Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.rides

Mount Evans Certain Death Ride (MECDR)
09/12/92
Riders: Keith "MadDog" Erskine
	Larry "Le Badger" Chapman
Sag:    Tony "I need a cool nickname" Lelm


Proposed Route:
  FtC thru Loveland to Estes Park.
  Estes over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake, Granby & Winter Park.
  Winter Park over Berthoud Pass to Idaho Springs.
  Idaho Springs to the summit of Mt. Evans.

Finishing the ride would mean riding "The highest continuous paved road" in
the United  States  *and*  riding "the  highest  paved  road" in the United
States.

Total miles is 185 and total vertical is about 18,000'.
*************************************************************************

After Keith's  failed solo attempt at this ride a year ago (that put him in
bed with the flu for a week) I suggested he try it again with me and with a
sag wagon.  He agreed and we set the date.

We left Fort Collins (elev.  5000') at 3:50 am on a beautiful  night with a
full moon and almost no wind.  The temp was around 60 degrees.  We took our
time getting to Estes Park (41 miles) ate breakfast  and left for the first
serious climb up Trail Ridge road at 7:45 am.  The climb went well until we
hit treeline at 11,500' -- wind, serious wind.  We'd both been watching the
weather  reports  and the  clouds  so  this  really  wasn't  too  much of a
surprise.  The head  wind was  blowing  hard  enough  that  both of us were
having  trouble  turning over our 39x28  gearing.  We finally  made the top
(12,200') and rode the brief descent to the vistor's center around 10:30.

The descent from the visitor's center was dicey given the strong gusts.  We
were both  praying  that either the wind would die or be from the North for
our trip thru 50 miles of generally  rolling terrain to Winter Park -- NOT!
We had steady  10-20 mph  headwinds  all the way to  Granby.  At Granby the
wind turned  swirly and we actually had some  tailwind to Winter Park.  Boy
is it fun knowing you have at least 8 hours of riding ahead of you when you
are only able to go 15 mph on a gentle downhill bucking a headwind.

At Winter  Park (120  miles) I told Keith that I was going to stop at Idaho
Springs.  I wasn't  feeling  too bad but we were  already 2 hours  *behind*
Keith's solo time from last year because of all the wind.  I just  couldn't
mentally  fathom another 7000' climb after the pass.  He kept  muttering "I
not quitting yet".

We got a great  tailwind all the was into Idaho Springs where we arrived at
6:30 pm.  I did stop there  with 157 miles and about  11,000  verts  with a
blistering average speed (including stops) of 11 mph.

Keith ain't  stopping (why do you think we call him  "MadDog"?).  Tony, our
gracious sag driver,  unloads his  mountain  bike and begins the Mt.  Evans
climb with Keith.  I go for food and gas.

Tony and Keith are only able to average  about 5 mph but Keith  still seems
to  be  hanging   together.  I'm  still  glad  I'm  driving.  At  treeline,
SURPRISE, the wind comes up again and it's getting  pretty cold (below 40).
Keith is starting to lose it.  He hurls, he looks glassy eyed, but he hangs
on.  For the first time on the ride we motorpace him.

At 11:00 pm we reach  Summit  Lake  (12,800')  and find  that the road  the
remaining 5 miles to the summit is closed for  re-paving.  We had talked to
the State Patrol and knew this might be the case.

Keith gladly gets in the truck and calls it a day.

Nice ride.  No doubt we could do it, but it would take flawless weather.

Oh yea, we didn't  have a single  flat or  mechanical  problem of any kind.
Keith rode a Trek 2500 and I rode a Trek  2300.  Keith had a 12-28  7-speed
rear cluster and I had a 12-28 8-speed.  We both had 53-39  chainrings  and
both used clip-on aerobars.

-- Badge

or