Death Ride: Toughest Challenge On Two Wheels

MARKLEEVILLE, Calif. - The short-wave radio crackled with pleas never heard before during the torturous 128.5-mile bike tour through the California Alps known as The Death Ride. Ride director Curtis Fong had been sitting in the cramped confines of the communication van, parked at the Ride's start-finish base camp near Markleeville, for almost 12 hours. Already bleary from working on an hour's sleep, the plaintive voices of aid station workers over the radio had Fong ready to snap.

Hundreds of cyclists stranded at the top of Ebbetts, send transportation, one said.

Hail at Luther Pass, send blankets and warm drinks, requested another.

Thunder, lightning and driving rain at Carson Pass, riders need help getting down, warned yet another.

Some of the reports were slightly exaggerated. The 200 stranded riders turned out to be closer to 50. There were 10 cases of hypothermia treated, although twice that many were reported.

Even so, it was a few days later that Fong recalled, and was amused by, a remark made by the first rider to finish the '91 race. Fong doesn't remember the rider's name, but he knows his comment by heart: "It's not the Death Ride anymore. It's too easy."

No one dared say that this year. With only between 200 to 300 riders from a field of 2,500 reaching all five mountain passes, the unseasonably 50-degree chill and heavy rain helped restore the Death Ride's national reputation as one of the toughest challenges on two

wheels. Riders, most in their 30s and 40s, had trained faithfully for a year, some pedaling more than 200 miles a week to prepare - and it wasn't enough. Nearly all, having prepared for scorching temperatures, were caught off-guard.

Dave Schlichtig, president of the Alta Alpina Bicycle Club, a co-sponsor of the event, was among those brought down off the 7,740-foot Luther Pass suffering from hypothermia.

"It's the toughest ride I've ever done," he said, "and hopefully, it's the toughest ride I ever do."

Searing heat and ill-prepared cyclists have caused problems before, but this was the first time the cutoff for reaching the bottom of the final pass was moved up - from 5:15 to 4 p.m. - after the race had started.

"I agree with the decision," said Katie Wood, 35. She was about to climb Carson when she was told by Alpine County police to turn around. "There were people like me who were going to keep going, even though it wasn't the smart thing to do," she said. "No one in their right mind would've gone up there."

Craig Larsen, the first to finish this year, has done six Death Rides in a row now, four of which were when the course was 150-plus miles with 8,730-foot Ebbetts, the highest, steepest climb and most treacherous descent, as the last summit.

"This one was the worst," said Larsen. "The rain adds another element of danger, but it also makes it more precious in finishing. My hat's off to anyone who finishes on a day like this. . . . This is the one I treasure the most."

This was the first Death Ride for Susan Shook, the first woman to reach Carson Pass. Shook, 34, said the 1987 Paris-Brest-Paris race was her toughest ride. That course is 750 miles long and includes 33,000 feet of elevation. But she put the '92 Death, nearly 625 miles shorter, with about half the elevation, as a close second.

Give partial credit - or blame - to Greg LeMond for its existence. The Death course spawned from a training ride devised by a half-dozen masochistic cyclists, including LeMond, in the late '70s and has been a public event since 1981. The original course included Daggett Pass just over the border in Nevada. Reluctance by Nevada state officials to assist the ride - which was actually a race until six years ago - led to Daggett Pass being phased out. Riders have since climbed both the west and east sides of Monitor Pass to keep it a five-pass event.

Wally Schweitzer began doing the Death Ride before it went public. "That's when it was the hardest," he said. "It was kind of our little thing. It's become a real cult thing now . . . but it's still the Death Ride."