So the Tour of California is back, you really want to see it, but you don’t want to go a long way to just catch a quick glimpse of them and then poof, they’re gone. Hey, if it’s in your back yard, no biggie, go see the parade of world-class cyclists that you read about and see on TV and once a year shows up here. But when you have to drive two and a half hours to get there… three+ hours on the way back? Plus losing out on a bike ride?

So I had an idea. What if you could design a bike ride that would cut across the course multiple times? Not as easy as it sounds; you’ve got to get maps and write down estiamted times that the race will pass various points on the course and then study the roads that criss-cross the course and see if something can work out. And it did!
Sorry I don’t have a way to overlay the actual race course with the route Kevin and I rode, but it all worked out pretty well. We started our ride at 10:30 and have plenty of time to get to our first intercept at 11:17, then rode 5 miles to the next intercept at 11:44, another 12 miles to see them at 1:10 and then a pretty tough 20 miles including the steep climb up Coleman for our final visit at 3:10.

Somehow it all worked out, even managing to get home in time for Mother’s Day dinner. 53 miles, not that much climbing (but quality!), moderate speed (would have been faster except that we were often in heavy traffic and once in a while not sure which way to go), but a lot better than watching it on TV and not riding!

Kevin was off doing the paintball thing with his friends so I was on my own on the road today, which isn’t such a bad thing sometimes. It’s good to get out there on your own for a few hours, ride at a pace that’s not a compromise but rather a reflection of your own strengths & weaknesses, and make random stops along the way when you see something interesting without having to think about whether it’s interesting to anybody else.

Like those ducks I came across in the duck pond on the shortcut between LaHonda and Pescadero Road. I never thought they might not be real, which in retrospect seems pretty dumb.

But getting to the ride itself, it was up Old LaHonda and down the other side, over Haskins to Pescadero, Stage Road to San Gregorio and then, instead of the usual run up Tunitas, I headed up 84, which, even though it means nearly a thousand feet less climbing, always seems like more of a grind.

But that wasn’t different enough; when I got to west-side Old LaHonda I took that to the top instead of continuing on 84 and then did the unthinkable. I went down Old LaHonda on the other side. For only the second time in my life I think. I’ve never understood the attraction to descending Old LaHonda, and I still don’t, yet so many people do. Some day I’ll figure out why.

The silliness of my route didn’t end with the Old LaHonda descent; I was determined to get in 100k, so I did some additional looping around in Woodside before getting home… and ended up with 62.3 miles. Didn’t even have to do a lap around the block!

For more ride details, check out the Strava entry here.Biggest disappointment was a 15.9mph average speed. 16 sounds so much faster! 5987ft of climbing, so technically not a “hard” ride (you need 1000ft of climbing for each 10 miles, so 300ft short) but you could have fooled me.

The original plan had been to ride the Primavera Century, but by the time I got around to trying to register, they were full-up. Darn, it’s one of my favorite rides, next to the Sequoia Century. So instead Kevin and I take advantage of what was supposed to be a gorgeous day for another Santa Cruz loop.

The Strava account doesn’t tell the story. Yes, 112 miles, yes, about 9000ft of climbing, yes, best time so far for Kevin and I from Boulder Creek up to Skyline. But what’s missing from the bare stats are a fierce headwind the entire 25 miles on the coast from Gazos Creek to Santa Cruz, making one of the more enjoyable sections of the ride a real challenge, nor does it explain how the weather forecast could be so wrong! The hourly forecast for Pescadero and Davenport had the fog clearing fairly early in the day, so our late start (10:30) should have seen nice weather on the coast.

Well let me tell you about that nice weather. It was great all the way to Pescadero, and about 4 miles south on Cloverdale. Actually we already knew the weather wasn’t going to be kind to us as soon as we made the left turn onto Cloverday and ran into a stiff headwind. But not long after that we hit cold fog, which kept us company all the way to Santa Cruz and a few miles up Highway 9.

Cold & damp weather wasn’t doing much for Kevin’s spirits, and I came very close to turning around on highway 1 and heading north, but that wasn’t the plan, and there was something to be said for the challenge of riding 25 miles into a headwind.

The mandatory stop at Davenport’s Whale City Bakery gave me a chance to look at the updated forecast; the “now” temperature showed 52 degrees (at 1:58pm) while the 2pm hourly forecast said 74 & sunny. Eating outside, and drinking cold Mtn Dew instead of coffee or hot chocolate, was probably a mistake! But refueled and recharged we motored on, finding the headwind gradually diminishing as we approached Santa Cruz, and the intense traffic actually providing a needed distraction from the fog & cold for Kevin. Strange but true.

Heading up Highway 9 things gradually warmed up to pretty much perfect conditions for climbing, and by the time we got to the start of the main event (the climb first up to Waterman Gap and then Skyline), we were in pretty good shape. In fact, the mandatory Boulder Creek stop didn’t find us buying food or drink; we just ate a Honey Stinger Waffle and were good to go. Funny how you can do a hard bike ride and eat less than if you didn’t ride at all!

Funny also how, once the main climb starts, you feel more comfortable, more settled, more like you’re getting somewhere. And funny how 40 miles to go seems like you’re almost there! At Saratoga Gap (Skyline and Highway 9) we picked up drinks from Mr. Mustard, who thankfully doesn’t start shutting down until 5pm and we arrived at precisely 4:59. Good timing! The run across Skyline and down into Woodside was welcome and pleasant, feeling very much like we were on “our” turf. Home. And almost exactly 8 hours after we left, there we were, back home.

Oh, the remark about “If you can’t control you weather, you can’t control your life!”? A mild alteration of a Calvin & Hobbes comic where Calvin is upset that his mom doesn’t scoop the peanut butter out exactly the right way, and exclaims “If you can’t control your peanut butter, you can’t control you life.” Wise words indeed! –Mike–

Sundays are normally reserved for rides of 50+ miles, preferably closer to 70, but that wasn’t possible today since we the Redwood City store was open from noon-5pm for our TREKFest sale (we’re normally closed on Sundays). Noon. That meant having to get back by 11am to have time to take a shower and get ready. How many rides can you reliably pull off in 3 hours that are suitably challenging?

Oh sure, we could get out earlier than 8am, except that we had to watch the final 20k or so of the Amstel Gold road race on the ‘net. As if I can remember the bit-player who won. Still, it bought a bit of time, allowing some of the overcast to burn off, and it was indeed a glorious morning as we headed out over 84, Yes, we went up 84, not Old LaHonda, because it would be both faster and different. 84 is such a consistent and shallow grade that it’s kinda fun to do as a change of pace, espeically on a Sunday morning, when the traffic is almost unbelievably light.

It might have been a bit more fun if Kevin hadn’t dumped me on the pavement shortly after the ride started, when he got spooked by a car pulling out of a driveway and slammed on the brakes without warning. It’s difficult not to see Kevin and a seasoned and skilled rider because he’s gotten so fast, but the truth is, he got fast so fast that he really doesn’t have the zillions of miles the rest of the guys (and women) I ride with have, so I really shouldn’t expect him to have the same skill set yet. He’ll get there.

A bit gray and mildly drizzly along the coast, but not bad, certainly better weather than we’ve had lately, and not bad weather for climbing Tunitas. Of course Kevin took off as soon as it got steep, finishing about two minutes ahead of me. I’m getting used to that. But I got there, and later (as in, right now) feel the effort in my legs. At just 43 miles that’s somewhat surprising, but also welcome. As welcome as warm weather and literal crowds of cyclists on Canada Road on our return.

We needed to get in a ride that would be challenging and yet not take up most of the day, since this was Easter after all. That ruled out a return to the traditional Woodside/Santa Cruz loop (too much time), and besides, I wanted to try out a new saddle and didn’t think it a good idea to spend 8 hours on something that might not work out.

So… there had to be some minor element of “ugly” tossed in, a ride that adds up (in effort) to more than the sum of its parts. The results can be seen below- Woodside, Old LaHonda, San Gregorio, Pescadero, West Alpine.

The nice thing about this ride is that it plays to the strengths of a more, well, “mature” rider, because the younger folk will become discouraged by the headwinds going out to the coast, the repeated moderate climbs in the middle (the two hills on Stage Road plus Haskins) and a total length that’s in-between an “easy” ride (maybe 55 miles?) and something you can write home about (the 112-mile Santa Cruz loop). In a way, it’s like doing a lot of work and not getting psychological credit for it.

The ride up Old LaHonda found Kevin once again leaving me in the dust; I can’t play the sub-20 minute game anymore, but I knew I’d do better on the run to the coast. We were cruising at a very moderate pace for a while (about 17mph into the wind) and I was letting Kevin stay in front because I was trying to shoot some video, but when he tried to take credit for his work I pointed out that he wasn’t pushing that hard… and I promptly took over the rest of the way, pushing into the wind at 20+ the rest of the way, showing him how it’s done.

On Stage Road, we took advantage of a slight tailwind and pushed a hard pace over the two hills prior to lunch in Pescadero. From here-on Kevin was looking mortal; I actually had an advantage on both Haskins and West Alpine. A welcome change for me!

It was on West Alpine where it was obvious I was faring a lot better than Kevin; he would surge for a while then die, surge again and die. As a result we got home 15 minutes behind schedule, but y’know, that would still be within the time cut in most bike races.

It was with no small amount of fear & trepidation that I approached today’s ride, one that could not be avoided no matter what the weather brought. Why? 10 days off the bike, that’s why! I hadn’t ridden since a week ago Thursday, due to my trip to the DC Bicycle Summit. And while there, I ate too much, excercised too little, and came back to see a number on the scale I haven’t seen in a couple years, and it’s not even “winter” anymore.

Tell that to the weatherman. The winter part. I held off a bit, since the forecast was for the rain to stop by 10am and stay away until 3. I can live with that; just enough time for a quick run out to Pescadero and return via Tunitas Creek. And since it wasn’t raining when I left, I brought out the nice bike (Madone) instead of the rain bike. And it stayed dry… until I approached the top of Old LaHonda, and descending the other side it went from a drizzle to light rain. And that beautiful view of the coast from west-side Old LaHonda? Just gray clouds and rain.

How did it feel climbing Old LaHonda? Not as bad as I thought it would. No, that’s not true, it felt every bit as bad as I thought it would, it just went a bit faster than I thought it might. I was expecting 25 minutes and it was about 23, probably because I had spotted someone climbing up the hill behind me and didn’t want to get caught. According to Strava I paid for that, with an average heart rate a bit higher than normal (143 instead of 135).

Descending 84 towards LaHonda I hit the first of two cloudbursts. Really heavy rain that made it tough to see where I was going, and made me wish I’d brought a cycling hat to keep the rain out of my eyes. I was seriously considering shortening the ride by either turning up West Alpine or heading straight out to San Gregorio instead of Pesadero. I even thought of simply turning around at LaHonda and heading back up 84! But the plan is the plan, follow the plan. How close did I come to cutting it short? So close that I skipped the “shortcut” through LaHonda to Pescadero Road, thinking at that point that I’d do the straight shot out to San Gregorio instead. I came to my senses only when I got to the regular instersection.

One more brief downpour just prior to Pescadero, after which things cleared up nicely! Thank goodness, since I needed to dry out. But of course the rain wasn’t through with me yet; the final 3 miles of Tunitas Creek were essentially riding into a cloud, complete with rain, fog and even hail. This continued all the way to the bottom of Kings Mtn, at which point I finally saw the promised weather… for the last 5 miles of my ride.

The stats? They got a bit messed up. I know the mileage (about 57), but the combination of heavy cloud cover and changing barometric pressure did a number on my Garmin, such that it significantly under-reported elevation gain and the profile showed a couple of cliffs that I apparently scaled. But it’s not as if this isn’t a ride I haven’t done a hundred times before.