Day 4: Quite a Workout!

Phew. Today was an 80 mile race against the clock. The timing was driven by having speakers scheduled at the Sacramento State Capitol at 3:30 with everything working backwards from there. So the organizers wanted us to have breakfast at six and break camp and be on the road by 6:30. Right.

Yours truly thinks he did pretty well by getting on the road by 7:15. But it did put a premium on keeping pace, so my photo taking suffered and, in fact, was in complete abeyance until the end of the day when we reach the capital.

Oh, and did I mention that there was a Category 2 climb 5 miles into the route? (Category 2 being the next to hardest climb out of the five categories, measured on a combination of duration and gradient.) About 1200 feet of ascent over the course of 3.6 miles. Ouch. (Take a look at the profile below). I usually give myself the goal of trying to make such climbs without taking any breaks on the way up, but that thought was quickly abandoned in this instance (For the record, ahem, I'm going to blame my lack of a granny gear). Three "breaks" later I was at the top, switched to a dry shirt (essential) and enjoyed a fantastic almost six mile long descent. So it wasn't a bad trade off.

And it was a great scenery day for the first half of the day. Going through rolling valleys and lush fields. It just had to be taken in while whizzing by, without a whole lot of stops. It can be liberating in a way, not to think about photos, and instead just focus on riding and riding hard, but, on the whole, I prefer a day like yesterday, where I could dawdle freely and liberally (and, yes, sample some fine wines).

The last half of the ride was less interesting, as we headed into Sacramento itself (there is actually a bike path that abuts route 80 going against traffic - efficient, but not particularly endearing). And frustrating, as we blew through Davis, the biking capital of the world in certain ways, with barely a glimpse. I would have happily stopped there and spent the night!

I'm writing this entry as we sit in a park in Sacramento waiting for the bus to come and take us back to San Francisco. It's been a fun journey - again! - and I thank you both for coming along with me on the ride and for your support.

Yours, from the road, until next time,

Roger

And, of course, here is today's route and metrics (and a smattering of photos from the end)