Death Ride 2003

Here are some pictures of from the Death Ride. This is officially called the Tour of the California Alps. What it is, is one of the hardest bike rides in America. It crosses 5 mountain passes in 129 miles and you gain 16,000 vertical feet along the way. I started at 5:35AM and finished at 7:15PM. It was a long day! There were about 2500 riders on the Death Ride. 1400 rode all 5 passes. That includes a couple of folks from CVC, Jan Tivang, Reine Wiley, and Tom Fields. We had a great time and what was amazing was that there were a lot of folks making the full 5 passes. The 5-pass pin is now one of my most revered possessions.

The ride day was picture perfect. No clouds in the perfectly blue sky. The temperatures ranged from 46F at the start to something like 96F. The ride organizers put on a great ride. Plenty of rest stops, great bike repair shops along the way, including one guy who towed his bike repair trailer up Monitor Pass with his bike!

The following pictures include some from the ride itself and a few from the next day. When the climbs got steep, I wasn't about to take the camera out of my jersey pocket to snap a few pictures. And I wasn't about to take pictures on the descents! So the next day, Jan and I took a few more.