Death Ride 2009

yesterday we managed to survive another Death Ride, one of the more masochistic rides out there. it's out in california, south of lake tahoe. the scenery is stunning, especially when you're hallucinating from the exertion....

it was paige and i, mike scheuller (2nd from the right in the picture below), and mike's brother-in-law josh (far right). this was paige's 3rd, mike's and my second, and josh's first. this is the gang before we started:


it was an early morning start, and mike was trying to catch some last-minute z's:


...still sleeping....


below is the course map and elevation profile:




paige was very proud of her (mostly) white get-up, including white bike, white handle bar tape, white seat, and white shoes. here she is in all her celestial glory arriving at the top of carson pass:


here we are posing in front of the poster that all the "5 pass finishers" get to sign at the top of carson pass:


we survived!


here's the whole gang at the bottom of carson pass:


scheuller of course was the strongest of the day, no one was able to hang with him all the way to the top of any of the passes. paige was incredible, not far behind us the whole way and we were able to eat lunch together and start the last climb together as well. it was a lot of fun (despite the suffering--which i think you selectively forget because of the lack of oxygen), and we were glad to have friends there to share it with us.