Southern California - Apple Pie Report and Lots of Pics!!

Edit: I deleted the pictures that were linked to Imageshack becuase there are too many and they weren't loading. Here's a link to the ride pictures (http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/p_thomas1973/slideshow?.dir=%2Fb63d&.src=ph) compliments of Extort. My58vw gets the credit for about 90% of the photos :D



Yesteday was the big day, and it lived up to be all that was promised, great terrain, hard climbs, excellent company and fun riding, not to mention terrific weather. My day started at about 3:45am :eek: , as I opened the garage, 1955 was parking in front of my house. We loaded our bikes and headed off to pick up Pico and Extort in Irvine. We had about a 1.5 hour drive, and stopped in Carlsbad for Starbucks, which would later come back to haunt Extort and Pico ;)

We arrived at Lake Wohlford Middle School in Valley Center at about 6:15, to find most of the crew was already there. Half of us had never met, so we had some introductions and got our gear ready. My58vw was the last to show, we loaded the 2 sag cars (sweet, a sag to rider ratio of 1:4 :D ), took the cheesy group photo and rolled out.

The ride started off with about a 2 mile downhill, the temperature was in the mid 30's. We all held up pretty well through the coldest part of the day. At about 5 miles into the ride, we started the big climb up Palomar Mountain. The climb is about 11 miles, I think the average grade is around 6.5%. It's a fun climb that's full of twisty road and big switchbacks. Pico and I quickly found ourselves alone off the front, so we took turns pacing each other up. We arrived at the General Store at 8:31am, climb time from the Taco Shop was roughly 70 minutes.

Some of us had a pretty long rest stop at the General Store :) . Once everyone was together and refueld, we started off for the observatory. I think Jschen led some of the guys to belive that it was just a little hill :eek: . It wasn't bad, but more than some were anticipating.

We all regrouped at the Observatory, except for Extort and Worker4youth :p . They thought we had already started going down, so they had about 10 minutes on us. From the Observatory it was all downhill to Lake Henshaw, except for a short climb bythe General Store. Descending East Grade is very fun. I think it's about 13 miles of downhill mountain road with mostly sweeping turns. The views of Lake Henshaw on the way down are amazing.

We stopped at the Lake Henshaw Caffe and General Store to regroup and snack up. The weather was great, and we started shedding layers into the sag cars. Next up, 2 miles down the road was Mesa Grande. I think I was the only one that knew what we were in for, and I had forgotten how tough this 4 mile climb is. On this climb Extort stuck with us, so Pico and I made sure all 3 of us stuck together. This worked out nice, after the 4 mile climb, there's about 10 miles of rolly terrain with slight winds. We took turns pulling and were rewarded with some great scenery and a fun road.

After getting through Mesa Grande, it was only a couple of flat miles (but into a headwind) to Julian Pie Co. The Pie was great :D . Everyone loaded up on Pie, before heading west for Ramona. At this point in the ride, we decided it would be best to keep a pace that everyone could ride, and we held a nice paceline for the 15 miles into Ramona.

In Ramona we made a short stop at a Circle K. We topped off our bottles and continued on to Bandy Canyon. We continued to keep a nice and easy paceline until Highland Valley turned up. Then it was Me, Pico, Worker4youth and Norsa451. The downhill stretch of Highland Valley and Bandy Canyon are some of the funnest descents I've ever done.

Our last rest stop was where Bandy Canyon meets up with Hwy 76. It was obvious that we were racing the daylight at this point, 1955 arrived in the sag van. We headed out on Hwy 76 towards the Wild Animal Park. Norsa451 was giving Pico, Myself and Worker4youth a nice pull. At one point, I had to make a decision that we were going to have to hammer it, in order to get over the sketchy section of Lake Wohlford Rd before dark. Around the Wild Animal Park, we yook off, unfortunately dropping Norsa451. I think we did the climb after the Animal Park at about 20mph. When we got into Escondido, Worker4youth took over at the helm and pulled us to the start of Lake Wohlford Rd. At 100 miles into a ride, Lake Wohlford Rd sucks. I just ignored the pain and got into a zone, Worker4youth, Pico and I made great time up this climb. We then continued to hammer the rolling terrain to the finish. Somewhere Worker4youth fell back, but he finished a couple of minutes behind us. The last 20 minutes were so hard that my vision was fuzzy. My legs were shaking for 20 minutes after finishing.

This ride was great, thank you all for coming, especially My58vw and Norsa451's wife for great sag support. We'll do this again, but maybe with less climbing ;)

Total Distance- 110 miles
Total Climbing- 10,475'

Riders
Me (OC Roadie)
Pico
Extort
Fixer
Worker4youth
1955
Jschen
Norsa451

Great ride. Congrats to all who participated and provided sag. Looks like you guys really pushed yourselves. Thanks for taking the time to post the great report.

awesome ride report!

Total Distance- 110 miles, Total Climbing- 10,475' - my legs are shaking from just reading your post. Great photos. It looks and sounds like you all had a great time.

Am I missing something, or are there no pics included in this thread?

Good photos and story. Thanks for sharing.

All Right!

Way To Go!!!

Photos loaded for me. Sounds like a great ride. No way my flat land, hill hating legs would survive that ride! lol. Off for my Sunday morning ride myself!

that really sucks! i'm even more PO'd now :mad:

sorry again for not making it yesterday. i'm glad you guys had a great day, though. i'm thinking about not working with my brother anymore after what happened this week.

What a cool ride and great ride report. I grew up in San Diego (live in Portland now), so it was a nice little visit home for me just reading your report. I can smell that Julian pie :)

congrats guys, plenty of climbing to build some strength :D

Awsome ride report. It's always nice to see others BF members rides. I'm jealous. I'd love to get down there for a ride sometime but for now, riding in 32F is my world. At least it warmed up to 42F today.

Cheers, I'm going for a ride.

T.J.

Awesome ride and great pics. Having ridden all of those rodes on motorcycle I know them fairly well and how challenging that had to be.

Very nice! Congrats to all! Sounds like a great ride. I've got to get together and ride with you guys sometime.

BTW-Cheese on apple pie is good stuff! A nice sharp cheddar is the preferred cheese for me. :D

nic epics, that ride looks fun. I wish we had climbs like that around here.

Great report! Some of the best riding in the San Diego area all tied together. Brings up great memories of the Tour de Cure...

What a great ride. I wish we had some hills where I live. (Great pie I can get at home if I'm extra special nice. :D )

Awesome pics. I wish we had weather that nice. Looked like you guys and gals had a lot of fun.

What a cool ride and great ride report. I grew up in San Diego ... so it was a nice little visit home for me just reading your report....
+1

never heard of the pie place, but the observatory surely is a familiar sight to every schoolkid who grew up in sd county... i think every 3rd grader goes there? held hands with 'diane' when they turned off the lights and projected the night sky onto the auditorium ceiling... sigh...

Nice job fellas. OC, I guess that ride gives you a week of insurance on the 1/2 million, eh? :D Gotta get down there sometime and try a Pie Ride . . . keep us posted if/when you do it again.

I like my pics! :lol:

That pie did look good!

Beautiful. Awesome ride report.

MTC

Thanks, OC Roadie, for organizing a wonderful ride. I had a blast, and I completed my first century. :D Okay, so it wasn't a closed loop, and I ended up with a net 1000 foot descent, but I think under the circumstances, it's close enough. I feel really good; just haven't been online until now since I visited my parents. I'll have a full ride report posted here soon. Hopefully later tonight.

Thank you, my58vw and Mrs. Nosra451, for your enthusiastic sag support. It really helped make a huge difference for how the ride went. And thanks to all the guys I met the last month. I had a wonderful time, and I would happily ride with any of you at any time.

Is it just me or is this taking forever to load??

Is it just me or is this taking forever to load??
I'm not even going to try on my modem connection to see those pics. I guess I won't know what they look like until tomorrow.

Oh, I've drafted part one of my ride report. I promise I'll do my best to post tonight.

jschen's Apple Pie ride report: Part 1
Pre-ride

I picked up cycling on a whim (bought a bike with a chunk of unexpected money, 5 mile ride on July 22, 2005), and before I knew it, I was no longer a couch potato, but instead, I had some athletic aspirations. By the end of July, I had decided I would someday climb Mt. Baldy (description (http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/mount_baldy_road.htm)), the mountain right behind my parents' house (having no clue how it compared against any other climbs), and someday ride a century. As my riding progressed, I found that I particularly enjoyed climbing, so in September, I decided climbing Baldy would be my goal for 2006. When that happened over Thanksgiving weekend (ride report (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=156246)), I decided my revised goal for 2006 would be a century and a 2-hour Baldy time. With Extort suggesting I should join the next BikeForums group ride in the area and bitingduck suggesting that I could finish a century, even a hilly one, I decide to give a shot at the Apple Pie ride.

Knowing the Apple Pie ride wasn't far away, I decided to focus all my non-commuting rides on preparing myself for this ride. Over winter break, I climbed Baldy four times, improving my personal record from 2:50 (Thanksgiving Saturday) to 2:15 (New Year's Eve). In January, I usually was too lazy to go for a ride before my commute, but I put in my weekend rides, including two group rides--one led by dog hair, which he didn't cancel even though I was the only one going; the other led by Extort, who was kind enough to schedule the ride specifically because of my concerns. A big thank you to dog hair and Extort for those rides, which helped a lot in making me feel up for Pie. :beer: And I had a great time meeting Nosra451 and 1955. As a final training ride, and to celebrate half a year of cycling, I rode up and down Palomar (description (http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/palomar.html)) three times on Jan 22. It also was a perfect chance to test my cold weather gear (low 30s at the start). With that training ride completed and me feeling good about it, I declared myself ready for Pie.

On the side, I had agreed that if I should finish the Pie century, I would be buying new jeans and shorts since caligurl found it appalling that someone in San Diego wouldn't have such articles of clothing (and everyone else agreed). I also decided to sign up for Breathless Agony (description (http://www.cyclingpros.com/onyx.htm)) since I decided hilly centuries sounded like a lot of fun.

jschen's Apple Pie ride report: Part 2
Apple Pie :D

I had rested up for the ride, and I went to sleep at 10 PM on Friday night. Unfortunately, I ended up waking up at 2 AM because of excitement about the ride, and when I hadn't fallen back asleep at 3 AM, I decided to go ahead and get up. Since I had never met OC Roadie, Pico, The Fixer, worker4youth, my58vw, or Mrs. Nosra451, there were plenty of introductions to be made. And a few hellos to semi-familiar faces. I was especially glad to see that 1955 decided to take a shot at this ride despite a bit of trouble in our training ride. Based on my theory that one is torque-limited--not power limited--when climbing really steep stuff and out of gears, I promised him that for the same perceived effort, he would be 35% faster with his revised gearing. I hope he found this to be the case.

After an all too brief flat-ish start, we started climbing Palomar. It was early in the day, but my first few lessons of the day came when climbing Palomar. (1) Though I had intended to climb Palomar at a relaxed tempo, I just couldn't bring myself to actually do so. I certainly didn't ride at an all-out effort, but I just couldn't help climbing much faster than I had intended. Throw a big hill in my way, and my pacing schemes go right out the window. (2) Many people in the group were very disheartened by the 5000 foot elevation sign, whereas I was ecstatic when I reached that point. The difference was that I knew the top was at about 5300 feet, whereas for some reason, most of the group thought the top was at 6300 feet. This, among other things about the climb, taught me that knowing the route can play a huge role in doing well.

On the climb up to the observatory, the second point was nailed home some more. I had researched the ride a lot in my spare time, including trying to get a sense of where the major climbs are, but Google Maps was incomplete near the top of Palomar, so I estimated 300 feet of climbing from the general store to the observatory. There is indeed about 300 feet of elevation gain, but with a significant downhill along the way, there was far more than 300 feet of climbing. (Sorry, guys. :o My bad for misleading you all.) So much for resting up after climbing Palomar. An uneventful but pleaseant descent to Lake Henshaw, and then Mesa Grande loomed ahead.

Short, but steep. So OC Roadie had described Mesa Grande. Sure didn't feel that short. Definitely felt steep. I was feeling a minor cramp in my legs, but again, seeing big climbs brought out a side of me that insisted on putting the hammer down. In a sense, though, this was tolerable in my mind since my training rides had taught me that holding back too much was detrimental. Hold back too much, and I do most of my climbing in one seated position, and I slowly end up with a sore spot on my lower back. Mix in different seated positions and mix in more standing, and I can go faster and ward off that sore spot. Nonetheless, with the steep stuff and the ensuing tough rollers on Mesa Grande, something happened in my brain where suddenly, the goal was simply attacking the climbs quickly as possible without quite breaking out into an all-out effort. I really don't remember much about Mesa Grande other than that it was one big hammerfest. See a climb. Push myself to go over it. Relax and spin out legs on the downhill and flat sections. See another climb. Repeat. Once past the climbing, it was a short downhill roll into Santa Ysabel, the site of pie. :D

I hear there's people anxious to hear something, so I'm posting these two parts now.
Parts 3 (Soldiering on) and 4 (Post-ride) coming up...

jschen's Apple Pie ride report: Part 3
Soldiering on

The Julian pie a la mode was delicious, and well worth the trip. ;) Okay, maybe not worth the trip, but hanging out with a great bunch of people at the rest points made it well worth it. Thanks to all the climbing that spread us out, rest stops really were about the only time to socialize. After pie, it was back on the bike for the homeward journey.

With daylight hours becoming a significant issue, to save time, we rode in single file, drafting our way into Ramona. I had always known that I am relatively fast (key word: relatively) on climbs and okay on descents, but absurdly slow on the flat sections, but the trip into Ramona really taught me that that was the case. It's partly because I'm about 140 pounds, but it's also a simple matter of training specificity. I climb a lot. As a result, I descend a lot. I ride very little in the way of flat roads. I'm pretty sure I was the slowest flat road rider in the group, and it was a challenge to keep up with the group through minor inclines (which I also don't really do well on) and flat sections on the way into Ramona. My legs were aching, but I figured it was better to keep in the draft than to have to push the air out of the way myself.

Once a bit past Ramona, at about mile 80-85, I found I simply could no longer keep up. It caught me by surprise since it was a very sudden transition, and it was something I had never felt before. I had felt my abdominals give up on me before, and I had felt my back slowly weaken on longer hilly rides, but I had never felt my legs give out first. Admittedly, I had been pushing them really hard since I couldn't pace myself well on Palomar or Mesa Grande and since I'm a poor flat ground rider, but I nonetheless expected to continue to be able to ride through the cramping that had started at the beginning of Mesa Grande since my core wasn't giving out yet. Well, I guess that wasn't the case.

1955 had pointed out that I appeared dehydrated when we were stopped for pie, but I barely had a chance to reach for water (even with a CamelBak) on the way into Ramona. After that, I tried to keep a higher rate of food and water intake, but it was really too little too late. Though pushing hard probably was a contributing factor, I believe my nutrition and hydration (or lack thereof) was the major reason for the letdown at this point. I always knew this was a weak spot in my training, and I tried to eat and drink more, but I guess it wasn't nearly enough.

Dropping off from the main group and riding at a more relaxed pace, I had a chance to somewhat recover. After the final regroup, I felt a bit better. My flat ground riding never really came back to me, but my climbing ability seemed to come back a bit. In fact, I felt better on the climb near the Wild Animal Park than I did on flatter sections before and after it. After that climb, I was left as the final, slowest rider still not on the final climb up Lake Wohlford. I knew there was no way I would be willing to stop before the century mark, not when already at the 95.8 mile mark, and I am really thankful to the sag support (especially Mrs. Nosra451, who ended up accompanying me) for bearing with me for the final few miles. With the final 1000 foot climb looming and my computer showing 100.6 miles covered, I decided to call it quits. It would have been interesting to see how I fared on the home stretch, obviously tired out but with my climbing legs seemingly finding their second wind. However, I didn't want to make everyone else wait for me for what would have been at least an hour, and I also didn't like the prospect of doing the first two miles of the climb in the dark (even with lights) due to the steep, windy nature of the heavily-used road and the total lack of shoulders for those two miles. I had completed a century and had a great time every step (pedal stroke?) of the way (even when my legs were on fire), and it was time to call it a day.

I felt great emotionally, and aside from being a bit tired and low on energy, I felt pretty good physically. With the exersion over, my legs stopped cramping. They did stiffen up a bit later in the night once they had a chance to cool down, but all in all, I felt surprisingly good physically.

jschen's Apple Pie ride report: Part 4
Post-ride

I certainly had a blast throughout this experience, and I would happily do such a ride again. :beer: The riding was fun and the pie was good, but it really was the people who made the ride so great. A big thank you again to OC Roadie for organizing, to all the riders for sharing in a great experience, and very importantly, to my58vw and Mrs. Nosra451 for supporting us all the way. :beer: I certainly wouldn't have gone on this ride without you all. dog hair, I'm sorry you couldn't join us. :( We'll have to ride together again some other time.

I really need to get a better handle on nutrition and hydration for longer rides. I can tolerate a significant deficit on shorter rides, but it sneaks up on me. And I suspect that as I start pushing harder, even on shorter rides, it will start becoming an issue. I had great fun, and I plan on doing other centuries. I doubt I'll be riding regular centuries (no more ambitions for a century a month here), but I certainly want to ride an occasional century. I know it will be a bit hard to train for eating and drinking enough when it doesn't really show on shorter rides, but I'll have to work on that. Especially since I get no warning signs that I can notice by myself before suddenly finding myself running on fumes. Maybe the cramps, but they basically felt the same for the 40 miles before running on fumes. (Then they got worse for a while before I hit that second wind.) It would be nice to have a few other signs along the way. I guess I'll learn more about figuring out what my body's telling me with more practice.

I need to learn to pace myself better. There's nothing like a big climb to bring out the desire in me to go faster. I don't think it alone caused the slight meltdown I had, but it certainly doesn't help things. And I need to work on flat ground speed a bit to hang with group rides. It's not going to become a high priority of mine, but I really should try to get my flat ground speed up a little bit. And practice it enough so that spinning along on flat roads doesn't tire me out so readily.

People sometimes tell me I have a really nice bike, but I appreciate it more than ever now. And it seems to be set up pretty well for me. Not once in training or on the ride did I feel any discomfort on the bike. The only discomfort was due to occasional lower back fatigue in training and the legs giving out on the Pie ride. I guess my clothing and bike are dialed in pretty well.

I also learned that my body is capable of a lot more than I thought. Based on my experience on the Pie ride, I believe I can push much harder than I normally do on my other rides. After all, if pushing hard makes me blow up at mile 80, then I'm clearly not pushing all that hard. During winter break, I had revised my Baldy goal for 2006 to 1:45 (primary goal) or 1:30 (seemingly out of reach secondary goal). I'm feeling good about my chances of reaching at least my primary goal. Mt. Baldy continues to be my personal yardstick for cycling performance, and now that I've completed a century, most of my riding will be with improving my Baldy time in mind.

I usually work Saturdays, so I had never gone on group rides before this month. Riding in such fine company was a treat beyond compare, and I certainly hope I will have a chance to do so again.

Thanks Jason for that report! It was great to meet you yesterday.

To the rest of the group (and others that may be interested): I will have to wait until tomorrow to upload the data I collected on my GPS device because I left the USB cable at work. But I'll have it all up here tomorrow for you, and a raw GPX file if you'd like.

dog hair, I'm sorry you couldn't join us. :( We'll have to ride together again some other time.

awesome. de luz canyon in two or three weeks sound good?

awesome ride report, by the way!

Thanks again OC for organizing a great ride. Also, a big thanks to my58vw and Mrs. Norsa451 for incredible SAG support. I think everyone had a great time while pushing themselves to their very limits.

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?

Here's one...

1955 falling over at 1mph in the parking lot of Palomar Market - Not funny :(
The "exhaust" sound from 1955 as he remounted his bike - Funny :o
Four other adjacent riders emit the same "exhaust" sound in quick sucession - really funny :D
The look on the eldery man's face on the porch of the market as it turned from bike admiration to disgust - PRICELESS :roflmao:

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?

Here's one...

1955 falling over at 1mph in the parking lot of Palomar Market - Not funny :(
The "exhaust" sound from 1955 as he remounted his bike - Funny :o
Four other adjacent riders emit the same "exhaust" sound in quick sucession - really funny :D
The look on the eldery man's face on the porch of the market as it turned from bike admiration to disgust - PRICELESS :roflmao:
:lol: :roflmao: :lol:

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?

Here's one...

1955 falling over at 1mph in the parking lot of Palomar Market - Not funny :(
The "exhaust" sound from 1955 as he remounted his bike - Funny :o
Four other adjacent riders emit the same "exhaust" sound in quick sucession - really funny :D
The look on the eldery man's face on the porch of the market as it turned from bike admiration to disgust - PRICELESS :roflmao:

:roflmao:

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?

Here's one...

1955 falling over at 1mph in the parking lot of Palomar Market - Not funny :(
The "exhaust" sound from 1955 as he remounted his bike - Funny :o
Four other adjacent riders emit the same "exhaust" sound in quick sucession - really funny :D
The look on the eldery man's face on the porch of the market as it turned from bike admiration to disgust - PRICELESS :roflmao:

There were a lot of emissions coming from the group. :eek:

By the way, for the record, this event actually occurred at the Julian Pie Shop. Happily, 1955 appears to be fine aside from a slightly scraped knee. As for the old man who witnessed it all, who knows what kind of mental trauma this may have caused?

How about one more:

Riding with new friends for the first time - Worried
Riding 100 miles in new terrain - Scarry :eek:
Heavy traffic-twisty road-no shoulder at 25 mph - Terrified :eek: :eek:
Blowing front tire while downhill at 45mph setting up for a 90* left hand turn posted at 20 in a group - Mortifing :eek: :eek: :eek:
Mandy on the scene stopped on the small shoulder with pump and tools ready, total time off of the bike, 7 minutes - PRICELESS :D :D

By the way, for the record, this event actually occurred at the Julian Pie Shop. Happily, 1955 appears to be fine aside from a slightly scraped knee. As for the old man who witnessed it all, who knows what kind of mental trauma this may have caused?

My bad-you are right it was the pie shop. Still funny though! :D

Mandy on the scene stopped on the small shoulder with pump and tools ready, total time off of the bike, 7 minutes - PRICELESS

Two 2.5 gallon water containers - 5.00 dollars
Apple pie almode - 5 dollars
One smothered steak after the ride - 10 dollars

Seeing Bills face after meeting fate on Bundy Cannon! Priceless!


What a fun day... expecially seeing myself running into the orange trees, nearly busting after eating the gas filled dog./.. smelly for sure!

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?
Pretty late in the Palomar climb (at perhaps 4800 feet above sea level), some guy approaching me announces his presence with "on your left". Several seconds later, "eventually". A few more seconds later, shows up next to me. We have a good laugh, exchange hellos, and he continues on his way.

Anyone else noticed that the UCI team's females were friendlier than the males? The males say "on your left" or "hello" as they approach and keep on going. At best, they grunt when you reply "hello". The females say "on your left" and return a "hello". One of them also added "great job, keep it up" (yeah right... I was out of the saddle while she glided by seated) at about the 3500 foot level, at which point I retorted "yeah, for another 100 miles or so".

Please excuse me for my rudeness, but WHY ON EARTH DID YOU GUYS START SO DAMN EARLY?!?!?!

Please excuse me for my rudeness, but WHY ON EARTH DID YOU GUYS START SO DAMN EARLY?!?!?!
10,000 feet of climbing. Regrouping regularly. It can take quite a while under those conditions! We used up every last bit of available daylight. With that much time, it was stressful enough.

Please excuse me for my rudeness, but WHY ON EARTH DID YOU GUYS START SO DAMN EARLY?!?!?!

There were a couple of "hills" in the 110 mile ride to slow us down and only 10 hours of daylight for a "no drop" fun ride.

Are you having them too? Little memory flashes of high points of the ride?

Here's one...

1955 falling over at 1mph in the parking lot of Palomar Market - Not funny :(
The "exhaust" sound from 1955 as he remounted his bike - Funny :o
Four other adjacent riders emit the same "exhaust" sound in quick sucession - really funny :D
The look on the eldery man's face on the porch of the market as it turned from bike admiration to disgust - PRICELESS :roflmao:

Man, I hope no one I REALLY know reads this forum.
:eek:

Please excuse me for my rudeness, but WHY ON EARTH DID YOU GUYS START SO DAMN EARLY?!?!?!

I don't know about you guys, but personally I like waking up at 3:45 in the morning. :D

I'm more of a late rider...I feel like I am going to work if I have to get up at 7:00 :(

Pretty late in the Palomar climb (at perhaps 4800 feet above sea level), some guy approaching me announces his presence with "on your left". Several seconds later, "eventually". A few more seconds later, shows up next to me. We have a good laugh, exchange hellos, and he continues on his way.

Anyone else noticed that the UCI team's females were friendlier than the males? The males say "on your left" or "hello" as they approach and keep on going. At best, they grunt when you reply "hello". The females say "on your left" and return a "hello". One of them also added "great job, keep it up" (yeah right... I was out of the saddle while she glided by seated) at about the 3500 foot level, at which point I retorted "yeah, for another 100 miles or so".


The first one to pass me yelled "look out" just as I was getting up out of the saddle, one completely ignored me when I said "howdy" and the rest were nice enough.

Thrilling reports, guys, you remind me of Hemmingway in his prime. I have a question, jschen, why are none of your subheadings "quitting"?

I have a question, jschen, why are none of your subheadings "quitting"?
Quitting? Well, I did do that. But it really wasn't a major part of my experience. Just a decision made in light of circumstances with my primary objectives on the bike (make it to pie, make it to 100 miles) already achieved. Thus no subheading.

Training for weeks, subheading. Riding through mountainous terrain all for a piece of pie, subheading. Bearing with pushing my performance limits well past anything I've ever done before, subheading. Thinking about nothing other than my experience for an entire day afterward, subheading.

Compared with those, calling it quits while still able to move was just a small part of the experience. But big enough to mention, unlike, say, the few intersections where I was cramping badly enough that I wondered whether I would clip in successfully. (Clearly, I did. Otherwise, those would have been mentioned.)

All that said, I do wish there was more daylight to spare. If I could have gotten through the nasty (road condition-wise) part of the climb in daylight, I would have loved to take a shot at finishing. Maybe some other time.