Tour of Two Forests Double Century recap
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I had not planned on doing the Tour of Two Forests. I had already completed 2 doubles this year, but they were the easiest ones, the Hemet Double and the Grand Tour. With over 13,000' of climbing, I figured that the ToTF was WAY over my head. PF was already signed up for the Las Vegas tri, so I didn't think we'd do it. Then Mr Bonk called and asked if I wanted to try it. I gave him all sorts of excuses....my shoulder's sore, it's too late to register, PF is gone, etc. Then he reminded me that this was my chance to get my 3rd DC of the year, to qualify for the California Triple Crown and that if I completed this one I could order my jersey. Well, I fell for it and said yes. The first part of the ride was fast and easy. Mr Bonk and I got in the front peleton and hung on for about 20 miles. Then I started dropping off the back and they left me in the dust (good thing too, for what was in store!). Later on I found out why those guys were going so fast. Turns out that Tinker Juarez was doing the ride (more about that later). Bonk waited for me and we proceeded to the first checkpoint, 36 miles into the ride in Santa Paula. Then an easy climb up to Ojai at checkpoint 2. Now the fun started. At mile 81 at checkpoint 3, we were at the Pine Mountain summit and had already climbed 6,400'. Then to chekcpoint 4 at the top of Heartbreak, total elevation gain of 8,000' in 96 miles. I had pretty much used up all my climbing skills at this point. When I had looked at the ride profile earlier, it looked like most of the climbing was done, so no problem......no such luck! By the time we hit checkpoint 5 at 120 miles, total gain was 9,220'. By now I was getting real tired of hearing Mr Bonk holler "HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER!". But he is a great motivator, and waited for me the whole ride. I was taking forever. We'd have these fast descents (35-40 MPH) and then be on another 5 MPH climb, sucking up time like crazy. It was already 4:30PM so we had to get moving. We headed through Gorman and some fast downhill, then down Old Ridge Route and Pine Canyon and 3 Points, all with climbs full of false summits. By this time I was swearing at MR Bonk for talking me into this, but as he was 300' ahead of me I doubt he heard it. By the time we hit chekcpoint 6, it was already dark. We had stopped to help someone and lost some time, but hey, you've got to help your fellow riders. From what we had heard, once you hit Bouqet Canyon Road it would be all downhill. Yeah, except for the 1,200' of climb with a 30 MPH headwind at the beginning of it! Once we finally hit the summit, we had at least 15 miles of smooth twisty downhill and made some time. Good thing I brought my Niterider Blowtorch....I couldn't outride that light at 35 MPH. We made it back at about 10:30 PM. 14:19 of ride time at 13.5 MPH, 16:15 total time. Then we heard about Tinker's time: 9 hours and 50 minutes! Well, I get my CA Triple Crown Jersey and Mr Bonk gets his CA Triple Crown 1,000 mile AND his Planet Ultra Grand Slam! This ride was extremely difficult, but it was a fantastic course, beautiful with very liittle traffic. Planet Ultra did their homework and put on a great event.
Posted by Closet Roadie  a 52 year old Die-hard Enthusiast riding a Trek from Upland on 09/25/05
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- Re: Tour of Two Forests Double Century recap
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Congratulations on a hard fought victory. I have to admit, I'm a little upset you didn't catch Tinker,but then again you haven't been training much lately. My hats off to you for riding one of the toughest double centuries we have. I wore my jersey today at the Las Vegas Tri and got a lot of questions about it. "You do two hundred miles in a day?", "You rode 1,000 miles in 200 mile increments?", You're kidding, right?. Then I tell them about the Furnace Creek 508, and the RAAM and I don't think they believe me. I'm not sure how I did at the Tri, not as good as last year,but better then the year before that. We had a fellow competitor drown. He went out in the wave right before ours and we are not sure how it happened,but he didn't make it. Somebody said he got kicked in the head, so I stayed way in the back and just putted along for I wouldn't get kicked. A lot of others did the same. I feel so sorry for this guy and his family.
Posted by Pain Freak riding a Surly Turner from The 909 on 09/25/05
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- Re: Tour of Two Forests Double Century recap
Um, congratulations, you sick fiend! Sick, sick, sick. You must be loving that pain. Having done a much easier double (Butterfield) you've got my hearty congrats on a job well done. My bud FFW has done that one and I saw first hand, what that ride does to you.
Posted by STP a 45 year old Racer riding a K2 Razorpiggie from P'Dale on 09/26/05
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- Re: Tour of Two Forests Double Century recap
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Yeah, I'm definitely feeling the pain, but it was worth it.......my package is still numb! They posted the results today: 16:08 total time. There were actually 19 people behind us and I thought we were going to be dead last, so I'm happy. And that's not even counting the DQ's, DNF's and DNS's. I've got to hand it to Mr Bonk for hanging with me.....I could never have finished without him and he could have finished at least an hour or two faster without me holding him back.
Posted by Closet Roadie a 52 year old Die-hard Enthusiast riding a Trek from Upland on 09/26/05
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- Re: Tour of Two Forests Double Century recap
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Yeah, but he's a young pup. You, on the other hand, are an ol' dog. ;-)
Posted by Pain Freak riding a Surly Turner from The 909 on 09/26/05
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