I've finished my 2nd fixed gear double this season, the Los Angeles Wheelmen Grand Tour. Even with the relatively small amount of climbing (5500'), it was still proof that there's no such thing as an "easy double". They all pose their own set of challenges.
I pick up my friend Breden from the airport (he flew in from New Mexcio where he recently relocated to) and we drive down the day before the event with 3 bikes. Friend Nicole can't get the time off, so she decides to fly down that evening. Quite a commitment for a first timer double century rider!
It takes us 9 hours to get to Malibu, including a 45 minute stop in Paso Robles to visit his in-laws. Traffic into Malibu is godawful, but we make it to registration and then head off to our motel West LA.....a full hour from the start of the ride! Nicole is supposed to fly into LAX by 9:15 but her flight is delayed and we don't pick her up until 10:45. Our heads don't hit the pillow until midnight.
A 3AM wakeup call comes waaaay too early. I feel tired until I find out that Nicole hasn't slept at ALL. She's suffers insomnia, and with the pre-ride jitters of a double and the hectic day of working and traveling, she gets zero shut eye. But we're up, showered, dressed and in the van by 3:45. We arrive early so Nicole could complete the late registration and we are on the road by 4:40.
The early morning ride consists of coastal rollers for a good 25 miles. I start hitting these pretty hard and figure I'd regroup with my friends at the highway exit. About 3 miles from the turnoff, Breden and a tandem roll up next to me. They'd helped him bridge up to me and we roll together and wait for Nicole. A few miles later we hit rest stop one.
Nicole is looking tired. She says she's having that sleep deprivation nausea feeling. I know that feeling all too well. I'm already sort of having a side cramp in my ribs. Breden is having some shoulder pain. What a trio we are!
While I'm waiting, another fixed gear rider rolls up to us. We get to talking and end up rolling out together. His name is Mike Melville and he's riding with his buddies Gill and Rick. I start pulling head with the 3 of them, not noticing that Nicole and Breden have fallen off the back. "Can we ratchet it back a notch?" I ask. "Sure thing!" Mike says.
We slow down for all of 5 minutes and then the pace picks up again. Gil is in front with Mike and I spinning along with crazy legs. "He's got a 54 big ring." Mike informs me. "I think his ratchet is broken" I tell him. "Ease up the pace, Mr Goodwrench!" Mike tells Gil.
For the rest of the ride, we all refer to Gil as "Mr. Goodwrench" which for whatever reason, I find hilarious and chuckle every time I hear. As we near the next rest stop, I double back and wait for them. They both look wiped and we're only 60 miles into this thing. Nicole is especially suffering at this point. I get to talking with Mike and he thinks it would be fun if we all roll together. The more the merrier, always. After all, today's ride was more for my friends than myself. No need to race this one.
So the six of us roll on and about half way to the next rest stop, I point to out Mike's jersey to my friend Breden. "Alta Alpina 8 Pass Finisher". Wh-what? He's out here doing a fixed gear double only 2 weeks after completing what may be the hardest double out there?! I tell him congrats and he asks me if I know a "Becky Berka". Funny thing is I'd ridden the last 40 miles of the SF 300k with her and had seen her at the start of DMD. I'd also just added her as a friend on Facebook a few days earlier. Small world!
It certainly was strange that I didn't notice his jersey earlier though. Why was that? Oh yeah! He had a hydration pack on earlier. Doh! He'd left it at the last rest stop. So with only one bottle for the rest of the ride, I tell him that between all of us, we have enough water to refill him as we rolled along. "I knew we joined up with the right crew!" he exclaimed.
We hit rest stop 3, and I check the route sheet. Next up is the climb to Ojai that my friend Alfie had warned me about. A notoriously long and hot stretch of road that eventually leads to lunch.
We all ready ourselves, top off the bottles and carry on. So we're climbing some. It's warm but not too warm. Then the road hooks right and dips down. "This must be where the climb begins." I think to myself. The road rolls, and rolls and mildly rolls some more. The sun is up but it's not bothering me too much. Before I know it, we're at Ojai. "Where's the climb Alfie was talking about?" I ask Breden. We were both conserving for a final effort before food!
We check in, grab food (choice of sandwich or burrito) and find a shady spot. I'm amazed at how well this ride is supported. Ice cold soda, decent food, advil and enduralytes all ready to go in little cups, and tons of ice. If there's one thing that these doubles never have enough of, it's ICE. My only gripe was the fact that the V8s were low sodium. Oh well. Guess I'll have to drink 2!
As we begin to saddle up, the fellow doing the check in asks "Were you in Solvang?" That's the 3rd time that someone's asked me that today. I nod and he recalls me with my "girlfriend".
"Are you sure you're not thinking of my friend Alfie? He looks like me, rides a blue Argus and was with his girlfriend on that ride as well." I reply.
"Nope. It was definitely you. Really attractive woman too." he says. "Well I guess she just needed a wheel to suck." That comes out sounding all sorts of wrong. Leave it to me to not notice a hot babe on my 6 o'clock :P
So while I'm chatting away, my cohorts are getting antsy and giving me looks. "Aren't we still waiting for one more?" I ask. Apparently not, as Rick has already rolled on ahead. The pace earlier on was a little fast for him and he'd already DNF'd two doubles and didn't want to fail a third. Both Davis and Eastern Sierra had tested his meddle.
He'd even asked me earlier if I'd wear a jersey for a double I'd never ridden. I tell him probably not, unless it was that really cool 40th Anniversary Davis jersey that I missed (wussed) out on. He says he'll give me the jersey as he didn't feel worthy of it after DNF'ing. "Nonsense!" I tell him. "Did that double beat the shit out of you? Did you give it everything you had? Then you earned that fucking jersey!" "I never thought about it like that." he replies. "I'm going to wear it as a badge of honor."