Solo effort today; Kevin (my son) was still at Disneyworld goofing off. And one of those days where it feels like the legs just don’t want to cooperate, which normally would make for a pretty slow/easy ride, but you just can’t let them (your legs) get away with that. You could, and you really want to, when you start up Old LaHonda and any sense of finesse has gone out the window and you’re all over your bike. And that’s how it was going up Old LaHonda… I was all over my bike. And that didn’t change the rest of the ride. Ugly!

But it worked. Not on Old LaHonda; I was a whole minute off my best time, and pretty convinced that was going to be how the rest of the day would look. Funny thing though; sometimes ugly works. I was under 10 minutes up Haskins, easily a minute or two better than expected, and maintained pretty good speed from Memorial Park into Pescadero, despite a headwind (but not good enough for Strava; no accomplishments on that segment).

Stage Road is a bit of a mess, still some gravel from the “repairs” they’re doing (someday it will be explained why roads are in worse shape after their “repairs” than before), but it’s got to be really bad to make the Highway 1 alternative preferable. The views from the top of the two hills on Stage are to die for, and the lack of traffic a lot nicer on the ears than the steady noise of car tires just a foot or two away from you.

The real surprise came on Tunitas. With a slight tailwind on the lower stretches I decided to push pretty hard, and despite more “ugly” climbing (again, all over the bike), I got my second-best time up Tunitas during the Strava era (past 6 years, and quite likely best a few years before that as well).

It was all brute force, no finesse, no feeling, ever, that this was going to be a ride with any high points. But there were! You can drive your body to do more than it wants to.