Lots of agony and ecstasy in the Death Ride

BY MIKE HOUSER

Appeal Sports Writer

ALPINE COUNTY " Mathew Sessions had just completed the 129-mile, five-stage Death Ride and he sat cross-legged on the sun-baked asphalt with his eyes squeezed tightly shut. When his face wasn't buried in his hands, it was twisted into a grimace of the damned.

"I'm glad to be done," said the 36-year-old Sessions, a salesman from Mill Valley, Calif. "It's hard to balance food and liquids. If you get too much you get bloated. If you don't get enough, you bonk. I think I bonked."

Reactions ran the gamut between agony and ecstasy " usually both " for many of the nearly 3,000 bicycle riders who tested the course, which had a cumulative 16,000 feet of vertical gains.

For several of the riders " all of whom were selected from a lottery pool of 5,000 " the challenge was every bit as much internal as external.

"It was a hard day," said Sessions, who was surrounded by cans and bottles with various fluids as well as a concerned friend in Dennis George, a health care manager who is also from Mill Valley. "You can train so much for it, but it's just really, really hard."

Sessions yelped in agony as he tried to straighten out his body and lie flat.

"I had no choice. I was going to make it no matter what," he said, his resolve still evident. "I'm just glad it's done."

It was Sessions' third Death Ride and George's second. Last year, the 46-year-old George came up just more than nine miles short of the finish line. This year, an increased training regimen and a different approach got him all the way through the event.

"I trained for 10 weeks and started earlier (in the day)," George said. "Last year, I waited on friends. This time I went at my own pace."

The event, which is organized annually by the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce, was not an official competition, but some were able to complete the course in highly competitive times. Lasse Bjerga crossed the finish line first in 7 hours, 23 seconds, followed by Ken Calendar, in 7:28. No hometowns for the top 10 placers were provided by event organizers and in the case of the third-place finisher, only a jersey number " 1410 " was available.

John Clark, an oil and gas engineer from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was making his first pilgrimage to the Death Ride.

"I'd heard about it 10 years ago and I've always wanted to come," said Clark, who was among a party of three to make the journey and who began to feel his doubts near the finish line. "I was thinking they don't give these stickers away easily (to those who complete the course). It's a top event. It far exceeded my expectations.

"That last bit, looking up and seeing cars that far above you, seeing that very deep switchback " you don't know where the finish is. After 129 miles, it's tough."

Clark said switching to lower gears on his bike ultimately saved him. He also said he saw some beautiful scenery, a lot of pavement and a good share of daredevils.

"I saw some crazy behavior on the descents," he said. "They were fearless and the speeds they reached coming down was mind-boggling. I was smelling smoke from my brakes all the way down."Todd Berlier, a 40-year-old veterinary student from Fort Collins, Colo., said he encountered no surprises in his second Death Ride.

"Same pain, same fun, same hot," Berlier said. "It's just a matter of eating enough food and drinking enough water to get through the whole thing. My legs hurt more than my lungs."

The riders all benefited from an improvement in the smoky conditions that have been plaguing the area, but many who didn't finish early enough were hard hit by hail and a vicious rain storm.

"All in all, it was a good day," said Mark Labouff, a 49-year-old engineer from Las Vegas who was participating in his fifth Death Ride. He said he trained between 100-200 miles per week before this race. "All rides you go through questioning yourself. You're elated when you start because you're excited. Then you're fatigued and begin to doubt. At the finish, you're elated again."

Labouff said he was going to celebrate by eating at a Basque restaurant and having some wine.

For Carson City homemaker Kathy Williams, who participated in her 12th Death Ride since 1982, it was an opportunity to share some time with her niece, Kristi Henne, who competes for Lees-McRae College (N.C.).

"This one was nice," Williams said. "We each climbed at our own pace and met at every pass."

But for the 46-year-old Williams, the end of the Death Ride was only a beginning.

"I'm going to compete in the Leadville (Colo.) 100 next," said Williams, who has been riding since she was in her 20s. "The altitude gets up to 12,000 feet and is always at least 9,000. This is training for that race, which you ride on mountain bikes."

Apparently, Williams would agree with the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell song, "Ain't no mountain high enough."

- Contact Mike Houser at mhouser@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1214