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)

Napa Valley is OK!

Today was a really fun day. The weather was perfect, the route was a little bit shorter and more forgiving, and, importantly, there were a boatload of Napa Valley vineyards along the way.

So this blog entry will be short, because I sampled a lot of them!

Today's route and a sampling of pictures:

A Hard, but Excellent, Day 2

Today was a hard, but pretty gorgeous day. It didn't start off too auspiciously. Due to some type of mix up with the caterer, there was no coffee delivered to camp in the morning. Instead, what appeared was some sort of pre-sweetened cappuccino, which is sort of like mainlining sugar (I drink my coffee without any). Fortunately, someone found a single half-empty jar of Folgers crystals, which at least managed to get me to the first coffee shop on our route.

Speaking of which, the route was pretty enchanting, taking us through first the Russian River Valley and then the Alexander Valley, both wine meccas of California. The rub was that we didn't have time to stop at any of the vineyards except for one that was pre-arranged to accept 150 bicyclists in sweaty spandex and cleated bike shoes:  Moshin Vineyards. Fortunately, their Pinot Noir and Zinfandel were pretty good and were fine accompaniments to dinner.

The route was also pretty challenging, and included more than 3500 feet of total ascent. But the challenge was well balanced by beautiful roads with canopies of trees and little traffic, as well as unbelievably perfect weather: sunny and in the 70's (although marred in spots by pretty strong headwinds).

The biggest climbs were left for the last 15 miles of the day, which was pretty intimidating when we were told this in the morning, but when I actually got to them, I found I had a pretty good reservoir of energy left and it was very rewarding to pound through and up them and reach the summit. And yes, I did pass my fair share of other riders! Some of them were even younger! (Competitive, moi?)

And then there was a very pleasant surprise at the end the day. We had been told that we were staying in cabins, which based on past experience on Climate Ride, I fully expected to be in the, shall we say, "rustic" category. Wrong. Luxurious in every sense, with individual showers (no lines, no waiting!), clean sinks and toilets (no....well, you know) and actual power outlets (no trekking to the communal charging station).

So a very good end to a challenging, but invigorating day. And did I mention that I just got a 30 minute message from the three masseurs who travel for the week with Climate Ride? Not as good a bargain is it used to be (each 15 minutes session is $25), but still well worth it!

And what would the day's blog entry be without the route metrics and some photos?