What an awesome Pescadero/Tunitas ride!

January, supposedly winter, in California!

Hard to say exactly what made today’s ride so great. Maybe it was stopping for breakfast at Woodside Bakery for coffee and pastries before starting out? Maybe it was yet another day of fantastic weather? Maybe it was starting out with Andrew & Kevin & Todd, and unexpectedly adding the other Kevin and George along the way (at the base of Old LaHonda)? Maybe it was climbing Old LaHonda at a reasonable pace instead of going all-out?

Probably all of those things. It was just plain fun. Fun pace, great group of people, and I left out the nearly-car-free roads thanks to a morning playoff game. Of course, the plan was to make it back in time for the start of the 49er game, and pretty much timed that to the minute.

24:48 up Old LaHonda. I like that! I can breathe, I can even talk. Of course, I knew that things would get dicey later on, just not quite sure when it would happen. It could have happened on Haskins, when my son went into “TAM” (target acquisition mode), chasing down someone on the flat lead-in and then hanging onto his wheel all the way up.

Kevin (the pilot) with his ever-present Diet Coke

Amazingly, nobody in our group took off after him! Kevin got to have his fun (8:53 up Haskins, 18 seconds better than my best recent time), while the rest of us climbed at a brisk, but not killer, pace.

We stopped at Pescadero for cokes & cookies the set out for the return home. Stage Road had awesome views of the coast, and the climbs were covered, again, at a moderate pace. Perhaps what made the moderate pace so nice was the change from the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride, where we’re always in a hurry with a schedule to keep.

Today we had plenty of time to get the ride in and return before the game.

Things did get a bit interesting on the middle (steeper) part of Tunitas, when Kevin (the older Kevin, not my son) took off, George following, me trying (and failing) to keep up and Kevin (my son) falling behind. Todd & Andrew were still doing the social thing, smart guys that they are. About halfway through the steep part the younger Kevin miraculously recovers and goes flying past me, then George, and hope to catch the other Kevin but ran out of road.