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This year, Heartbreak double century is the second event of the "Stage Race": the 3 most difficult double centuries, totaling more than 50,000ft of climbing. Since I already completed the most difficult one, Devil Mountain Double, I was up for Heartbreak double. All the more as I already knew part of the ride from completing the century version of Heartbreak last september.
Unfortunately, this was counting without the sun (more than 90 degrees around noon), the road vibrations that made me sick, probably also not enough sleep during the previous busy week, and also not enough training. At mile 40, my stomach was upset and I was feeling pretty sick. I continued, taking it easy, took some pills at the rest stop at mile 50, but nothing worked. So I dropped at mile 70, at the top of a long climb. Arghhhh, I missed the next downhill, one of the best downhills in California ! I just couldn't do one more mile on the bike, even downhill.
The most surprising event of the day was meeting, Charlie and Steve who were on the 600km brevet run at the same time. Those guys completed RAAM (Race Across America) as a team, in a bit more than 7 days ! This time they were taking it easy on the brevet, barely trying to make it to the checkpoints by the closing time. This was apparently just a promenade for them. Sleep ? "what for ?". They were also on the Solvang double century a couple months ago, chatting all the time and completing it in 12 hours, when the best time was 8h30. "We didn't want to show off..."
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