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I just wanted to thank you for the great ride. The ride was so well organized, the SAG stops were well stocked and all the volunteers were very friendly, always encouraging and so helpful!
I have completed Ironman triathlons and marathons, but this ride was by far the hardest event I have ever done. I hope you can keep this ride going! Thank you again for a great event!
Cherryl Rose
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You all sure were nice to us yesterday! I was impressed. Really extraordinary enthusiasm, and knowledge by the staff folks. Like holding our bikes up at some rest stops, and acknowledging our needs for drinks quickly at the Kern turnaround, and having a broad variety of bars, drinks, gels. I like chairs at rest stops, and there was always one available.
So, thanks so much for the ride! You guys have a great event!
Rob Delfosse
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Great ride guys - still paying for it - was easily the hardest thing I have EVER done. Can't imagine what it was like before you changed the course. Thanks again for a great experience!
Liz Kollar - LA TRI Club
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Thank you all so much for this experience. The volunteers were so supportive and kind, and I could not have finished this gnarly ride without them.
I finished my first Ironman triathlon earlier this year in the French Alps, and I think this ride was both physically and mentally more challenging. I hope you have this ride again next year as I will probably do it again even though I promised myself no more torture!
Jennifer D'Amato
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Great organization and A+ SAG. Very friendly and supportive volunteers made me forget my own struggle and worry about "their" well being in the 100 degree heat on Sherman Pass. Usually after a timed event I rush to find my recorded time - with this ride, you'll just be happy you finished!
Did the Etape du Tour this year which included the Mt. Ventoux stage, and this was significantly harder. It felt like Sherman Pass is a much longer and harder climb than the Galibier, which I did this summer.
-Mark Wong
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Hi! Thanks to all who supported this ride...truely one of the most spectacular rides and a first for me. Special thanks for the ride up the 5,000 ascent. I would not have been able to enjoy the rest of the ride without that boost. The descent to the start was scary-fun and an amazing visual testimony to the effort.
In my book, this ride surpasses all expectations and is in its own class. Thanks again!
Valerie
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Rich, after tackling Son of Death Ride everything else will now seem like a training ride. A great course and support crew. The SAG angel who delivered cold drinks on the climb up from the Kern River saved my bacon. Keep these rides coming, I'm in.
Clark
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Hi Richard,
Thank you and your team for putting together the 2009 edition of SOD. The torturous yet amazingly picturesque course certainly had me digging deeper into my reserves than any previous endurance event I was able to complete. And without the help of all your volunteers at each aid station, I'm pretty sure I would have called it a day before the finish! (that turkey & Swiss sandwich at the 1/2way point had to be 1 of the most flavorful & satisfying things to cross my lips in a long time). I look forward to returning again for many years to come.
Best regards
Guillaume
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THE RIDE FROM BEYOND HELL!!!!!!!!
EGAD, what a truly gut-wrenching experience that was!!!!!!! I tried your initial offering a few years ago when the course started at the bottom of Sherman Pass and we ended up climbing Nine-mile canyon into those hypersonic headwinds. This 'reverse' version is definitely better. Easier? I guess if you call climbing Sherman Pass in the middle of the afternoon with thermonuclear temperatures easy.
Anyway, thanks to ALL of the people involved in this sojourn, especially the volunteers whose enthusiasm and positive attitudes were enormously beneficial to all of us. Tina was a godsend on Sherman Pass, handing out water and various other liquids to parched riders. I especially liked it when the people at the rest stops held my bike while I tried to recover from this self-inflicting destruction.
Will I try this ride again next year? YOU BET!!! Also, the ride down Nine-mile canyon was with out a doubt the hardest downhill I've ever ridden. Twice, I had to stop and let my brakes and rims cool down. All in all, a ride I'll never forget. Thanks again.
William Murphy
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Thank you so much for organizing the ride and providing fantastic support, your volunteers were a welcome site along the course. While I was disappointed to have not finished the ride, I am pleased to have attempted it. It was a fantastic test of fitness and will. Your support for all of the riders and encouragement made the experience all the better. My wife and I will have to come join you for a Solvang trip. Most enjoyable!
Bret Batchelor
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Good to see you this past weekend. Thank you very much for organizing the ride - I had a very good time and also felt that I need more training for next ones.
Kentaro Inoue
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I rode your ride yesterday, and looking at my Garmin stats, totaling the ascent and descent of the route from the start to the Kern, I come up with 18,840' of vert. (10,847 of up, 7,983 of descent.) My battery didn't last, but adding those numbers for one direction should be fairly accurate. So, maybe you didn't need to modify your original number.
Maybe next year I'll ride the 100 miler, which is a great route. I believe that if you marketed the century route, you'd get lots of takers. That is a superb route, and doesn't require such a high fitness level. 19000' - climbers is a pretty small market.
I think people would really like that route. It would leave more energy to really enjoy the 9 mile canyon descent, which is the greatest descent in my cycling career.
Rob
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Mike Enfield: 2009 Ride Report
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This was the only ride I have ever entered that I was unable to complete, and that includes the original Markleeville Death Ride.
Skip
************************************************ My riding partner has completed the Devil Mountain Double, and he stated it paled in comparison to this one.
Kelly
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After doing Breathless Agony ride in May, and the Triple By Pass ride in Colorado in July, this ride is definitely the toughest of them all. Joe Yule
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Keep this ride forever! A truly gut-wrenching, challenging experience. I've told my friends at work about this, telling them that this makes the Terrible Two Double Century look easy.
************************************************ What an epic ride!! Unbelievably tough with the head-wind, and lets not forget, the near freezing temperatures on the 15 mile descent to the finish. Throw in a little altitude and you have the toughest ride I have ever been on. See you next year.
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The ride up Nine Mile Canyon into that hellish head wind was one of the worst if not the worst experience I have ever had on a bike. I loved it.
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The climb out of the desert was by far the hardest 10 miles on two wheels in my 20 years on a bike.
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At the campground it was a bit like a scene from the Eastwood movie, The Eiger Sanction, where we are all looking up at the mountain wondering if the mountaineers (riders) are going to get back despite the fierce storm (cold and fading light)! But your rescue squad came and picked them all up.
Michael
************************************************ All the architects of this ride: give your selves a well deserved pat on the back for having crafted the toughest single day ride out there (at least in N. America). There will be a huge turnout next year. - Eric
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Although I have never done the Markleeville Death Ride, I suspect a lot of those folks have missed a real glimpse in to The Abyss. The creatures down there do NOT smile back, that is for sure. - Brett.
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Son of Death Ride proved to me for all time that I am indisputably "mortal."
************************************************ This Saturday I was a participant in SDR, although not a finisher, Son of Death Ride finished me.
…it was a wonderful experience, one that I shall long remember and indeed cherish. The volunteers at the rest stops were as friendly and helpful as one could ask and added greatly to the enjoyment of the ride.
Many thanks,
Skip Nevell
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Thanks for organizing the ride. It was a real test of character. I will be there next year. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for staffing & feeding us well.
Andy Lambert
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My name is Matteo Bevini and I can proudly say that I successfully finished this incredible and magnificent ride. I wanted to personally thank you for organizing this ride and for the support given to all riders. Please extend these thanks especially to all those wonderful people at the feed zones which made this ride memorable. Without them and their support it would have been impossible to accomplish this ride. I hope you are going to repeat this immortal ride next year and you can definitely count on me being there.
Thank you again,
Arrivederci
************************************************ Wow, that was a blast!
Great support, thank you so much for the assistance. Hope to join you
on a more gentile romp through Zion next year, THAT sounds like fun!
Brett
************************************************ Thank you for organizing the SOD ride! It takes a lot of time, effort, and teamwork. Love the route!!
Terri Hand
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Thanks for putting on an awesome ride... (Headwind and cold excepted)
--Jim Moore
************************************************ Thanks again for putting on such a great event: an epic ride like this needed no less a formidable support crew. Hope to be there next year...
Eric Derbez
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Really tough ride guys, but well-organized, thank you.
Mike Woodhead
************************************************ I really enjoyed the ride. Even though I live close by (Springville), I'd never been up Sherman Pass Road. Great Climb! Hopefully next year I can do the whole ride. Rick
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I will be back, and hopefully can convince a few friends to join me. Only problem for me is this was my first organized race, and now everything else just sounds so easy! :-)
Brett
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Thanks for a great event. Hope to see you next year.
Andrew Thomas
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How about the reverse direction next year so the first climb is in the sun, we get to the turn before the headwind starts (and then becomes a tailwind) and the final descent down to the desert is warmer.
************************************************ Thanks for staging a truly hellacious and exhilarating experience! I will definitely try this ride again next year. Great support and attitude from your volunteers!
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Please do not change the course. It will develop a cult following given its near invincibility.
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Thanks for a very memorable ride. I don't think I'll be forgetting this one anytime soon. If you guys have this ride again next year I'll be there, maybe a little more prepared though.
- John
************************************************ I did not understand the moniker, "SonofDeathRide" until the return on Nine Mile Canyon. I did not understand the phrase, "you must suffer on the bike" until hitting the flat part of the ascent of the canyon, 30-60 mph freak head winds buffeting our eyes and chests, and turning my small gears at 4 mph on the FLAT. You could not stand, or you became a para-sail! Imagine hitting those 20-21% grades in to the same wind?
For my fellow riders who braved this stretch, to those who stopped for 10 minutes at Rest 3, and then were still willing to fight those infernal winds for the next 20 miles UP, to those who kept turning the crank, I hope you had a beer or three that evening.
************************************************ Rad ride! Gave me a whole new experience of 'bonk'!!!
-morgan
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Next year I will have to train for this one. It was a great route.
John
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