Those were Trevor’s words to me a little while after finishing my first Double Century, the
Solvang Spring DC. He was wondering what on earth could possess grown people to put themselves through such pain as riding 200 miles in a day. I answered him by saying ‘I think that is the point’. For I think that neatly encapsulates the point of attempting such a ride. For me it is the challenge that as I get older and my doomsday clock keeps a ticking; I want to push my body physically and my mind mentally to the limits. Trust me, riding a double century, even one as ‘moderate’ as the Solvang Spring DC, is both just as much a mental/psychological challenge as a physical one. If not more so.
I have been thinking about this ride for more than a year and training for months. My longest training ride was a few Saturdays ago, when I rode the SF Randonneurs Point Reyes 200K route (200K+ from home, 140 miles) with around 8,000 feet of climbing. I would be completely lying if I said I thought I wasn’t afraid of attempting a double century. I was nervous as hell.A friend Doug and I were chauffeured to Solvang by Trevor on Friday. We arrived in Solvang late afternoon. I had to ride down to the local bike shop to get a new saddle bag after finding the one I purchased in the morning not fitting on my bike. Earlier in the week I busted my previous saddle bag after taking a tumble on a dirt rut on my commute to work. After registering and going to eat we quickly tried to get some shut eye. I spent a good while looking at the ceiling trying to get my nerves under control.
The alarm goes off at 4 am. Up out of bed I jump. Into my bike shorts, checking the weather to see how many layers I needed. I decided to use arm and leg warmers, extra socks, a vest, bandana, and some warm full fingered gloves. I tucked my regular gloves, an extra tube, my phone, and some sunscreen in my jersey pockets. Checked to make sure I had placed some ibuprofen in my saddle bag for surely I was going to need it and figured since I was checking I should take some immediately as a preventative measure. Shortly after 4:30 am, Doug and I leave the Holiday Inn Express to be joined by other bicyclist coming from the same hotel and from others down the road and we all journeyed the 3 miles to Buellton CA where the ride was starting from the Marriot no earlier than 5 am. I was definitely starting to get excited. Just about as we are hitting Buellton we begin to see riders departing in the opposite direction. We got to the Marriot, had them mark our rider numbers, and off we started.It was a cool morning, around 42 degrees, with a ton of stars shining and a beautiful crescent moon. It was awesome!!! I absolutely loved heading down CA246 towards Happy Cannon Rd as a part a long procession of bicyclists with their lights on and blinkies blinking with hardly a car to be seen. I found I had a tendency to be entranced by all the blinking lights. It was an almost primal reaction, such as ‘I must catch the blinky ahead of me’. I found myself starting the first few miles strong but than trying to calm myself ultimately convincing myself that I wasn’t racing and I should slow down because it was going to be a long day. Yet off I continued after the next blinkie.
It wasn’t long before we turned onto Foxen Canyon Road and began our first ‘climb’ of the day. What was incredibly interesting was the climbing through the thermoclines, it being much warmer at the top then in the valley below. Foxen Canyon Road is an absolutely gorgeous road, sprinkled with vineyards and cows and horses and pastures with flowers. Just as the sun was
rising, we hit this road. We passed Firestone/Curtis, Koehler, Fess Parker, and Rancho Sisquoc. I nearly tossed in the towel when I surprisingly passed Zaca Mesa winery and called it a day, but I mustered all the will power I could find and peddled on. Shortly after passing Foxen we arrived at the first checkpoint/rest stop in Sisquoc after about 40 miles. After spending a little over 10 minutes at this checkpoint I got incredibly chilled and decided I needed to get back on the road to warm up. Doug was at the checkpoint by now, but being chilled I didn’t stay to chat. 
From Sisquoc we traveled northeast on the eastern side of Santa Maria with only a slight climb on Bull Canyon Road. What I remember most about the roads between Sisquoc and San Luis Obispo is the strong riders I was riding with and the pace lines formed sporadically all the way to the second check point (mile 80). (Many thanks to Jerome for imparting pace line etiquette tips a few months back). The heat had been turned on by this checkpoint, in my estimation it was around 80 degrees if not above. All the extra warm layers I had on were taken off and rolled so that they went in my jersey pockets. The sunscreen I was carrying was liberally applied.
Leaving San Luis Obispo I ended up riding with Bill from Grizzly Peak Cyclists. I recognized his jersey and introduced myself. We ended up chatting a bit as we road and took turns in the lead as we headed north on Highway 1 into Morro Bay. We were traveling at a pretty good clip, 
overtaking riders ahead of us, but none joined. If I remember correctly we made it to the Morro Bay mandatory checkpoint by noon. In Morro Bay we had to have our numbers checked so that it was confirmed that we road the entire way. This is a pic of the rock in Morro Bay. Here we caught up with a person I think I recognized from Chris’s Old La Honda/San Gregorio training ride the week before. He was busy sending off a text notifying someone of his making the half way point. At lunch it was confirmed that he was on the training ride last week and that he was riding in ALC8 this year with Topher (someone I know from DSSF). Ryan, Bill, Blue guy (don’t know his name, he was wearing a blue jersey and shorts), and I pretty much stayed together all the way to the lunch stop where Subway sandwiches were waiting for us. I stopped to take these pics just before leaving Morro Bay.
Lunch was mile 118. The time was 1 pm. It was only while I was eating did the speed demons that were being timed catch up, blow into the rest stop, and immediately breeze back out. Keep in mind that the people wanting to be timed left at 7:30 am, nearly 2.5 hours after I did. After being absolutely shocked I was quite proud of making it all the way to lunch before they caught up with slow poke me.
I would have been in absolute heaven if the ride stopped at mile 118.5, lunch. I felt strong, not too tired, and in good spirits. After lunch the muscles started talking back, the energy dissipated, and the mental games began. I started noticing the bumps in the road a bit more. I recognized the hot springs that I stopped at with Will, Chris, and Roger, amongst others during ALC7 last year. From there it was a familiar route into and out of Pismo Beach all the way to Hwy 1 and Mesa View Drive. It was here that I started to get panicky and started asking what the hell I got myself into. The reason being was that I started to remember this stretch of road from ALC7, or more specifically the stretch of road that I was about to reach. Mesa View Drive was a slight climb maybe 200 feet if not a little bit more, which wasn’t bad. It was the stretch of Hwy 1 from the top of the climb all the way to Guadalupe. It is down right ugly in that the cross winds and head winds are absolutely profane inducing. If there was a bicyclist hell in California, this stretch of road into Rest Stop 4 in Guadalupe must be right up there contending for the top spot. So forgive me if it was during this stretch that I started cursing the gods, doubting what I was doing, etc…yet I could only peddle on. Just as I remembered the horrible cross/head winds, I also soon remembered in the middle of a curse the wonderful and beautiful TAILWINDS that would push me out of Guadalupe into Santa Maria!!!!
The tailwind was nice, but once I turned south again on Black Road the road conditions was less than ideal. I suspect that it may have been a simple fact of being tired and noticing all the bumps and potholes a lot more. However, the road (Hwy 135) into Los Alamos and the last rest stop was horrible and would be under any amount of rest. After resting for a little while, psyching myself up for the last major climb of the day up Drum Canyon Road, having a lot of M&M’s and soda at the last rest stop I texted Trevor to give him my ETA at the finish line. It was shortly 
after 5 pm and I gave him an ETA of between 6:15 and 6:30 pm. As bad as I thought Hwy 135 sucked, Drum Canyon’s poor road conditions would take the title of worse conditions for the day. I settled in and slowly started to climb the ~1500 feet in over 3.4 miles. I’ve definitely climbed harder hills, but not after 177 miles before. The slow and steady pace still enabled me to catch and pass other riders on the climb and it wasn’t long before I passed over the cattle grates at the top. The descent was the horrible part. The poor road conditions made a technical descent even worse. The riders I passed on the way up now passed me on the way down. I stopped to take a few pictures of the valley and some flowers. Flowers pretty, potholes ugly.
Since I found the climb not to take me as long as I feared, I decided to slow down my pace a bit because I had given an ETA and didn’t want to get there before Trevor (however if I had known he was already there…). Any how from Drum Canyon Road it was a left onto CA246 with an easterly heading into Buellton and the finish line (just after 6 pm) and a smiling Trevor and his beer which I immediately stole. After checking in, I settled in with a beer and another and let the sun and alcohols warm my bones.
So yes I felt a little bit close to death, physically and mentally, but the fact that I made it through to ride in another one still smiling means everything in the world.
