May 13 2006
Central Coast Double, Paso Robles, CA
209 miles, 13,200 feet climbing (145 miles completed)
by John Paul Vieira-McEldowney



There it is in all its glory - Nacimiento-Ferguson road, the jewel of the Central Coast Double.  In this view looking east from a point out over the Pacific, the road rises from the Pacific Coast Highway almost 3000 feet in 8 miles.  There was about 30 degrees difference in air temperature from the bottom to the top.

On Saturday May 13 I attempted to ride my third double century, the Central Coast Double.  Advertised at 13,200 feet of elevation gain over 209 miles, I knew it would be a challenge for me. 

And it beat me - at 145 miles I calculated that I would not reach the rest stop where my lights were before dark.  I was tired and hot.  Earlier in the day, in the heat of the afternoon on a flat stretch of road I actually started to fall asleep on the bike.  I decided to bag it and ride the sag in.

But it was not all bad.  We started at 5:40 from downtown Paso Robles and headed west toward the coast. 
The California Triple Crown organizers have a stage race competition where three of the timed doubles are identified as stages and the really hard-core riders compete for bragging rights.  The field this morning is full of riders with Triple Crown jerseys, whereas hardly anybody at the Solvang Spring Double sported them.  This should have been my first clue that I was more than a little outclassed.

Mass starts are kind of a sobering experience for me because it quickly becomes obvious where I sit on the bell curve of rider abilities - somewhere on the descending slope, not quite at the bottom but certainly not at the peak.  That's fine, let them all disappear into the distance.  The morning is cool, the roads are quiet, rolling, and the countryside is just absolutely gorgeous.   The first rest stop comes at the top of a hill that has us all sweating, followed by a hazardous descent into the coastal fog as we make our way to Cambria and the Pacific Coast Highway.

North along the highway a fellow rider points out where Hearst Castle is but we can't see it because of the low clouds.  Its not windy yet and the day is overcast and cool.  At this point the road is wide and flat and not very curvy - excellent conditions to tag onto a fast-moving paceline and make some good time.  Eventually though the road starts to look more like the Highway 1 that I know north of San Francisco.  It climbs and descends, curving and descending inland with each lateral drainage and then climbing again to steep hillsides high above the surf.  I lose the paceline and return to my normal slower speed.

The third rest stop comes at mile 86, just before the climb of Nascimiento-Ferguson Road.   The organizers are checking each rider in and their times and here I learn that the lead riders (out of some 160 starters) passed here about an hour ago, and there are maybe two to three dozen still behind.  Not bad, I think.

Already at this point we have about 5000 feet of climbing under our wheels, and ahead lies a 2800 foot, 8 mile climb.  The temperature down here at sea level is less then 60, by the time I get to the top in two hours it will be pushing 90.  When I get tired I tend to start climbing in spurts.  I go until I just can't bear to pedal anymore and then stop at the next shady spot and let the heart rate descend.  This is I know a pretty inefficient way to do it, yet I have never been able to break myself of the habit.  Its great for stopping and taking in the views however.

Lunch is on the Hunter Ligget army base at a pleasant park.  The usual ride foods are here, turkey and other cold cut sandwiches, soft drinks and energy drinks, cookies and fruit.  After lunch it really got difficult.  The route turned northward into the inland valley winds.  All the major climbs were behind us, yet still there had to be another 5000 feet of climbing out there somewhere.  I began to get psychologically defeated, constantly checking the cycle computer, wondering when the next sag wagon would show up.

Being an engineer I sometimes occupy myself on long rides doing mental calculations (I know, nerd).   During the 2 and a half hours it took to get to the next rest stop I concluded that I could not reach, before dark, the rest stop where my lights had been taken.  This was a blessing actually as it gave me a legitimate reason to ask for a sag ride back, which I did at the next rest stop, at about 6:30 in the evening, at mile 145.

One other rider joined me, a gentleman who was wearing a Paris-Brest-Paris jersey. On the way in we passed a guy who was lying by the side of the road on a piece of plastic.  He had been unable to keep anything down since lunch and needed a ride.  He also wore a Triple Crown Jersey.  Before getting back to Paso Robles we picked up a fourth rider, another Triple Crown winner who had finished Devil Mountain Double a few weekends ago.  There was some serious amateur cycling talent in that van with me, so I didn't feel too bad.

This was a serious ride for serious cyclers.  It showed in the nature of the support.  The rest stops were not infrequent but they tended to be simple in their offerings.  The sag support was extensive.  If you ever want to try this one, do a lot of climbing and training because you will need it!