I hope your summer is going well and you are well into your training for the Badwater to Whitney bike ride and hike. This is one of a series of periodic reminder and information bulletins about this year's trip. This note is mainly about the bike ride. I'll say more later about the hike and other topics. Watch http://bluedrinks.com/whit01

If you have been waiting until the last minute to put some miles on both you and your bicycle, now is that last minute. You have ten weeks left between now and the ride (October 4-7) and in case I haven't mentioned this before -- it's hard. The actual number of miles (135) really doesn't tell the whole story. Strong cyclists have been stopped on this ride by knee injury, cramps, heat, hunger, vomiting, and fatigue.

We'll start at Badwater at about 9:00 at night and it will still be over 90 degrees -- possibly over 100. We'll ride about 45 relatively flat miles before starting to climb. Then we'll spend the next 10 miles climbing to reach our rest spot. Expect it to take three to six hours to ride the 55 miles from Badwater.

By dawn we'll be back in the saddle, climbing the rest of the way out of Death Valley. It'll take another hour or so to go up the 6-8% grade. The ride down to Panamint Springs will be fast (45 - 50 mph), fun (wheeee!), and way too short.

After a hot breakfast at the cafe in Panamint Springs, we'll spend hours in the sun, climbing 25 miles or so, up more than 3000 feet of mountain curves and switchbacks. This is the part where your body will desperately need calories but your stomach will be in no mood. And if you are susceptible at all to saddle soreness, you'll have it by this point. By the time you get to the last twenty miles into Lone Pine, you'll be sore somewhere.

After a meal in Lone Pine, if you can get back on your bike, you'll start the last and worst ascent. The last eleven miles *average* a 9% grade. There are parts that I don't even like driving up in my *car*. In addition to whatever body parts are sore by this point, you'll also have to fight falling asleep. If you can make it to Whitney Portal by 8:00 p.m., you'll get a hot shower, otherwise, they're closed until morning.

If all this scares you, good. If all this sounds like fun, you haven't been listening. The point is: ride. Get lots of miles in between now and then. If you think that just because you're in good shape from (insert your sport here) you'll manage to push through on sheer determination, you're wrong. Ride. Start now.

I welcome your comments and dissenting or confirming opinions from others who have done this ride.

Next installment: calorie management.