by Rob Kelly
We started at 4:35 am heading toward the coast from Thousand Oaks, temperatures going down the first part of Malibu Canyon were in the mid 30’s, it’s not so bad climbing, but descending is almost painful. Going south on PCH toward Santa Monica we hit our first climb of the day, New Topanga, and then Old Topanga which would take us through the town of Calabasas, eventually making the turn west on Mulholland Hwy.
The event now took us the entire length of Mulholland to the coast before heading north on PCH including the infamous Rock Store Climb. I remember looking at my garmin at 7:30am and seeing 3500ft elevation gain. Heading north on PCH to our next turn, Yerba Buena Road, right next to the famous Neptune’s Net restaurant. Yerba is a steady climb, not to steep, but when we made the left on Cotharin, we hit 12-16% grade. It was there I figured out I needed 2 more gears.
The views from the top of Cotharin are stunning to say the least. The descent down to PCH on Deer Creek is can be intimidating. I’d give it a 7.5 on the sphincter scale. It’s a constant 10-12% grade, poor pavement and the road never flattens out. You’re on your brakes all the way down the mountain. I’ve heard tales of carbon fiber wheels delaminating due to heat!
This video was taken by a guy in our group yesterday.
Making our way north on PCH past Point Mugu, and to our next climb Portrero Road. This is a nice 12-16% knee popper. At the top we made good time through Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills and Oak Park before heading into Moorpark to the summit of the Famous Norwegian Grade. On to Santa Rosa Road to Camarillo and straight in to head wind all the way back to the coast. The winds were strong and I knew once we got around Point Mugu the wind would be at our back making the 20 miles to Decker easy.
At the intersection of Decker Canyon and PCH my garmin was displaying 10,000ft elevation gain at mile 150, it was 6pm, and we still had 6800ft to climb with 42 miles to go.
Lol
Decker is a steep climb. It immediately starts at 12-17% from sea level eventually leveling out at the fire station. From there we pushed on until we finally hit the last climb of the day, Piuma. This is a 5.7 mile climb that is long slog but just surreal and beautiful in the dark. This climb would be completely different in day light. From the top of this climb you can see Malibu and the Valley, stunning views. From there, it was a cold ride back to Thousand Oaks.
This was the staff ride, for those of us working the actual event next weekend, but it does count in the Ca Triple Crown scoring.
My garmin is set to total time, and it was 18:10 with 16829ft elevation gain, 195 miles.
If you page down you can see the difficulty ratings on these doubles.
Devil Mountain Double is in 3 weeks!
Editor’s Note: The Mulholland Double Century was early April, and the staff workers get together the weekend before the event to do the ride themselves. Rob was one of the staff workers for the ride, and turned in this report of the ride. The descent video is amazing, especially considering the poor quality of the road in that section.