{"id":341,"date":"2010-02-17T17:58:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T01:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=341"},"modified":"2010-02-18T09:51:31","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T17:51:31","slug":"auburn-century-91209-%e2%80%93-140-mi-17000-ft-climbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=341","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Century 140 miles 17,000 feet of climbing"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Pugliese February 17, 2010.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wildest ride in the West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/h2>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Someone said it was tougher than the Death Ride\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, said the SAG driver who stopped to give me some water – I agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the Death Ride has similar elevation gain, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s split up into fifths and only<\/em> averages about 7.2% grade.\u00c2\u00a0 Mainly, though, most cyclists who attempt the Death Ride go extremely focused and properly trained.\u00c2\u00a0 I did Auburn as an opportunity to view some nice country, but completely had the wrong mindset.<\/p>\n

The week before, I had gone down Highway 1 along the coast from Los Gatos to San Luis Obispo.\u00c2\u00a0 That trip had become an adventure after I broke a chain in the dark and we ended up sleeping in a field near the coast by Lucia, south of Big Sur.\u00c2\u00a0 After that escapade, the idea of needing to drive and get a hotel wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appealing.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, for Auburn, I took the Amtrak Capital Corridor to Sacramento and transferred to an Amtrak bus to go to Auburn.<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century\"<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century3\"<\/p>\n

I arrived early enough to go to Auburn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Old Town area and get a good meal, then I went to set up my tent.\u00c2\u00a0 I then went to registration early to hang out with the promoters and was told of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIowa Hill Time Trial\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century5\"<\/p>\n

Again, my mind wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t set right.\u00c2\u00a0 I was set to do the 140-mile \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLone Ranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 course, with 17,000 ft of climbing at the official start of 6:30, ignoring the mention that many people would start earlier.\u00c2\u00a0 I also disregarded \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIowa Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as just another climb like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Wall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or all the other noted climbs in events that often don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compare to our noteworthy local climbs like Bohlman, Welch Creek or Ramona.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d blow out the paltry 1.7 miles Time Trial as if it was Redwood Gulch.<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century7\"<\/p>\n

The following profile is for the 110-mile \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Outlaw\u00e2\u20ac\u009d route with 11466 ft. of climbing and 13.5% average grade<\/span> plus the 1.75 mile timed climb up Iowa Hill. \u00c2\u00a0There was nothing \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjust another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpaltry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 about the day.\u00c2\u00a0 The following profile shows the deep V prior to Iowa Hill:<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century9\"<\/p>\n

\n

The time trial occurred during the second hour of the ride in the location shown at this \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the chart.\u00c2\u00a0 The average grade of Iowa Hill is 13.5% and many short pitches in the 20%+ range.\u00c2\u00a0 I stopped on the bridge just before to snap a photo:<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century10\"<\/p>\n

I got back on my bike and picked up the pace as if attacking a local hill and upon crossing the chalked start line, I monitored my odometer and applied power.\u00c2\u00a0 At 25% of the distance, I realized I needed throttle back, at 50% I realized that the distance was more important and I slowed into survival mode.\u00c2\u00a0 Bummed, I looked up to see riders, walking or stopped.\u00c2\u00a0 I stopped at the top and another cyclist pulled up in disbelief and said he practiced the hill and still couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 Having blown out the cyclists on this hill, the promoters set us up early for a long subsequent climb.\u00c2\u00a0 Here I saw more stalled cyclists and one awaiting a SAG.<\/p>\n

Upon getting refueled by a SAG myself, I continued on and eventually pulled into one of the rest stops:<\/p>\n

\"Auburn-Century13\"<\/p>\n

I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to take pictures for a while as it started raining between my last two rest stops.\u00c2\u00a0 As such, the last rest stop turned me around, preventing me from doing the entire 140-mile course.<\/p>\n

A bunch of us hung out under the rest area and headed back into town along a fast, wet downhill.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, the rain had stopped after a bit:<\/p>\n

The Auburn Century (Wildest Ride in the West) was a challenging and beautiful ride that went through Auburn, Colfax, Meadow Vista, Foresthill and Bowman, past a reservoir and through the Sierras.\u00c2\u00a0 Although many rides have their favorite hill challenges, or noteworthy names, The Auburn Century was a nicer surprise and worthy of repeating.<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another nice review, with stats:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mtbguru.com\/trip\/show_static\/92-auburn-century<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s event will be on June 12, 2010, sign up now at http:\/\/www.wildestride.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Pugliese February 17, 2010. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wildest ride in the West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Someone said it was tougher than the Death Ride\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, said the SAG driver who stopped to give me some water – I agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the Death Ride has similar elevation gain, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s split up into fifths and only averages about 7.2% grade.\u00c2\u00a0 Mainly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ride-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}