Wrightwood 200k

I rode Willie Hunt's 200 km Wrightwood to Lake Forest brevet yesterday. It starts in Wrightwood at 6000' and climbs a total of 3000' to Dawson Saddle at 7901'. I was very pleased with my new climbing legs and was able to stay in touch with Doug and Hector. If I can lose another 10 lbs I might be able to ride with them! It was cold and bright - perfect climbing weather.

Hector wisely putting on leg warmers before the descent.

The problem with perfect climbing weather is that it makes for very cold descending weather. From Dawson Saddle we descended until the turn onto highway 39 which is closed to traffic (including us!). Caltrans abandoned this road some time ago and it has slowly degraded so some care is needed on the descent. It's not as technical as Ridge Route or Drum Canyon though and I found myself comfortably exceeding 30 mph on several sections. By the time we turned on the 39 we had dropped into the clouds and the temperature was around 40 F. That gives me a wind-chill factor of 28 F at 30 mph. I was wearing a cycling jersey, arm warmers, leg warmers, a Capilene base layer, a wind-breaker, and silk under-gloves. Even with all that I was cold.

Top of highway 39.

Down, down, down, we descended 6500' in 25 miles. After about five miles of unmaintained road there was another gate and we entered maintained road. I decided to stop and wait for Hector and Doug because I had somehow run ahead of them. Unknown to me Hector had clipped a rock on the descent and split his tire. Doug waited while he booted it. After ten or fifteen minutes I was starting to get cold again so I decided to keep going. In retrospect that made no sense as I was still descending so 'going' made me even colder.

This was the view as I was waiting for Hector and Doug.

Looking up the unmaintained 39. Still no sign of Doug or Hector

The first control is in Duarte at the same 7-11 as my 300 km control. Ominously, I had had a strong headwind for the last ten miles which is very unusual here. I goofed around at the control hoping Doug and Hector would show up but instead two new randonneurs Adam and Hadi arrived. They told me that Hector had damaged his tire but both he and Doug were OK.

As Adam and Hadi left I decided to join them. We struggled into the ever increasing headwind with Adam taking heroic pulls. Hadi tried to pull but it was obvious he was at his limit. I got the impression he was bonking and fifteen minutes after his pull he dropped off the pace (an epic 13 mph on my aerobars). I would say the wind was a solid 20 mph gusting to 25. Normally this stretch is 18-20 mph without too much effort and we only get a headwind for the last five miles or so.

The miles slowly went down to 20, then 10, 5, and finally we got to the info control at the River's End restaurant in Seal Beach.

There must be a word for taking a picture of someone while they are taking a selfie

By the way - don't ask the waitress the answer to the info control. She got it wrong!

Hadi joined Adam and me at the restaurant after five minutes. Doug and Hector joined us after five more. We had worked so hard to get from Duarte to Seal Beach we decided we needed food so I ate my last Odwalla bar and Adam ate some of the food he had taped all over his bike (I wish I had taken a photo!). Then the five of us set out to cover the 17 miles to the Chevron which was the next control.

We decided to take the beach path which was pretty empty so with a slight tailwind we cruised along at a recuperative 15 mph. Only the pier section was crowded and there was only one total retard in the crowd so that was good. Plus there was a young lady wearing a thong that would have been illegal in any of the bible-belt states so that was good too.

We jumped on PCH at Newport Beach and had a pretty uneventful ride to the Chevron where we chowed down like the homeless people we looked and smelled like. A foot-long subway veggie sandwich really hit the spot.

After we turned inland Hector went crazy and started pulling us along at 21-22 mph. I know we had a tailwind but I seriously wonder where he got the energy from. I knew we had some climbing ahead to get to Willie's house so I asked him to slow down a tad which he graciously did. Even so, when we started climbing my knee started bugging me so I had to drop off a bit.

Eventually we got back to Willie's house and our time was 10:02. I thought this was going to be a speed fest but with the waiting around and the headwind I ended up with an average time. Adam and Hadi had been dropped by Hector's need for speed and they showed up 20 minutes later. Hadi looked pretty wiped out but I'm sure he'll be back for more. Congratulations to both of them.

This is a great route and Willie did a fine job of dealing with the logistics. You definitely want good cold weather gear and fatter than average tires for highway 39. Bring plenty of your own food because the distance between receipt controls averages 50 miles.