[sccc_chat] Re: We made it

Michel,

thanks for engaging ride report, I wish I had the chance to participate as
originally planned but life had different scenario for me this time. I hope
to get a shot next year as it always has been one of the rides I would like
to have under my belt. See you at the club's meeting,

Peter

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Michel Courtoy <michel_courtoy@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>  Here is my report from the Shasta Summit Century -
> http://shastasummitcentury.com.
>
> http://connect.garmin.com/activity/207413749
>
> This ride gets compared a lot to the Death Ride and rightfully so: they
> are both tough summer rides in the Sierras with have similar distance and
> climbing.  Shasta claims 16.5K feet climbing but my Garmin shows 15,5K.
>  More on this later.
>
> Dave and I left the Valley on Saturday morning for the 5-hour drive to Mt
> Shasta.  We checked in at 3pm at the registration.  The atmosphere of the
> event is very relaxed: it helps that there are approximately 700 riders
> (vs. 3,000 for the Death Ride).  No numbers to attach on the bike, you get
> a wrist band that you can get punched at the 4 summits, so no tracking of
> who made it or not.  After this we checked out the early part of the course
> by car.  We decided to cut out a loop of ~8 miles of flat, bumpy road that
> winds its way through Weed (we did not buy 'I Love Weed' t-shirts -
> available in hemp color).
>
> Sunday morning we got up at 4am, our hotel was only a few miles from the
> start line.  We started riding at 5.20am, a bit ahead of the 'official'
> start time of 5.30am-6.30am for the 4 summit ride. It was still dark for
> the first 30 mins but Dave had a headlight (forgot mine) and we were soon
> joined by a rider with heavy duty lighting. We stayed with him until the
> start of the first climb where he quickly disposed of us: he had completed
> the Alpina 8 a couple of weeks ago so we did not feel bad about the drop.
>  The first climb (Parks Creek Summit, 3840 ft climb) is the nicest one:
> long, pretty steady in a beautiful area.  It was overcast in the morning
> and we even got a few drops of rain during the climb. We got passed by a
> dozen riders who probably waited for the 5.30am official start time.  Not
> much to report, we were settling into our groove and the weather was cool -
> heat is big factor on this ride.  The road is bumpy which results in an
> exciting descent.
>
> After climb 1, there is a 30-mile section of rolling terrain to the start
> of climb 2 to Mumbo Summit (3,300 feet climb). The sun had come out by then
> and it was getting warmer; luckily for us Sunday was a much cooler day than
> Saturday (95-100F in Mt Shasta city). The climb has a few 'stairs' with
> higher gradient but nothing mean.  By the time we got closer to the summit,
> Dave was starting to feel the heat and slowed down a bit.  I stayed with
> him until the last couple of miles - which made it easy to keep to my
> strategy: mostly keep my heart rate around 130 bpm +/- 10 ('go all day'
> pace).  My Garmin shows that I never exceeded 152 bpm's over the whole ride
> and was comfortable in the 120-140 range on the climbs (very proud of
> that!).  Dave recovered quickly at the summit and on we went for another
> thrilling descent - bumpy road again.
>
> Climb 3 to Castle Lake is the shortest one (2,200 feet) but a bit steeper
> in sections (think Page Mill with no flat sections - or Hwy 9 with a couple
> of kickers); nice pavement though. It starts right at the bottom of climb 2
> so no flat recovery miles between the two climbs.  Dave took a break about
> 2 miles from the stop as it was getting hot.  I enjoyed a little band that
> was playing at the rest stop at the summit while sitting in a nice chair
> and looking at Castle Lake - Shasta is a gorgeous area.  Very fast descent
> for climb 3 with a few other riders; the bottom is only 3 miles from the
> lunch stop where we took our time to recover.  From the lunch stop there is
> a 4-5 mile section of rollers that connects to climb 4.
>
> Climb 4 on Mt Shasta to the Old Ski Bowl is a 13-mile climb of 4,150 feet.
>  It is in fact the easiest climb of the day (very steady, good road) except
> for the 100+ miles and 10K+ feet of climbing in the legs...  The early part
> of the climb is not fun: straight wide road, no shade, constant gradient -
> except for a lady who sprays cold water on the riders (optional) - very
> welcome.  (BTW- my Garmin shows very high temps but I think those were from
> the bike sitting in the sun during the breaks; it felt hot but 90F type of
> heat - not 100F+).  First rest stop is 7 miles from the summit, followed by
> another one 2.6 miles from the top.  I was doing great until 5 miles from
> the summit when I suddenly got nausea and a splitting headache - probably
> dehydration although I thought I drank a lot.  Anyways I was glad to have
> Dave to pace me along for the last 2.6 mile section.
>
> We enjoyed the post meal dinner and a shower at the local KOA before
> driving back on Sunday night because of work commitments on Monday.  This
> was a bit of a chore - mostly for Dave who did most of the driving; the
> better formula would be to stay in Shasta on Sunday night.
>
> In conclusion, a great ride well worth the trip.  Since many have done the
> Death Ride, here are my comparison points to DR:
>
> - DR is harder because of the altitude and the tough gradients (Ebbetts).
> Base altitude for Shasta is 3,500 feet; max 7,800 feet - compare this to
> DR's base of 5,500 and max of ~9,000.  The Shasta organizers get offended
> by this; I think they have a serious case of 'DR envy'.
> - Shasta is a lot of fun because of its smaller size (think one or two
> Port-a-Potty at the summits with no lines), more convivial atmosphere.
>  They claim 700 registrants, out of those probably less than 200 do the
> full 4 summit ride. Very few 'high performance' riders - I always felt very
> safe because riders seemed cautious.
> - Very little traffic on the roads even though they are open - no gas
> fumes like on Carson.
> - Scenery is nice on DR, it is even better on Shasta.
> - Longer drive to Shasta (~5 hours) vs DR/Markleeville (3.5-4 hours).
>
> See you all on August 20 for the club meeting at the Diesel's Shed
> (6.30pm).
>
> Michel
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* David Johnson <david@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> *To:* SCCC CYCLING <sccc_chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 5, 2012 5:57 PM
>
> *Subject:* [sccc_chat] We made it
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>

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