I’m with you. First lap speed was 49.5 on the descent. Then wind kicked up on second loop and with an 808 in front, only had stones for 35 mph the second time around. Some of those gusts were fun . . . NOT!!!
A Canadian girl who was staying at the same hotel as us wiped out pretty hard Sunday. I think it was on the downhill into Keane since she said she had hit 50 mph the last time she looked. She went over the bars and had major road rash on her elbow, knee, hip and shoulder. Jacked her bike up a bit too. She was taken to the hospital and patched up but was back cheering for the runners a couple hours later. She had a huge blood smear on her frame too. She was in good spirits Monday morning and was anxious to come back and do the race again.
Wow…after reading this thread I now realize how naive I was for allowing myself to top out at 50mph on the decent to Keene. I feathered the breaks a bit on the first loop because there were a half dozen people in front of me spread out across the lane all changing positions. On the second loop there were only 2-3 people ahead of me and I was able to get around them (after shouting ON YOU LEFT as loud as I could…I could barely hear myself) and use the breaks a lot less.
My understanding is that a primary cause of flats on a decent like that is from using the breaks…it heats up the rim which overheats the tube and cause it to fail. So you have to use your breaks very judiciously.
I realized how lucky I was as I cruised into Keene unscathed and saw the five (or more) ambulances parked on the side of the road ready to go into action. It didn’t actually occur to me until the second time down why so many are parked at the bottom of the hill.
If they re-pave the entire decent just like they did the section along Cacade Lake it would either make the decent a lot safer (smooth) or more dangerous (even higher speeds).
I have no fear going down that hill.
I prefer to utilize the Dev Paul method–chin on my stem, knees around the top tube, elbows in.
My zipp wheels handle the same at 50+ mph as they do at 30mph.
I stay in my tuck the entire time. The only problem is that towards the bottom my neck and arms begin to shake from the lactic acid build up.
I’m guessing I pick up 2-3 minutes per lap, although I haven’t done the calculation.
I agree with chainpin. I’ve always gone 50+ mph down that hill without touching the brakes and never felt that I was in any real danger. There are no sharp turn or sections that require braking if you have decent handling skills.
I used this technique on Keene and cruised down the hill at a steady 45-46 on the first loop. The second loop was a bit slower due to the wind.
But, today the insides on my quads are hurting big time due to the death squeeze on the top tube! 
TT
Descending has always scared the shit out of me. Descending became a phobia of mine after the Triple T in 2006. Saturday morning I rode down to the transition area from the Cabins. As I stopped to dismount in the parking lot I unclipped my right foot and at the same time my pack shifted on my shoulders and I fell over on my left side and my knee slammed into the asphalt. I got up and all my friends were laughing and blood was running down my shin. I hastily got my composure and rolled my bike into the transition area and set things up for race # 2 of the Triple T. During the ride that morning my legs felt flat for the entire ride. The bike course is tough with many hard climbs, but even on the flat sections I was working really hard to maintain a decent pace. I was really happy to finish the ride. As I was slipping on my running shoes I noticed that my right shin was covered in black soot. I brushed it off and couldn’t figure out were this came from. I took off on the run and it felt good that my legs didn’t feel flat like on the bike.
After the morning race on Saturday the group I was with all went back up to our cabin and there was some laughter still about my unclipping incident that morning. One of my friends noticed some black soot on my right shin and asked where that came from. I told him I had no idea…I must have road through something on the road. I thought I had brushed it all off before taking off for the run but there was still a small patch on my leg.
So then later that afternoon we head down for race # 3 of the Triple T which is the bike, swim, run version of this event. My partner and I take off for the out & back team time trial ride on State Route 125. Shortly into the ride I was complaining that my legs still felt flat. I was having a hard time keeping up. We got to the long descent and my friend was pulling away from me. I looked down and I was going 35 mph and was getting ready to begin feathering the breaks when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like a gun being fired…and then immediately my bike went into a death wobble. Surprisingly I didn’t panic, and till this day I don’t know how I didn’t crash, and I was able to bring the bike to a stop on the steepest part of the descent. I got off my bike and checked out the front tire. There was a hole in the side of the tire. It was then that I noticed that the tire was pressed up against the right side of the fork. The entire sidewall on the outside of the tire was paper thin from rubbing up against the inside of the fork for the last 30 plus miles. I was actually able to cover the hole with a folded dollar bill from my tool kit and road the bike back to Shawnee State Park. 1st though I wipe the accumulation of black soot off my right shin.
Little did I realize just how much torque I put on my front tire when I fell over that morning? I never even thought about making sure the front tire was aligned in the fork after the unclipping incident.
You must have left some wobble plasma on the road after the first loop. Don’t worry, I found it on the second loop.
On the last full right hand turn near the bottom of the descent (up a little ways from where the speed reading radar sign on the right side of the road), I passed a guy in the turn while dealing with some of those squirrely side wind gusts. As i came out of the turn, I saw a tour bus coming up the hill. In anticipation of the bus induced side blasts, I promptly stopped focussing on where I was and imprudently started focussing on the bus. I immediately went into a nice wobble. I wasn’t aware of my speed at that point as I can’t really see the computer when in a tuck, but my max for the day was 48.4 mph, and i only feathered the brakes twice on the second loop.
Anyway, I sat up quickly, but i had a hard time letting go of the death grip on the horns as I was trying to gently break. Without being able to relax my grip, I couldn’t get my knees to the toptube. Meanwhile, my lack of full and complete control resulted in the bike crossing over into the left lane, i.e., the lane occupied by said OnComing Bus. Curiously, I wasn’t all that flummoxed by the prescence of OCB, as I was eyeing the bush encrusted shoulder of the uphill lane and calculating that it might be less painful than intimate contact with the road at some 40+ mph. Not that it appeared that I had any sort of a choice about the matter at that point in time.
Finally, some mental switch ticked over (and a little slowing from sitting up) and i relaxed my hands, squeezed the life out of the top tube with my knees, regained control, dove between a couple of cones dividing the uphill and downhill lanes, and returned to the land of the living.
After turning left at the Keene intersection, the guy I had just passed before my little excursion caught back up to me (and subsequently passed me for good). He was still a little wide-eyed as he had observed the whole thing. He told me his heart was pounding in his chest the whole time, I suspect at the prospect of seeing something truly horrific. I told him my heart stopped beating altogether.
Bottom line, as basically posted by someone above already, ride the bike at all times, pay attention to what is important at the moment and follow through.
Oh, and I probably owe an apology to the bus driver.
Had the sidewall of my clincher blow about 100 meters after making the left onto 9N in Keene. The pop was so loud a guy in a pick-up truck passing me stopped and backed up and said he thought someone had shot me. Lets just say the rest of the training weekend going down the Keene hill was done upright and feathering the brakes.
To be sure, the race organizers certainly realize the danger of that descent. There must have been at least a half-dozen ambulances standing ready at the bottome of “The Hill”.
There were 4,400+ descents into Keene on Sunday (2 X 2,200+ athletes). Many by those having little, if any, experience on such terrain. I am surprised that there aren’t more problems.
This happened to me in 2008. I was going down the Keene descent in the monsoon at almost 40mph and I got a front flat with clincher tires. Somehow I managed to keep the bike upright after much fishtailing all over the road.
Changed my tire and went on to PR.
It was as scary as your dream.