Maybe the name of the event is misleading after all. Looking at 8-year-old Jenya Kirsch-Posner and 45-year-old Cale Reeder ride their bicycles into Turtle Rock Park early Saturday afternoon, it was difficult to tell they had just done the "Death Ride."
Young Jenya looked tired after completing her 34-mile ride, but not too tired to go looking for her ice cream and not too tired to smile about meeting her primary goals. And Reeder reveled in the moment as he turned off Highway 89 at the end of his 129-mile, five-pass tour.
"Woo! Woo!" Reeder exclaimed at the end of a ride in which he timed himself in 7 hours, 9 minutes.
Those are just two of the nearly 3,000 stories achieved during the 29th annual Death Ride - Tour of the California Alps, an event presented by the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce that at the very least has earned its name. Just consider that the complete route covers a total of 129 miles and about 15,000 vertical feet of climbing, which includes the east and west slopes of 8,314-foot Monitor Pass, both slopes of 8,730-foot Ebbetts Pass on Highway 4 and finally 8,573-foot Carson Pass on Highway 88.
Riders were further challenged by wind that increased in the afternoon, and like the previous two years, there were scattered rain showers late in the day.
"This year we gave them rain ponchos as a gift, in hopes that it wouldn't rain," Death Ride executive director Teresa Burkhauser said. "We try to make everybody happy."
Kirsch-Poser completed her one-pass option, a total of 34 miles, in a little over 6-1/2 hours. But her main goal was to ride the one pass and raise money for arts and music programs for the North Oakland Community Charter School, where she will be a third grader this coming year. She departed from Turtle Rock Park at 6 a.m. and was accompanied on the 34-mile round trip trek by her mother, Tamar Posner of Oakland. Other family members were waiting to cheer her on at the top of Monitor Pass.
"She wanted to do it as a fundraiser for arts and music at her school, and she did raise more than $3,000," Tamar said. "She did awesome today. We came up here three weeks ago and rode Monitor, so she knew she could do it. She made it to the top in 3 hours, 15 minutes, but with all the riders out there, we waited until it cleared up before we came back down."
Though tired afterward, she did enjoy her ice cream. Was it a fun experience?
"Yeah," she said, flashing a smile.
"I know it is crazy to do such a hard bike ride as my first big ride. But it is also crazy that my school doesn't have enough money for important things. I'm going to give it my all...I hope to raise $1 for every foot I climb up. I call this my "hard climb for public schools." I hope you will help me raise money for my great school," she wrote on her Web site (http://www.firstgiving.com/jenyadeathride2009).
Remember, the Death Ride is not a race so there are no rewards for speed, other than self satisfaction or a good training ride. Reeder, 45, of Cameron Park, Calif., Was out for a fast time, and said he improved his best time for the Death Ride by 10 minutes. In 2008, he clocked a 7:19, which was a significant improvement from his time of 7:48 in 2007.
"I was trying to break seven hours, it was just too windy, but I'll take this. Beating my record time is pretty good," he said.
Reeder owns a cabin in Tahoe Paradise and frequently visits the area for his training rides.
"I come out here and train once a week once the snow melts, so I know the course extremely well," he said. "This is a great place to train. When you live in the foothills, there is nowhere to go where you can climb 45 minutes straight."
Reeder looked at the Death Ride as a tune-up for the Alta Alpina Cycling Club-hosted Diamond Valley Road Race, which will serve as the Northern California/Northern Nevada Masters Road Championships on July 25.
"I want to win that," he said. "A lot of people don't realize Northern California is one of the toughest districts in the country. You might have world, national or state champions at any given race, which makes it that much more gratifying to win one of these races."
Reeder, who rides for International Christian Cycling, has logged four noteworthy masters 45-year-old category victories in California this year. He won at the Sonora Road Race on May 3, the Spring Hill Road Race in Marin County on May 31, the Pescadoro Coastal Classic Road Race on June 16 and the 49th annual Nevada City Classic on June 21. (Lance Armstrong was the overall winner before a crowd estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 spectators at the Nevada City Classic.)
Burkhauser expressed thanks to the riders for participating, as well as the more than 700 volunteers who helped stage the event, including communications, medical and safety personnel.
"We had volunteers from Tahoe and Sacramento, the Boys Scouts from Minden, and of course, all the local non-profit groups," Burkhauser said. "One person doesn't make this happen. There's an army of us."
On the Net:
http://www.deathride.com/
LOOKING AHEAD:
Diamond Valley Road Race
Northern California/Northern Nevada
Masters Road Championships
Woodfords, Saturday, July 25
Minden Park Criterium
Northern California/Northern Nevada
Masters Criterium Championships
Minden, Sunday July 26
Presented by Alta Alpina Cycling Club:
www.altaalpina.org
