by Deborah Lefferts

The week before I cleaned my bike and started backing my bag. I had scoped out my time by comparing myself with the other women. I knew Kitty had completed Mulholland in 15:51 last year. Kitty I knew was not fast, but she keeps her breaks short and has done the stage race before. So, my plan was to complete it in 16:30, because I had completed Terrible Two in 17:04 a few years back. And I thought if I could complete Mulholland in 16:30, I could complete TT in 16:30 and earn that I did it T shirt. David and I had checked the weather before the ride, which the weather gods were right, 96 degrees. David and I both drunk a gallon of water on Friday, and I could not stop eating, which is usually for me. When I get nervous I do not eat.

Saturday Morning at the start, I felt great, a hot bath that the night before and a good night sleep with an excellent dinner, and a 1 scope of Spiz, 1 hard boiled egg, a bananas, 1 capsule of Endurolytes, and several fig cookies for breakfast, I was ready to roll. I talked to Patty, Richard, Ken Emerson, Udi Yuhjtman before the start. And then 5A hits with a temperature of 45 degrees, I am focused on what I have been training for several years. I focused on moving up to the front and hanging on to the fast group, but I did not fry myself. So, I roll off the front with David behind me hanging on to Ken Emerson’s wheel. What I have learned from David, during the roll out is this is the time when a cyclist can create a great advantage. David had told me to dress as minimum as I could, because it was going to be hot. And I did not need to carry all that gear all day. So silk glove liners, leg and arm warms, and a vest is all I wore. My hands had no feeling for the first half hour, due to the cold. What went through my mind was my hands were this cold before when I descended the backside of HWY 9 with Lane Parker in December, and they would warm up, so I stopped focusing on my cold hands. This would pass. Within an hour, I was very warm.

Another item about riding smart for me is, I read Franz’s article on heart rating monitoring, and I applied the part about keeping a rider’s heart rate at an aerobic level (for me is 150 to 160). I never let my heart rate get above 140 on the roll out and on the climbs I tried to keep it to 158, which I was able to do this at the beginning. We hit the first rest stop and second rest stop before they were opened, so this meant we were shooting for under 14 hour finish time. I could dream. So, we hit the 3rd rest stop (62 miles) at 9:30 A.M, half hour after it opened, not bad we were doing well. However, between mile 62 and 90 before the lunch stop, the headwinds kidded up and the dream were over.

It did matter which way a rider turned the headwinds did not stop, even on the climbs and descends. The headwinds played a big head trip on me, and I fell into a big negative hole. However, we hit the descended out to the coast on a hill that I would not want to climb, and I was still ahead of Kitty. What a beautiful ride! The coast was clear with ocean dark green blue water with a lot of wild flowers yellow, orange, and purple mixed with green grass on rough hills. Kitty caught me at the bottom of hill. Then we headed north with the headwinds in our faces again on HWY 1 coast, I was pulling David and Clyde while the two talked, which did not set well with me So, my comment was if you are talking you are not working. David picked up the pace to fast for me, and I fell behind and fought the headwinds by myself.

As we turned off HWY 1 on to the nasty climb of the day, I was ready. I hit a heart rate of 167 standing on a triple with a nasty headwinds and 24% grade, Potrero Rd  (Rolling Hills with a headwind).. Most people were walking, but I climbed it. I reached the top and David was surprise, because I was right behind him. I got to the top and I said let’s roll. The negative hole was gone for awhile.

When we reached the lunch rest stop, David had a flat and I could not eat the sandwich. I took one bite and through it out. Ken Emerson was there and could not eat either. I drank everything I could and we rolled. The dark cloud was still over my head. It just seemed if we were not climbing, we were dealing with headwinds, if were no headwinds it was the heat. I do not remember where, but David and I run out of water. And we stopped at a school to fill up, before the climb up Balcom. We saw no sags with temperatures in 90’s to 100’s degrees; you would think there would be sag with water. However, David ran out of water before the climb up Decker. I gave him my water bottle. We got to top of Decker and the only thing to drink was water at 163 miles. Decker was a hard climb, because the heat had set in. I got to the top David grabbed my bike and I lay down on the ground for 15 minutes, wanted to give up any food I had in my stomach.. Kitty was there, but I did not care. I stayed laying there. Utd rolled up after 10 minutes. He was surprised I dropped him on the climb. I told him I had trained climbing hills like this on a double. So, instead of climbing in a double during the ride, I dropped into my low ring (30/23). Kept a nice steady spin with a heart rate of 156 to 158, and stayed seated and relaxed my upper body. Another Article Franz posted.

At mile 173, I missed Peter Strauss rest stop (required check in) and added about 20 minutes to my time, plus 4 miles. I learned it is marked with cones only, no sign or lights, and it is dark. At mile 183, we hit our last climb for the day, 5.7 miles (just like HWY 9, but shorter). Utd and I climbed the last climb together talked into the night. He said, this was good training for Devil Mountain Double. Kept saying we are going to finish. And we counted the markings on the climb, 4K, 3K, 2K, 1K. I kept saying we are getting closer to the, because the wind is picking up again. We reached the last rest stop at 10:35P, which should have closed 5 minutes before, however, they were still people behind us. The last 2 miles, I was able to big ring it in through the rollers. David, Utd, and I rolled into together at 18:19. Kitty rolled in at 17:48. 72 riders completed the ride and 52 DNF.

This is one of the most beautiful rides, however, just not well supported. If you lose your map, there are no maps at the rest stops. And about water you need to take care of yourself. David had two water bottles and I had 1 bottle with a camelback, and we still had problems with water.

Another item riding smart for me, was to eat small bites all day on the bike. Thanks Gray Franck for this information. It worked for me.
One out of three completed. Terrible Two will be real test.