A group of riding buddies and I went up to Augora Hills today to take on the Mulholland Challenge in the Mountains above Malibu. The group had some very fit riders, most of which are gearing up for the super challenging St George Ironman in a couple of weeks – below you will see (left to right) – Mark, Quinton, Jeff, Larry, Gary, Scott, Ron, (I’m taking the photo)
You will see from the course map below that the course designers did not spare the riders a climb on the route, we were climbing all day.
Course Map
This is one of the toughest courses I have ever ridden; 116 miles with over 12,000 feet of climbing. The first 65 miles were tough, but not compared to what laid ahead. At 71 miles the first really tough climb came at Decker Canyon Road, 4.2 miles of climbing that started straight up from PCH and continued with switchback after switchback. We started out together and then Larry and Scot went ahead climbing strong up this tough hill to the sticker and food stop.
The second insidious climb, Stunt hill, came at 92 miles when my legs were already dead and the sun had peaked out of the clouds to make things heat up. It took all of my energy to keep moving up this climb and luckily Larry had a flat and was fixing it at the sicker stop at the top and I caught up to them. I thought I was done but thanks to their encouragement and “only” “ha” 20 miles to go I went on.
Along with all of these amazing climbs came equal amazing descents some 2000 feet from the Mt tops to PCH. It was a rush to test our bike handling stills as we screamed down the curvy roads. On one decent I heard some motorcycles coming behind me and on a tight right hand turn I looked to my left and there was a motorcycle taking the lane next to me leaning the same way in full leathers and then sped ahead out of sight; what a rush!
There were 6 sticker stops during the day and at each of these stops we received a new colored sticker for our race number. It seems silly but during the day receiving those stickers kept me going up the next hill.
Thanks to the men that kept me going on this day Scot, Larry, and Ron; and thanks to Scot for your prayers they really helped.
Leave a Reply