Rapha Diabolical Double

Yup, it happened. The writeup of the Rapha Diabolical Double by the Rapha crew should appear soon at http://rapha.cc/rapha-continental

129 miles, 16323 feet of climbing, a crisp and cool day in the mountains ideal for cycling, too late a start and just minutes of daylight left at finish. But, Sean and I completed it, and it left quite the impression on the Rapha crew.

Long story short, the ride is hard as hell. The stretch from Friendsville (mile 27) to Howe's Market (mile 67) in particular is simply cruel with Old Morgantown Rd, Everly, Collier, Pigs Ear, Devils Half Acre, Bowman Hill, and Killer Miller, all extended climbs in excess of 15% in that stretch. The second half of the ride has as much total climbing as the first, but I found it marginally easier as the pitches seemed only slightly more sane.

The Rapha crew was super strong. I was not super enthused that morning when they showed up to find they were all racers and all climbers. Clearly they were having tough rides thrown at them (what do they expect, advertising for Epic Rides?), but I expected the Diabolical Double would be at a different level and would put a serious hurt on them. Early in the ride there was a good bit of big ring climbing going on and big ring sprints over little rises that I was sure they would come to regret in 7 hours time.

But, by the end of the day it was very apparent that Sean and I were the weak links in the cog. The final 35 mostly uphill miles home from Westernport did seem to beat down a few of the guys, particularly Steve from Vermont who bonked hard on the North Hill climb. And Graham and Jeremy seemed more than content to ride my pace at this point. However, Ben and Dan disappeared on these final climbs to not be seen again until we limped in at 8:30pm just before dark.

The Rapha riders would not come out and say it was their toughest ride, preferring to say that there are different aspects to different rides that make them tough in different ways - and surely this is true - but I saw a lot of strained faces that evening when getting out of chairs, and the video crew said unequivicobly that this ride hurt the riders more than any one they'd seen yet. And Sam's massage services were quite in demand that evening as well....

The night ended with bbq catered by Grizzly and massages provided by Sam. Poor Sean and Sam were up at 4am to drive home the next day, while Rapha crew, Laura, and I all slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and watched the assembly line of Rapha crew clean and tune up all bikes before heading up to State College, PA in the afternoon.

All in all, an amazing day and a ride to earn anyone's respect.

And, here is a very good blog writeup with excellent pictures by Karlo Gesner who was a support driver for the Rapha crew
http://karlophoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/deep-creek-diabolical-double.html


Here is what appeared in the local paper about it; we were big news in Garrett County!
http://www.therepublicannews.com/articlepage.aspx?id=3618 (front page)
http://www.therepublicannews.com/articlepage.aspx?id=3622 (sports page)
http://www.therepublicannews.com/articlepage.aspx?id=3617 (sports page)