


| April 8, 2006 Hemet Double Century 202 miles 6,000 feet of climbing 2nd finisher out of 155 finishing time 10:44 Total Time!! 1st Century 107 miles 5:31 2nd Century 95 miles 5:13 Wattage Numbers Total Kilojoules- 6151 Best Average 30min- 213w Best Average 60min- 205w Best Average 120min- 200w Average Watts total event- 172w (Endurance wattage much lower than Criterium or Road Race. Also lower when in a three-man breakaway) 2006 Results I usually prefer hilly or mountainous Double Centuries (DC). DCs with less than 8,000 feet of climbing are pretty tame. However, this year since my goals are Everest Challenge and Furnace Creek 508. I decided that a flatter DC would also be good training if I kept the intensity up. I headed out at 6:09 am with Andy Zelhof. I was expecting to work with Andy for a little while and then hopefully find a tandem or two to draft behind. Andy has been riding strong this year and I didn't think I would stay with him all day. Well, by the time we got to Lake Elsinore, Marc Patton caught up with us he had started at 6:17am. Andy looked at me and said it would be tough to ride with Marc but we should pick up some extra momentum. Man, he wasn't kidding. Marc is very strong and staying on his wheel was a struggle for me. We were moving so fast that throughout the first century I was having trouble finishing one of my water bottles between rest stops. On the second century I forced myself to finish a bottle between rest stops. By the way, our stops were less than four minutes each. I know because my Power Tap SL has a sleep mode after four minutes and we always pulled away from the rest stops before four minutes had elapsed. Most of the day when we integrated into other pacelines it seemed they couldn't keep our pace. We would take two turns and by the third turn at the front we would ride them off our wheel. Marc was the strong one and I was the weakest link. After a short stop for lunch, and 107 miles down, we headed out to Sage Rd. Andy and Marc both dropped me as I did my best not to lose too much ground. I was starting to hurt and was barely going 5 mph up Sage Road. Of course, that is where the photographer was positioned. Andy and Marc were gracious enough to wait for me at the top and we rolled on through the vineyards of Temecula. The pace was too high for me and I really had no business riding with these two strongmen. On the second to last stop I was so exhausted and nauseous that I had trouble holding anything down, if you know what I mean. But in the end I am glad I did. So after 7 mandatory stops for checking in and plenty of traffic signals I finished my first ever Double Century in under 11 hours, 10:44!! Hemet Double Century 202 miles (oops forgot to set it for 700c wheels measured only 186 miles) |