WHEELS OF LOVE DAY 2
MASADA TO MAMSHIT – "THE SCORPION’S ASCENT"
With the aid of earplugs and sleeping pills I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep on the first night. I have enough difficulty sleeping at home – when you add in the stress of sleeping with a large group of strangers in a different place every night combined with the excitement/apprehension of the next days ride – getting any rest without the aid of pharmaceuticals would be nearly impossible. In general we woke up at 5am, davened at 5:30, ate breakfast at 6am, and left around 7am.
The day began warm and sunny, which was a welcome relief from the freezing rain of the first day. Actually, we had sunshine or partial sunshine for the rest of the trip. The off road group split up from us and went their merry way. We had been informed that this would be the most difficult day of climbing for the challenge group, with a particularly difficult climb coming at ~ 55 miles into the ride. The start was quite mellow though, with around 22 miles of rolling hills as we proceeded south from the Dead Sea. The climbing started as we left the Dead Sea rift and proceeded westward, toward the high plain of the central Negev desert. We were starting at the lowest point on Earth, the area of the biblical town of Sodom at nearly 1,300 feet below sea level, and climbing to the Dimona area at ~ 2,000 feet above sea level. The grade wasn’t too bad, averaging less than 3%, but it was relentless – continuing for some 30 miles. All this time we were passing through a unique multicolored "lunar" landscape of a desert, beautiful in its solitude and starkness. It is one of the primary training areas for the Israeli army, so photography was prohibited. Aside from the occasional air force fighter jet screaming overhead, the only sound was the wind in your ears and the clicking of shifting gears.
At ~ 50 miles we reached a desert plateau with a slight rise where we stopped for a break. Off in the distance one could see the blimp, which hovers 24/7/365 over the Dimona area – the site of Israel’s "secret" nuclear facility and adjacent to our final destination. In front of that was a solid wall of mountains. I scanned the horizon for a break in the ridge that we could pass through. None. One of the Israelis pointed to a series of zigzags in the distance, which appeared similar to the scratches that a child would make in the sand with a stick. The only difference is that these zigzags went straight up the side of a mountain. This was the famous "Scorpion’s Ascent", mentioned in the bible and located along the ancient Nabatean spice route.
The sun was high in the sky and the heat was beginning to feel oppressive. We removed our helmets and drenched our heads and jerseys with water to combat the heat. Due to the extreme dryness of the desert climate, it only provided a few minutes of relief until evaporation. Our legs were already tired from the days climbing and we really felt it as the grade steepened. The approach to the Ascent was about 5 miles long at a grade of 5%. Then we hit the series of about a dozen serpentine switchbacks and the group totally disintegrated. The switchbacks lasted for ~ 1.5 miles with an average grade of 11%! The actual point where one changed direction was much steeper, and I had to carefully get out of the saddle and hammer in order to stay upright. Fortunately the police closed down both sides of the road to traffic while we completed the climb, allowing us very wide turns. My pulse was running around 175 bpm throughout the fifteen minutes that it took to complete the ascent. It was so hot that volunteers were pouring water on us while we were cycling up some of the steeper segments. About 2/3 of the way up I reached and dropped one of the Israeli ride leaders – an amateur racer who is wicked fast on the flats and in the sprints. Felt pretty good! I was the 13th rider to reach the top out of a group of 60 very strong cyclists. From what I was told, about a third of the riders made it to the top without stopping, a third had to stop one or more times, and a third had to walk the steeper segments. I guess all those climbs up Bear Mountain paid off!
We had a bathroom/re-hydration break at the top, and then continued on the relatively easy 15 miles of rolling hills until our destination for the night.
Distance: 73 miles
Ascent: 5,200 feet
Cumulative: 132 miles/ 7,100 ft of elevation