Of notable mention,  Ken & Joseph drove over eight hours to get the ride . This was also Stephane's first DC. 

Joseph & Tom chose to make it a century ride.  Joseph, came all the way down from way up north, & wrote an excellent story about his experience.  They are both experienced DC cyclists; however it seemed they thought they were spread out too far behind the others.

The others fought to the end and finished valiantly.

The faithful volunteers were: Bob Lloyd, Dennis Kokas, Kermit Ganier, Major Harbour, Ray Harbour, David Nakaii, and myself.

The finishing times were: 9:30 pm for Drew, Janet, Ken, Stephane, & Dan, and 12:45 am for Jim, Fred & David.

There were six rest stops with bathrooms & a post-ride meal.

The rest stop food & supplements were like you would see at official CTC DC's.  The riders brought the bottled water.  The Julian rest stop served the infamous fresh Julian apple pie, just out of the oven, with cold milk. Several nieces & nephews baked cookies & brownies for each rest stop.

At the top of Montezuma Pass, there was homemade fudge & cold milk. Drew Petersen was the first up Montezuma Grade,  Janet was 2nd, followed by Ken, Stephane, and then Dan. Everyone had to dig deep to conquer this 11 mile long climb after riding 111 miles. Hot apple cider, served by the Ranchita store, came in handy as it got freezing cold & windy at the top, especially after it got dark. After dark, a whether front came through the area. It dropped the termperatures and increased the wind. The last group of riders got rained on before they reached the last rest stop and were soaking wet at the finish.

At the last rest stop, Grape Day park, the bathrooms were closed.  However. I had purchased a case of disposable "brief reliefs", for the cyclists to experiment with, but  no one needed to try it out at that time.

For next time, communication in the mountains will be via walkie-talkies, (Tom Park's suggestion). the short route on the bike path in Escondido will be deleted,(everyone's suggestion), & the last rest stop will be changed to another park, David Nakaii's suggestion.

All the cyclists exhibited all the good strong qualities of a true Die Hard. It was a tough course & they all hung tough in attitude, tough in team spirit & tough physically.  The first five teamed up at rest stop five, when it got dark.  Jim, Fred & Dave teamed up & started up Montezuma. Around half way up Kermit brought them their lights and clothing, because it was getting near sunset. Dave took off first and Fred & Jim needed extra time to put on their lights, additional clothing, refill water and eat a food bar. Fred & Jim were frozen at the top of Montezuma and spent extra time warming up at the Ranchita store. They were not looking forward to the cold downhill that followed until Anny sugested stuffing their jerseys with newspaper. That made a world of difference in keeping them warm for the rest of the ride.

David said he waited quite a while at rest stop 5 so he could team up with Jim & Fred again, which helped with the lighting situation later on. Dave had his headlight on low power consumption, while Fred and Jim had their lights fired up. Fred & Jim had their headlight batteries die after riding about 5 hours in the dark. They were less than an hour from the finish. But it was not a problem, because they were riding in a group and Dave took the lead with his headlight. Fred & Jim swithched to a small backup headlight to keep them street legal.

Even Joseph & Tom had teamed up. Pushing through a very tough course, I viewed first hand the cheerfullness during the day, and the tenacity during the night of each cyclist. I knew each one had had their moments when they had to reach down & dig deep. They proved they were hard core, and they proved to me they were the Best Testers in all of California for this Die Hard Double. 

The volunteers were there to serve & cheer them on, sacrificing thier Saturday.  Fingers of fog wrapped themselves around the cyclists as if to hug them, as the welcoming lights surrounding the Oceanside Pier witnessed the few that had made themselves choice. 

As I handed them thier Die Hard 2006 caps, in my mind I was giving each one an overcomers crown, for a challenge that had never been done beflore.  They possessed the spirit of our pioneering forfathers, paving the way for others.  Though there was no fanfare, no parade, it was a silent Chariots of Fire type of feeling.  Die Hard Eagles.  New to ride organizing, in all my cycling career I had never experienced this moment of being so proud of what each cyclist had just accomplished, both as Individuals, and as a Team.