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INTERBIKE 2008: CLIMBING TO INTERBIKE AND THE SPECIALIZED GRAND TOUR
Bob Sutton
September 23, 2008
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My buddy Tomas grew up in California and has spent most of his life backpacking in the high country. He’s told me many stories about the rugged terrain of the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada range and I asked him if he’d ever been up Onion Valley Road. He was just out of college the last time that he’d been there but he remembered that it was spectacular. Of course he was in a car, so he couldn’t recall whether it was steep or not.
That’s when I made my pitch – I told him about John Summerson ranking that road number five in the nation for difficulty, and toughness, while also giving it the top spot for the toughest ten mile stretch, in his book “The Complete Guide to Climbing (by Bike)”. At twelve and a half mile in length, those easier two and a half miles came right after we left Mr. Van. Also, part of the allure was that Onion Valley Road was numero uno in California. I figured conquering it would give me special status at the office. Maybe even a parking spot with my name on it.
I was driving to Interbike on Sunday, September 21, so why not leave a day early, take a more scenic route and knock that baby off our list. Tomas kept wanting to start with number seventy or eighty on the list, but he’s not even getting mail from AARP yet and has lots of time left. I figure that this may be the best I’m going to be on this old world, certainly I wouldn’t bet on be better next year. Best to start near the top and work down the list as I wind down.
Sunday morning we got up bright and early (about nine), and headed for a man sized breakfast in Lone Pine, an interesting town straddling the 395. We loaded the van and pulled into the local Chevron for Tomas to do the honors, and buy his tank.
THE SPECIALIZED GRAND TOUR
I was standing out near the street, stretching and yawning when a group of riders came flying by. They were really hauling! Now Lone Pine is a nice place but you don’t see much spandex there. If I was a betting man (and I’m not), I wouldn’t have guessed that there were two Carbon Fiber bicycles within fifty miles of us, and one of those belonged to Tomas! Who were these folks? My eyes turned the direction that they had come and I spotted another small group with a van following them. It was too far away to read, but as it drew near I began to make out the lettering S P E C A L I Z E D. That’s when it hit me! It was Mike Sinyard and his team cycling all the way from Morgan Hill to Las Vegas to attend Interbike. I had read about their intentions but never dreamed that we’d bump into them out here.
We finished gassing Mr. thirsty (try $100), and took off after them hoping to get a few photos. Lucky for us, they stopped for a photo op themselves by a Death Valley road sign, because we were driving the legal limit on the 395 for at least ten minutes and hadn’t caught them. From the looks of them, they hadn’t eaten in weeks. After I’d taken several shots, Mike (I hope I can call him Mike) strode up to me with his hand outstretched with a greeting (I own a 2006 Roubaix Pro that I love and couldn’t believe my good fortune to meet the man behind that great design) and he asked me my name. This is where Tomas said that I started to babble. I explained that I worked with Road Bike Action and just happened to be on the scene and hoped that my shots turned out or I might get fired.
He questioned Brad’s whereabouts and said that he was supposed to be riding with them on this trip (which I didn’t know). I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d seen Brad the day before and he looked like he just woke up. Also, I thought it would be a good time to impress him with Tomas and my planned ride up Onion Valley road. He’d never heard of it and said that they needed to get rolling.
By this time we were stoked about our ride and drove back North on the 395 to the small town of Independence where our assault of the mountain was to take place. We parked in the shade of some old Cottonwoods, unloaded our bikes and gear, fooled around a little and started up the toughest climb in California.
John Summerson describes this ride in his book “The Complete Guide To Climbing (by Bike)” , “as significantly longer and almost as steep as Alp d’Huez, steeper and longer than the Tourmalet and the Galibier, and longer and as steep as the Madeleine”.
PEELING THE ONION
The first several miles climb an alluvial plain that looks easier than it actually is and took longer than we expected to put behind us. After four or five miles we came to the first of many switch backs to come, which elevated our spirits a little because each turn revealed more and more of the Owens valley below us. Proving to our increasingly numb brains that we were actually getting somewhere. Tomas called this climb a pessimists climb because it never flattened, dipped or gave us a break of any type. It was an unrelenting, always grinding type of climb. He knew that it wasn’t going to get any better and liked just steadily working one rotation after another. He called me an optimistic type of climber because I like the exertion needed for short torturous sections that really work me, but look forward to the possible respite of a short flat or small downhill section. Needless to say, this wasn’t my type of climb.
After hours in the saddle the road began to bring us into the mountain between huge rock outcroppings and sheer cliffs. The switch backs got shorter as we climbed ladder-like up towards the top. Our sea level lungs cried out for oxygen, but we just kept doing our work, silent now except for our labored breathing. I spent part of the summer training in Kansas which gave me a great base, but I’m not sure how much it was helping me on this particular climb.
Numerous breaks and hours after our start, we made it to the top! Managing a smile for the obligatory photos, we spent a moment realizing what we had just accomplished. Took a last look at the view and headed down.
It was a hair rising ride! My rims must have been glowing red within the first mile. Tomas had road rims mated to disc hubs, which is a pretty cool setup, and his worries were centered on the fact that he hadn’t installed new pads before the climb. Another concern for him was pinch flatting on the three to four inch wide, square edged expansion, joint gaps spaced about thirty feet apart for the length of the road.
Only when we had loaded up and driven forty or fifty miles toward Death Valley did we realize how insignificant our day was compared to the Specialized riders tour. The road seemed to climb forever, and after consulting our DeLorme Atlas, we’d read “Pass”, just that, no name. Then after a short descent, we’d go up another than another. I’m telling you it was a tough stretch of real-estate. The Panamint Valley came into view after approx. sixty miles, and the road was so steep leading down, I put the van in second gear to slow it down. I can’t imagine what the group far a head was thinking on that particular steel guard-railed descent. Fear would have been my feeling.
The climb out of the Panamint Valley towards Death Valley is a stretch of highway 190 named Townes Pass (west). John Summerson rates it among the toughest 100 in the US, and compares it to some fabled French climbs thusly. “It’s more difficult than the Col d’Aspin and La Mongie, and quite similar to Luz-Ardiden, all difficult climbs that make regular appearances in the Tour de France”. These Specialized guys must be animals!
Hungry, we stopped at The Furnace Creek campground to get some dinner before we finished our drive to Vegas. After leaving we spotted Nancy with the Specialized van filling water jugs for the next day. While visiting with her about seeing the gang on the road (they were probably in a hot tube somewhere), she told us more about the tour to Vegas. The first day was one hundred and forty miles with approximately 15,000 feet of climbing – then they camped out! The second day they crossed the Sierras and the famed Tioga Pass covering one hundred and twenty miles with – get this, approx. 19,000 feet of elevation gain! The next day was over a hundred miles, and then we came to the day we crossed paths with them. That day I figure they did at least one hundred and twenty five miles and who knows how much elevation, but a lot. The last day was going to be another killer with at least one hundred and twenty miles. The best guess is that they will have approximately 50,000 feet of elevation gain by the time they reach Interbike and no days under one hundred miles. That’s a tour!
Our little climb paled by comparison.
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