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The Carmel Valley Double Century is a California Triple Crown event hosted by XeDapViet (XDV) Cycling Club. It is a difficult, hilly double that would have been one of the California Triple Crown stage race doubles had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic. This year the route was an out-and-back to Big Sur because the Fergusson climb is still closed due to a washout after the Dolan Fire last year. I did this as a training ride for the 12-hour race at Borrego Springs in October, so my goal was to keep my power up and minimize stoppage time. I carried a 3L bladder with 8 scoops of Roctane plus a 0.5L bottle of lightly salted water. I figured that would be good enough to get me to the lunch stop in Big Sur at Mile 105 without a need for fuel or water at any of the rest stops.
I stayed overnight at one of the local motels recommended by XeDapViet (XDV) Cycling Club. The morning of the event I rolled over to the start at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds at about 10 minutes before 6am, figuring there would be a group of faster riders departing at the end of the official departure window, which was 4am – 6am. I was hoping to roll out with them, figuring one of them would be familiar with the route. When I arrived at the fairgrounds, the only people I saw were volunteers loading a vehicle for one of the rest stops. I looked over at the camping area where some of the riders stayed, but all was quiet. I asked one of the volunteers if anyone was planning to roll out at 6am, and he said he thought everyone had already departed. So when my watch hit 6am I started my ride solo.
One thing I forgot to bring was safety glasses for riding in the dark. So for the first hour I rode with my eyes unprotected hoping that I wouldn’t catch a bug in the eye. Luckily that didn’t happen.
I caught sight of the first rider ahead of me just before 7am as we were heading up Arroyo Seco Road toward the first rest stop. The sun had come up behind me and it was lighting up the road nicely, so I stopped for a moment to turn off my lights and lower the shield on my helmet so my eyes were now protected. Shortly after I restarted, I reached the first rest stop at Mile 21. The volunteers were ringing cowbells for the rider in front of me and then for me. I thought that was a nice touch. The rider in front of me pulled into the rest stop to join a few others who were there. I rode past the rest stop and let the volunteers know that I had what I needed.
I passed a few more riders as we made our way up to the Cahoon summit at 2400 feet. The second rest stop at Mile 37 was just over the summit, so I was moving pretty fast as I rode by and just waved to the volunteers.
Along Carmel Valley Road I spotted a CalFire SUV and an unmarked pickup truck along the side of the road. A few minutes later I heard a siren behind me that I thought at first was a police vehicle. I looked in my mirrors and saw a vehicle with its cherry top lit up, and figured maybe I was being pulled over for speeding
so I started to move over. It was the CalFire SUV, and it blew past me at high speed, followed shortly after by the pickup truck. After a couple minutes I smelled smoke, and thought to myself what would I do if a wildfire had started in the canyon. Carmel Valley is a pretty densely wooded canyon, not a wide valley, and the only escape would be back up the road I was on toward Cahoon summit. Shortly after smelling the smoke I passed the CalFire SUV and the pickup truck, stopped along the side of the road. I think they were talking with someone there, probably a local who was burning something when they shouldn’t have been.
After a long downhill and a turn onto Highway 1, I made the left turn for the Robinson Canyon climb. On Strava this is a Category 2 climb, pretty long with some steep switchbacks in the upper half that resulted in a little front wheel slippage. It’s also a pretty narrow road. Near the beginning I encountered my first close call. A commercial wide-axle pickup truck passed me in a fairly narrow location as a descending rider came around a corner ahead of us. The truck driver moved so far over to the right that either his fenders scraped the side of the hillside or his wheels rode up on it. I couldn’t really tell which because of the dust cloud it created. Fortunately, the rider squeezed by and no one was harmed. I passed several riders on the way up, got a shout-out from my friend Tom as he was descending, and got words of encouragement from a number of the other riders who were descending. One of them must have been another friend Chris, who was riding with Tom. When I reached the summit at Mile 66 I saw Ranay Franklin, another Cruzbiker, as she was checking in (this was a required checkpoint). I checked in, chatted with Ranay, and checked my hydration level. Then it was back down the hill (carefully) and on toward Carmel-By-The-Sea.
When I reached the rest stop at Carmel Bicycle (Mile 77), I thought I saw Tom. I turned the bike around and looked back, but didn’t see him or Chris, so I rolled out for Big Sur.
The coastline between Carmel and Big Sur has beautiful beaches, stunning vista points, and some incredible bridge crossings. Unfortunately, these sights attract hordes of people in cars on nice days like this one. Heading out from Carmel, the “bike lane” was loaded with parked cars, and the people who parked in them were walking on the street side of the cars to the spots where they could get down to the beach because there wasn’t room on the other side for them to walk. This forced us cyclists out into the lane with the hordes of cars who hadn’t yet found a place to park or pull over to enjoy the view. 99% of these drivers were safe and respectful, but with so many cars there were at least a half-dozen who passed so close I felt like if I had flicked my elbow out at the wrong time I might have lost my arm. About half-way between Carmel and Big Sur it started to get foggy, so I pulled over to turn my taillight back on. At that point I could see way up the road along the coast. The hillsides were a mixture of several shades of green from lighter-colored open grasslands to darker areas covered by coastal shrubs, and the fog was blowing over like a giant veil. At that point I realized I really hadn’t seen the beauty of the coastline because I was so focused on my mirrors and on the shoulder of the road.
After a moderate climb through the fog and bunch of rollers I started getting close to Big Sur. About six miles out I saw the first rider returning to King City. About 2 miles out my 3L hydration bladder went dry, so my outbound hydration was pretty good. Lunch was out in the back of the Big Sur Taphouse. I plugged the recharge battery into my bike computer to give it a bit more juice. The bike computer is supposed to last for 14 hours, but I didn’t want to chance it. I refilled by hydration bladder with 6 bottles plus 8 more scoops of Roctane that I carried with me, and I downed one of the two peanut butter and honey sandwiches that I carried with me. Then I got in the line for the one bathroom for a mandatory bio break. There was just one person waiting ahead of me, but the person in the loo was taking an eternity in there, so I walked down into the Taphouse to see if there was another bathroom. Nope, just that one. When I got back to the line I had lost my place and had to wait for one more. Fortunately, that wasn’t such a delay.
A few miles after I started back from Big Sur I spotted Tom, and we waved to each other. I made sure the close encounters weren’t too close and finally stopped again as I approached the foggy section to turn my taillight on again. This time the view was even more impressive. I took the photo that I posted on Strava, though that photo really doesn’t do justice to the magnificence of the view.
As I approached Carmel Bicycle again at Mile 133 my plan was to roll up, turn around and head right out. But right as I rolled up one of the volunteers came out with a bunch of fruit that looked too good to pass up. I grabbed a banana and inhaled it, then turned around and headed out.
It didn’t take long after departing Carmel for me to start feeling the heat. The EpicRideWeather app estimated that the temperature would rise quickly above 90 degF as I left Carmel, and it was spot on. To keep cool I pulled over and shed my jersey, just riding in the long-sleeve Under Armour shirt that I had under the jersey. The hot, dry air also started drying my eyes, causing my contact lenses to stick, and impairing my vision a bit. The initial part of the route back up to Cahoon summit is relatively flat, with rollers, some downhills, and some crappy pavement. My dry eyes and sticking contact lenses made it hard to see the best lines through the rough pavement, and at times I felt like I was being bludgeoned by the road. Then the real climbing started, and I got really hot. I passed some more riders, and when I grunted hello as I passed them, as often as not they would remain quiet, head down, suffering. Way up the climb I passed a guy who was weaving to and fro. He looked like I felt. I started to get hot foot, and had a lot of climbing to go, so I stopped to turn on some music to distract me from my suffering. I also poured some of the water from my 0.5L bottle down the front of my shirt and down my arms. While I was stopped one of the riders (Allie) rode by looking fresh as a daisy and said hello. I wondered how she could not be affected by the heat. I got rolling again and was pleased that my stop had relieved the hot foot. Allie and I traded places as she stopped to get some water from the back of her bike. After what seemed like a long, long time, I could finally see the summit in the display of my bike computer. Shortly after that we rounded a corner and there it was. I had forgotten that the rest stop was before the summit in this direction.
At the rest stop I refilled my 0.5L bottle, drank a cold bottle of water, and had some of the best watermelon I’ve ever eaten. I took one bite of my second peanut butter and honey sandwich, but could barely choke it down, even with water.
Allie and I rolled out of that rest stop at about the same time, and made our way up and over the summit. The initial part of the descent is fairly technical, and I was still feeling cooked, so I kept my speed down and Allie got so far ahead I couldn’t see her anymore. A bit farther down the hill the descent is less technical, so I just let the V20 go and overtook Allie before the last rest stop on Arroyo Seco. I blew past that rest stop with the volunteers clanging the cowbells, and the Salinas Valley in view out in front of me.
I tried my best to keep my power and speed up crossing the valley, but the canyon had taken quite a bit out of me. After passing through Greenfield I spotted a rider ahead of me, and I was pretty sure he was the front of the pack. As we turned onto Metz Road headed south to King City he spotted me closing on him and picked up his pace. I tried hard to close the gap, but making the power that I had been making earlier in the day felt like sprint power at this point. In the end he arrived about a minute before me. But it turned out that he departed more than an hour earlier than me that morning.
My official arrival time was 6:18pm. The volunteers were super welcoming. They congratulated us and took a bunch of photos. Then they brought me a can of beer, some water, and a cup of soup out to the bench where I was recovering outside the fairgrounds building. Allie rolled up shortly after me, and we chatted a bit before she departed. It turns out that she too is entered in the 12-hour race at Borrego Springs.
Here's my Strava record of the ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/5869557184
I stayed overnight at one of the local motels recommended by XeDapViet (XDV) Cycling Club. The morning of the event I rolled over to the start at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds at about 10 minutes before 6am, figuring there would be a group of faster riders departing at the end of the official departure window, which was 4am – 6am. I was hoping to roll out with them, figuring one of them would be familiar with the route. When I arrived at the fairgrounds, the only people I saw were volunteers loading a vehicle for one of the rest stops. I looked over at the camping area where some of the riders stayed, but all was quiet. I asked one of the volunteers if anyone was planning to roll out at 6am, and he said he thought everyone had already departed. So when my watch hit 6am I started my ride solo.
One thing I forgot to bring was safety glasses for riding in the dark. So for the first hour I rode with my eyes unprotected hoping that I wouldn’t catch a bug in the eye. Luckily that didn’t happen.
I caught sight of the first rider ahead of me just before 7am as we were heading up Arroyo Seco Road toward the first rest stop. The sun had come up behind me and it was lighting up the road nicely, so I stopped for a moment to turn off my lights and lower the shield on my helmet so my eyes were now protected. Shortly after I restarted, I reached the first rest stop at Mile 21. The volunteers were ringing cowbells for the rider in front of me and then for me. I thought that was a nice touch. The rider in front of me pulled into the rest stop to join a few others who were there. I rode past the rest stop and let the volunteers know that I had what I needed.
I passed a few more riders as we made our way up to the Cahoon summit at 2400 feet. The second rest stop at Mile 37 was just over the summit, so I was moving pretty fast as I rode by and just waved to the volunteers.
Along Carmel Valley Road I spotted a CalFire SUV and an unmarked pickup truck along the side of the road. A few minutes later I heard a siren behind me that I thought at first was a police vehicle. I looked in my mirrors and saw a vehicle with its cherry top lit up, and figured maybe I was being pulled over for speeding
so I started to move over. It was the CalFire SUV, and it blew past me at high speed, followed shortly after by the pickup truck. After a couple minutes I smelled smoke, and thought to myself what would I do if a wildfire had started in the canyon. Carmel Valley is a pretty densely wooded canyon, not a wide valley, and the only escape would be back up the road I was on toward Cahoon summit. Shortly after smelling the smoke I passed the CalFire SUV and the pickup truck, stopped along the side of the road. I think they were talking with someone there, probably a local who was burning something when they shouldn’t have been.After a long downhill and a turn onto Highway 1, I made the left turn for the Robinson Canyon climb. On Strava this is a Category 2 climb, pretty long with some steep switchbacks in the upper half that resulted in a little front wheel slippage. It’s also a pretty narrow road. Near the beginning I encountered my first close call. A commercial wide-axle pickup truck passed me in a fairly narrow location as a descending rider came around a corner ahead of us. The truck driver moved so far over to the right that either his fenders scraped the side of the hillside or his wheels rode up on it. I couldn’t really tell which because of the dust cloud it created. Fortunately, the rider squeezed by and no one was harmed. I passed several riders on the way up, got a shout-out from my friend Tom as he was descending, and got words of encouragement from a number of the other riders who were descending. One of them must have been another friend Chris, who was riding with Tom. When I reached the summit at Mile 66 I saw Ranay Franklin, another Cruzbiker, as she was checking in (this was a required checkpoint). I checked in, chatted with Ranay, and checked my hydration level. Then it was back down the hill (carefully) and on toward Carmel-By-The-Sea.
When I reached the rest stop at Carmel Bicycle (Mile 77), I thought I saw Tom. I turned the bike around and looked back, but didn’t see him or Chris, so I rolled out for Big Sur.
The coastline between Carmel and Big Sur has beautiful beaches, stunning vista points, and some incredible bridge crossings. Unfortunately, these sights attract hordes of people in cars on nice days like this one. Heading out from Carmel, the “bike lane” was loaded with parked cars, and the people who parked in them were walking on the street side of the cars to the spots where they could get down to the beach because there wasn’t room on the other side for them to walk. This forced us cyclists out into the lane with the hordes of cars who hadn’t yet found a place to park or pull over to enjoy the view. 99% of these drivers were safe and respectful, but with so many cars there were at least a half-dozen who passed so close I felt like if I had flicked my elbow out at the wrong time I might have lost my arm. About half-way between Carmel and Big Sur it started to get foggy, so I pulled over to turn my taillight back on. At that point I could see way up the road along the coast. The hillsides were a mixture of several shades of green from lighter-colored open grasslands to darker areas covered by coastal shrubs, and the fog was blowing over like a giant veil. At that point I realized I really hadn’t seen the beauty of the coastline because I was so focused on my mirrors and on the shoulder of the road.
After a moderate climb through the fog and bunch of rollers I started getting close to Big Sur. About six miles out I saw the first rider returning to King City. About 2 miles out my 3L hydration bladder went dry, so my outbound hydration was pretty good. Lunch was out in the back of the Big Sur Taphouse. I plugged the recharge battery into my bike computer to give it a bit more juice. The bike computer is supposed to last for 14 hours, but I didn’t want to chance it. I refilled by hydration bladder with 6 bottles plus 8 more scoops of Roctane that I carried with me, and I downed one of the two peanut butter and honey sandwiches that I carried with me. Then I got in the line for the one bathroom for a mandatory bio break. There was just one person waiting ahead of me, but the person in the loo was taking an eternity in there, so I walked down into the Taphouse to see if there was another bathroom. Nope, just that one. When I got back to the line I had lost my place and had to wait for one more. Fortunately, that wasn’t such a delay.
A few miles after I started back from Big Sur I spotted Tom, and we waved to each other. I made sure the close encounters weren’t too close and finally stopped again as I approached the foggy section to turn my taillight on again. This time the view was even more impressive. I took the photo that I posted on Strava, though that photo really doesn’t do justice to the magnificence of the view.
As I approached Carmel Bicycle again at Mile 133 my plan was to roll up, turn around and head right out. But right as I rolled up one of the volunteers came out with a bunch of fruit that looked too good to pass up. I grabbed a banana and inhaled it, then turned around and headed out.
It didn’t take long after departing Carmel for me to start feeling the heat. The EpicRideWeather app estimated that the temperature would rise quickly above 90 degF as I left Carmel, and it was spot on. To keep cool I pulled over and shed my jersey, just riding in the long-sleeve Under Armour shirt that I had under the jersey. The hot, dry air also started drying my eyes, causing my contact lenses to stick, and impairing my vision a bit. The initial part of the route back up to Cahoon summit is relatively flat, with rollers, some downhills, and some crappy pavement. My dry eyes and sticking contact lenses made it hard to see the best lines through the rough pavement, and at times I felt like I was being bludgeoned by the road. Then the real climbing started, and I got really hot. I passed some more riders, and when I grunted hello as I passed them, as often as not they would remain quiet, head down, suffering. Way up the climb I passed a guy who was weaving to and fro. He looked like I felt. I started to get hot foot, and had a lot of climbing to go, so I stopped to turn on some music to distract me from my suffering. I also poured some of the water from my 0.5L bottle down the front of my shirt and down my arms. While I was stopped one of the riders (Allie) rode by looking fresh as a daisy and said hello. I wondered how she could not be affected by the heat. I got rolling again and was pleased that my stop had relieved the hot foot. Allie and I traded places as she stopped to get some water from the back of her bike. After what seemed like a long, long time, I could finally see the summit in the display of my bike computer. Shortly after that we rounded a corner and there it was. I had forgotten that the rest stop was before the summit in this direction.
At the rest stop I refilled my 0.5L bottle, drank a cold bottle of water, and had some of the best watermelon I’ve ever eaten. I took one bite of my second peanut butter and honey sandwich, but could barely choke it down, even with water.
Allie and I rolled out of that rest stop at about the same time, and made our way up and over the summit. The initial part of the descent is fairly technical, and I was still feeling cooked, so I kept my speed down and Allie got so far ahead I couldn’t see her anymore. A bit farther down the hill the descent is less technical, so I just let the V20 go and overtook Allie before the last rest stop on Arroyo Seco. I blew past that rest stop with the volunteers clanging the cowbells, and the Salinas Valley in view out in front of me.
I tried my best to keep my power and speed up crossing the valley, but the canyon had taken quite a bit out of me. After passing through Greenfield I spotted a rider ahead of me, and I was pretty sure he was the front of the pack. As we turned onto Metz Road headed south to King City he spotted me closing on him and picked up his pace. I tried hard to close the gap, but making the power that I had been making earlier in the day felt like sprint power at this point. In the end he arrived about a minute before me. But it turned out that he departed more than an hour earlier than me that morning.
My official arrival time was 6:18pm. The volunteers were super welcoming. They congratulated us and took a bunch of photos. Then they brought me a can of beer, some water, and a cup of soup out to the bench where I was recovering outside the fairgrounds building. Allie rolled up shortly after me, and we chatted a bit before she departed. It turns out that she too is entered in the 12-hour race at Borrego Springs.
Here's my Strava record of the ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/5869557184
