I learned the hard way on my first double century last year to take advantage of the optional early bird start. I tried to get everything ready the night before and then go to bed somewhat early (yea, right!) and then woke up at 2am, made the 80 minute drive to Hemet while listening to talk radio dire warnings about disappearing bee colonies, thought I was on schedule for a 4am start only to find out that when I pumped up my tires the night before, I had exceeded the containment pressure of the patch I had used to repair an inner tube hole several days earlier. So, I started the day with a flat and began the task of replacing the tube at that dark, predawn hour only to find that 2 of the 3 replacement tubes I had bought and brought had the wrong kind of valve stem for my bike! Doh! By the time I used my only good tube to fix the flat and picked up my registration packet and got myself ready to ride, one precious hour had slipped by.
I departed the Motel 6 start/completion point around 5am with a good size group(Yes, I need glasses to read the route map, especially by the dim light of my head lamp), but tired of riding so slowly and jumped on the tail of the first faster cyclists to come along. I ended up being passed by the slower group when I stopped to help someone lacking the proper tools repair a flat tire in the dark. By the time we got underway again, it was getting light. Even so, we managed to miss a turn and padded our mileage total by several additional miles before discovering our error and backtracking.
Although the winds gradually increased throughout the morning, the weather was dry and the temperatures were mild. Darn if I didn't get another flat halfway though the morning. Someone had pity on my and stopped and gave me a spare tube. I decided to replace both the tube and my front tire (which was a bit on the thin side) with the spare I had been carrying around in my backpack for months. The donated tube was a patched one that had a slow leak. I had to stop and pump up the tire every 10-15 minutes. What a pain. Due to all the stops for flat fixin, I completed the first 100+ mile loop #1 later than when Kim and I did this ride last year.
Because I didn't push myself as hard as last year, I had no muscle spams this year at lunch, unlike last year when my calf muscles were writhing like a sock full of snakes. I was also successfull in avoiding swollen Achille's tendons this year.
After lunch, in spite of strong headwinds, I managed to complete the notorious Sage Road climb (which is as steep as 20 percent grade in places) and then battled the 20 mph headwinds on the downhill side and into the rolling countryside beyond, all the while pumping up the front tire every 10 minutes. When I reached the first rest stop of the afternoon, two very helpful volunteers gave me not one, but two new tubes and even installed one of them in my leaky front tire for me while I ate and drank to recharge the motor and took a very needed rest in one of their camping chairs. What service!! This rest stop was scheduled to close soon after I left, so I knew that I needed to make up time I had lost with all those stops to fix flats and pump up tires.
With a fully inflated tire, I now made good time and was passing other cyclists pretty regularly until arriving at Rest Stop #5 in late afternoon.
After we passed through Lake Elsinore for the 2nd time that day, the route of the 2nd loop deviated from that of the first loop and had us return via an unfamilar Bundy Canyon rather than Railroad Canyon, which had faster traffic, but a wide bike lane. Bundy Canyon was THEE worst cycling experience I think I have ever had without actually crashing. It was dark. The road was narrow, with little if any shoulder and there was heavy, Saturday night traffic in both directions. The drivers going uphill with us were NOT HAPPY about having to deal with heavy oncoming traffic plus cyclists on the edge of their lane. I lost track of how many people honked or yelled or swore venomously at us. I was upset about having been led into such a dangerous situation. I was surprised that I did not hear of any cyclists being hit in that canyon. This experience helped me decide to not do any more double centuries which require me to ride after dark (evenings are worse than mornings) on unfamiliar and sometimes dangerous roads.
I was tired when I reached the final rest stop, but knew I needed to hurry in order to complete the course before the 10pm deadline. Another rider was looking to team up with someone who was leaving sooner than the group she arrived with. She did not have a bright tail light, so I rode behind her and tried to motivate her to keep going during those very long remaining 20 or so miles. We arrived back at the Motel 6 in Hemet, with 10 minutes to spare, just as a light rain began to fall. We were both very glad to have finished, as it was the 3rd double century of the year for both of us, qualifying both of us as California Triple Crown winners.
All that was left was for me to drive myself back home. I was sleepy and struggled to stay awake.
Somebody was watching out for me because I made it home in one piece about midnight. A hot shower and soft bed sure felt good! Even though I still had 6:30am bishopric meeting the following morning, I got more sleep than I had the previous night!
