The Knoxville Double came off great.  The weather was perfect (though I did hear “a tad warm” complaints–unfortunately the shade less climbs were during the heat of the day.)  For once I didn’t do something stupid like hit a car the week before, so I came in healthy.  Turned out to be easiest double of the year (I was on good behavior, only got po’d 3 times, mostly late in the day, and chased 3 riders.) .

Jack and I finished this one in the dark, as we did starting the year on Devil Mountain Double.   Late start (5:40), early sunset, not timed event so can go easy and bs with lots of riders and great rest stop workers we know, no mass start (well we had one), and deceptive climbing (NOT a climbing double, ONLY 12,600′ climbing) all conspire to have us finish after sunset.

Aforementioned weather was nice–in Vacaville was low 60’s when we started off.  Dr. Dave (our Triple Crown rookie of the year) is correct–great moment on a double is when sun comes up, especially since I was fearing riding over many of the torn up roads in the dark–but there was massive re-pavement.  Napa Valley-which is usually frigid was overcast but ok.  The funny thing was that usually on doubles you start off with tons of riders but we don’t see many until later in the day.  Because we set out late (most people leave at 5:00) we didn’t see too many riders through Napa Valley.  No “oh wow” scenery but constantly riding past nice rustic scenery–or on the Silverado Trail some real funky wineries.  Moist morning air in Napa and grapes ready to be picked combined for a real nice aroma.

Knoxville Road was real pleasant–a @20 mile mostly gentle climb in the middle of nowhere, which got us to Lower Lake.  Here we started to pick up and pass lots of riders, and get back into the middle of the ride.

More on the Pumpkincyle blog ride report with photos—Gruppo Pumpkincycle

Jack riding up desolate Knoxville Road

Side note-day before rode Vacaville to Lake Solano and took a side trip to Winters.  From Lake Solano a great way to get to Winters is Putah Creek Road–flat, rustic and minimal traffic.

Let me end by regrettably declaring that JACK HAS LOST IT!   That’s right.  At Davis he has always picked the PERFECT tandem to draft, one that is setting a nice flatland speed without killing us.

At Knoxville I was actually looking forward to NO mass start–and started with minimal lights.  Also air was a little cool and damp, not great for my breathing. Ha.  A tandem pulled out in front of us–Jack stuck his elbows out from the get go raced to catch up and hang on their wheel.  I knew something was wrong–both riders were wearing Alta Alpina 8 jerseys and when we got to the freeway overpass out of the park the tandem zoomed up it.  F! Jack made a few more digs but we were dropped as soon as the road leveled off and I had no hope of staying on the first downhill.

Later I talk to someone who told me that that one of the guys on the tandem was a guy who usually finishes in the top ten on the Terrible Two (he “only” finished 3 hours ahead of me this year) and he was the WEAKER RIDER.  The other guy finished 1 1/2 hours ahead of me on the Terrible Two–oh yeah, he was on a fixed gear and set a new course record on it.

Jack did redeem himself by setting a blistering pace from the last rest stop to the finish–we had seen Kitty dining out at the last rest stop and Jack wanted to make sure we’d get to the food line at the finish before her.

Nice way to end a long doubles season, which began before the Devil Mountain Double with Jack, Ward and I coming up with ridiculously hard century training rides (eg. Sierra Road Twice.)  The high point of the year was another high finish on the Mt. Tam Double, my favorite.  Picking the lowpoint is easy, getting hailed on in Death Valley on the rerouted Eastern Sierra Double.–Jay