Spring Death Valley Century

Wow!  We had quite the day today and it was spent all day on a bike.  The day began with all of my new and old friends lined up to leave Furnace Creek on their bikes.  All of us were itching to take off and get this ride started.  I'll admit that I was a little nervous about how I would get this done and about whether I would run into issues.  I felt great going out.  So great that I skipped the first rest stop at 17 miles.  I figured the 45 mile stop wasn't that far away.  And it wasn't.  But boy did we get a little headwind just before pulling into Ashford Mills.  I wish I could have taken pictures but there was no way I could stop.  The scenery was spectacular with clouds in the sky and very little wind.

Once at Ashford Mills, everyone knew we would start the climb.   So everyone was stocking up on water and grabbing something to eat before starting the climb.  I think the climb was about 4.5 miles and it never got above 6%.  Very doable.  But I have to say that once we got closer to Jubilee Pass, I was ready to get there and turn around.  At the turnaround, they had volunteers waiting to mark everyone's helmet for those that were turning around.  Chris Kostman has a well oiled machine in how he operates this century and has so many great volunteers to help out.

The vast majority of riders were doing the 147 mile or 200 mile race.  It's hard to believe anyone would want to do that many miles at once but apparently people from California need that extra challenge.  While we sat around a fire talking about the ride, there were still people riding in from the 200 mile ride even at 8pm.  Even Pam joined in and she was phenomenal.  She flew in completing the 147 miles with an average 16.6 mph.  This is really impressive when you know she had to do a lot more climbing.

Me with Chris and Jill at Jubilee Pass

After flying down from Jubilee Pass, the ride back from Ashford Mills to Badwater Basin seemed to actually be the worse part of the ride and it was only flat to rolling roads.  I think at this point, you are getting closer to the end and just want to be finished.  All of us remarked that we kept thinking that Badwater was just around the corner even though all of our cyclocomputers stated that it was still far away.

The great thing is that once you were at Badwater Basin, you were almost done if you did the century or ultra century.  It was only 17 miles until Furnace Creek Inn.  I think all of us were so happy once we were on our last stretch of riding.

I don't think we could have asked for a better day to ride a century.  It is hard enough riding it in Death Valley but at least we had cloudy skies and little wind to help make the ride doable.  Apparently this hasn't always been the case in the past.  Not sure what made this possible but I was certainly thankful for these great conditions.

View from Badwater Road

What a great way to end my trip here.  Every day we road, the riding built up my endurance and ability and only made me want to improve myself.  The century was just icing on the cake.  I hope to continue this training so that I don't lose what I have gained by riding here.  I couldn't have asked to have better people to ride with then with Pam and Dave, Angie and Jason, Jill and Tim, Chris and Karen and so many other amazing people that I had a chance to share this great experience with.  They were all great inspirations for me to take back home with me.