Devil Mountain Double Race Report 2012

Being in my best cycling shape I knew this would go pretty well.   I first did this ride in 2006 in 19 hours plus so my goal of sub 13 was a big jump, but I like big goals.  The 6 AM start was faster than the last two years and we hit Diablo pretty hard.  I was holding about 320 watts avg and chatting with Balvindar Singh up the climb, but the main pace maker put a few surges on and I dropped back with 5 minutes to go or so.   Being gapped here would mean that I was to be alone on a very long Time Trial, but I could not go any faster.  Ended up doing my best hour for watts by a long shot and saw the lead guys take off for good.   I was going on a long TT now and I knew it, but that was going to be good training for RAW (Race Across the West) in June.  

Rick Jacobson caught me on the way to Clayton and we worked together out to Morgan Territory. We were on a good pace and pulled in at about 9:20 AM which was a great pace.  I quickly filled a bottle and and expected Rick to catch back on, but I never saw him again.   With the top guys gone, I road past all of the 5 AM guys one at a time and hoped for some help pulling on the flats, but I ended up dropping them and kept riding hard to Patterson.  The climb went pretty easy and then I caught on to a fast Peleton of the Wente Road race for a short while out to Mines road.  I got to Mines road at 11:25 AM or so which was right on target for a sub 13 finish.   I did not feel great up Mines, but kept moving and hit lunch at 1:05.   Based on some analysis of the ride I did a while back, I knew that I needed to be at lunch before 1 PM to have a shot at breaking 13 hours.   5 minutes too slow!  Oh well.  I got in and out and took off pretty fast to the backside of Hamilton.  I cruised up and down the two test climbs and then managed to do some decent slow tempo up the back side of Hamilton in 42 minutes which was good considering how easy it felt.  The descent of Hamilton was better than usual and it seemed that Crothers came up quick.  I saw the pacemaker up Diablo there David Palmeri who was having a rough day bonking and knew there was not many guys ahead.  I had a great ascent of Sierra in 34 and change which was better than I expected at mile 160.  The descent to Sunol was as good as it gets at over 20 MPH average and I imagined I was Tom Boonen blasting solo into the finish at Flanders.    

At Sunol, I whined a bit about not being able to break 13 as it was 5:45 PM or so and that was not enough time for me to finish by 7 PM.  Lloyd Chambers and Jeff Gould were strong 5 AM guys who happened to be taking off for the finish at the same time.  Jeff ripped a strong pull all the way to Palomares and mentioned he heard I wanted to bust 13 and was going to help out.  Talk about awesome.  We hammered up the climb and descended fast out to Crow Canyon.   The ride up Norris was great and we pulled into the finish at 7:13.    I was happy with the time.  It was a lot of fun.  I was in control and enjoyed about every minute of the ride.  Compared to my first DMD where I barely finished.     

Looking forward to 2013.

Results

Strava Analysis

Top 10 Things Learned:

1.  Hang with top guys to the top of Diablo or TT alone for 12 hours
2.  Be at lunch by 1 PM if you want to break 13 hours
3.  Wente road race pacing is great for some free speed
4.  Carrying two 1200 calorie bottles to get to lunch w/o stopping works
5.  21 minutes off the bike is good, but how in the hell do people sub 10?  Crazies!
6.  I am very lucky to get to do this stuff for fun
7.  Sierra road is only hard if you dont gear properly.  34/29 was cake
8.  Bal Singh is hard core.  Crashed and still finished in 12:30
9.  We have an amazing ability to improve
10. Quackcyclists are the best