The Climb That Never Ends

So its been a while since I updated this but I'll try and catch you all up. First off, thanks to all who have donated so far to my MS150 fundraising efforts. I'm no fundraising machine but I am up over the 700 dollar mark and have less than 250 to go to make my 1000 goal.

Labor day weekend. Had a great ride today with Joe King, just a quick little "stretch your legs" out to Winters and back (30 Miles). Joe was looking great decked out in Livestrong Yellow, just back from riding the Philly Livestrong challenge. That's two Livestrong centuries he has done this year, so I'm not going to give him a hard time if he does not ride with us next weekend.

Last weekend was an Epic ride. Erin and I were in Santa Cruz staying at the Davenport Roadhouse, 12 miles north. This is a totally sweet spot: awesome food, nice beach, and great bike riding. We were there for Erin's half marathon Trail Run in the Redwoods. This was a women's only race so I had an excuse to ride my bike. After two run-ins with rattlesnakes on trails in the last two weeks, I was ready to be on the road.

This was one of those days on the California coast where the fog has lifted and the sun is warm but the air is cool. It was spectacular. I was riding alone so the music was going and I didn't so much ride as I danced the whole way. It's days like this that life is about. I got out early after a great breakfast at the roadhouse. The ride was straightforward up the coast 25 miles to Pescadero. This is open country and with organic farms to the east, nothing but ocean to the west. I was headed for the bottom of what I call the Half Moon Bay San Ggregorio loop (see below). Ten miles before Pescadero, I turned up a side road to Gazos Creek.

These are rolling hills which seem like they wouldn't be too hard but a few of them are really steep. You also have to watch out for the motorcycles; they think this road is fun too. Unfortunately the testosterone and the horsepower is more abundant than riding skill. We've seen more motorcycle accidents than we care to remember... the pavement always wins. Admittedly we bicyclists may have the same lack of brains and surging testosterone; fortunately, we lack the horsepower.

I stopped in the Loma Mar store, which sits at the bottom of the big climb (this is a good place to reflect under the redwoods before heading up). It does not seem like it should be a bad climb, but it is. It is one of those climbs that seems to never end. It reminds me of this song Erin's daughter Adrienne sings, appropriately called "The Song That Never Ends" (trust me it doesn't). Anytime I ride this, about 3/4 of the way up, I feel like I'm just around the corner from the end. I'm really only about half way up. For encouragement, there is a sign along the way (below). Not sure how to interpret that. The steepest part is at the top, gotta love that.

Normally, we would go over the top and down to La Honda. On this particular day, I turned around at the top a sailed down. From the top of the mountain all the way down to the coast I flew. By that time, the wind had picked up (just as I had planned) and was howling headed south. I made the 25 miles from pescadero to Davenport in just over an hour, crediting my speed and strength to my awesome conditioning. Nothing like a 25mph tailwind to make you feel like you are on top of the world. I was.

Sunday, while Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador et al were having a lazy day cruising around the Champs-Élysées Joe King and I were out on a real ride. We went out and did a loop over the “soft” side of Cantelow, which still really hurts. We met three or four guys from the Davis Bike Club up on top. They commented that the problem with Cantelow is that it is so short you just want to do it again and again, this was there 4th time that morning. (I personally don’t find that Cantelow has that effect on me) We then swung down to Vacaville, over to Dixon and back home to Davis. About 65 miles in all. I can tell Joe is in better shape than me this year with all his century ridding, guess I better pick up the pace.

My commute to work

Rode my bike to work the other day and used my iphone to map my ride. Wish it was really as short as it says it is but I can't really fly over Woodland in a diagonal like that

San Francisco (sort of) to Davis

So on Sunday I rode home (Vallejo Ferry, back to Davis) from Heiko's 40th Birthday party, pie fight, scavenger hunt, and bonfire, (very fun but that is another story.)

I missed the 12:40 ferry so I did not arrive in Vallejo until 3:10.The last time I did this I missed the ferry too, and did the ride froom Richmond. That was a mistake so this time I waited for the next ferry while sipping coffee and enjoying the sunshine on the bay. There was an awesome tailwind up from Vallejo to Napa and I enjoyed it. It was a hot slog up the mountains out of Napa though and I thought I was gonna die, misjudged my eating a little and was really struggling with the heat. So I took a break and enjoyed the view a bit, eventually a cool breeze came up and cooled my overheated body down. So I got back on the bike and enjoyed the foothills through the evening light, beautiful. In the Google earth screenshot you can see where Hwy 121 sneeks over the mountains and down into Wooden Valley. In this picture it looks like the approach from the east is steeper but it sure did not feel that way on Sunday.

Nice to get in a longer ride (about 75 miles) probably my longest yet this year. I took some comfort that Lance Armstrong described this ride this past winter as the hardest day he had had on a bike. Of course he was talking about the cold weather, but it's nice to know that it is a tough ride. I need to catch up to Joe King who did the Livestrong Century yesterday (Go Joe!) and the Mt Tam Century a few weeks ago. Maybe we will have a group of riders do the hundred mile route Saturday this year.

Riding at the Coast

This year I’ve been doing some more training in the Mendocino coast hills and a little less on the flats of Davis. I have taken to the idea of riding up the mountains from the coast and heading North through the hills, then fly down to the coast. The beauty in this is that the wind is from the North so you can usually have a tailwind headed down the coast. You can see what I mean in the image below. The road from Fish Rock up to the yellow road on the left is about 5 miles or so and tops out at over 15% grade (It hurts), but then you have a quite ride north on the ridge top and spectacular views on the coast as you come South.

Top of Cantelow

When you ride in Davis Ca, you spend a lot of time on the flats. So unless you want to go up and down the overpass all day to get ready for riding the hills out at the coast on the Waves to Wine you have to go out to the hills. We ride through Winters about 25 miles out and go over Cantelow. It's pretty short and steep climb. This photo is from the top the first time over it this year. I did not have to stop going up which is a good thing. If you go over from the west side you are doing the steep side, but that's the way to go for me because the down hill is one of the greatest bike rides there is. A winding roller coaster with just the right steepness to get you flying but keep you on your bike. It makes the climb worth it. When the roller coaster is over though you are still 20 some hot, long flat miles from home though, best to have some friends with you and a full bottle of water.

Lance in Davis

This Winter the Tour of California began in Davis and we got a glimpse of Lance before his first race returning to racing. Can you see him?