I pre-rode the 12 Hours of Temecula course today at Vail Lake with a couple of others. The guy who was leading us around did it from memory of when he rode the 24 Hours of Vail Lake, so I don't think we rode the exact 12 Hour course, but it was probably pretty close.

Here are some scouting notes:

1) The Dam(n) Climb is the longest and toughest. There are other much shorter climbs, and some short steep sections, but if you're a climber and want to gain time, you'll want to do it on the Dam Climb. It's a moderate length, probably less than 2 miles, but it has a bunch of false summits. The climb is in the very early part of the course, so you'll want to warm-up well before going out on your lap.

2) The majority of the course is fireroad/doubletrack, with some rocks and washboarding. There are a couple of pretty steep chutes on the downhill with some rocks and sand thrown in. I rode pretty much all of it, though I walked one chute because I wasn't set up right at the top and I looked at it too long. If you rode the course several laps in succession, you'd probably find a good line by the 3rd lap and not even have to slow down.

3) If you're not a climber but a confident descender, you can get in the big ring and pedal much of the downhill.

4) There is a small amount of exposure on the doubletrack that follows a ridgeline. Most of the hill off the ridgeline isn't super steep, but there are some sections where an off-trail excursion would send you rolling down the hill for awhile. Trail is wide, so just stay in control and you shouldn't have any trouble.

5) The route we rode today had some silly steep hike a bikes. I don't know if the Nov. 15th course has them.

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There's a lot of shame on a road bike. -- evdog

Nice! Sorry I couldn't make it out...I really gotta try to get down there before the race. 2 weeks. Yikes...I'm so out of shape right now....

Thanks for the report. ^^ This is what has kept me from wanting to ride that event.

The course for the Nov. 15th race is shorter than the courses have been in the past. The actual route is on geoladders.
http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=18054

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Long Live Long Rides
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I was out there today with Luke and Chris. Didn't know you were going; didn't see you there. Post it up next time. If you saw a UCSD kit, it was me.

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"I never learned anything from winning, it's the races where I got my butt kicked that I learned the most" - Michellie Jones (Ironman World Champion)

http://www.ericpalmerendurancecoaching.blogspot.com

I am thinking of heading out there tomorrow for some runs....anybody down? As long as it does not rain

Sorry I missed out on todays run....I forgot all about it

Hey Zip.....how many laps you guys do? Was Allison and Justin there?

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Eric

"Pain is nothing compared to what it feels like to quit"

Nah, the Manns didn't show up, I did see Keith (shiftyspeedy on GL) and the O'Dark thirty crew. We did 2 laps and added some other stuff. About 25-30 miles.

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"I never learned anything from winning, it's the races where I got my butt kicked that I learned the most" - Michellie Jones (Ironman World Champion)

http://www.ericpalmerendurancecoaching.blogspot.com

If you saw two guys on singlespeeds (one rigid), a guy on a BMC Superstroke, and a guy on a GF Hardtail, that was us.

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There's a lot of shame on a road bike. -- evdog