enjoy the support of one of the best supported doubles in the world.