A few years ago now, former Clif Bar marketing guru, Paul McKenzie, concocted the formula for a bike ride that would haunt hardcore cyclists for the rest of eternity. He called it the Nifty Ten Fifty. This is a route that comprises 54 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing in ten punishing ascents that criss-cross the East Bay hills.
Each year the McPaulster has sent an email encouraging me and others to join the ride, and commonsense has always prevailed. I don't quite know what happened this year, but I decided I'd take up his challenge. Looking back, I wish I'd studied the route map more carefully beforehand, it really was alarming!
10,000 feet of climbing in 54 miles. Think about it, that would be almost 2,000 feet every 10 miles on average, right? Actually it's worse than that. Since half of the ride is descending, think 2,000 feet of climbing every five miles. Here's a comparison: Mt Diablo, a highly respected climb among cyclists in the East Bay area, gains about 3,000 feet of elevation in about nine miles if you take the steeper North Gate Road. So the Nifty Ten Fifty is considerably more demanding than riding Mt Diablo... several times over.
The average gradient of the climbs in the Nifty Ten Fifty is about 15%. That's almost twice as steep as the notorious Alpe d'Huez climb in the Tour de France.
If you're starting to think this ride is bordering on insanity, you'd be among the majority of cyclists. The Nifty Ten Fifty is for the extreme few who've ridden or raced through numerous challenges and are looking for something that's so hard the best part is reaching the end.
A group of eight assembled at the start, and this year we didn't reach the end. A violent weather front coming in gave us the perfect out. With strong winds whipping at our spokes on the steep descents, and driving rain numbing our fingers, we decided it was getting dangerous and curtailed the ride at the half-way point. I never thought I'd be so grateful for foul weather!
We'd climbed 5,000 feet in 25 miles. My legs felt like jelly, and would still be feeling a little creaky three days later. Yet somehow the memory of it is exhilarating. Will I do this ride again? How I wish I could say No with some certainty.
