Since I'm the first one home from the ride, I might as well start this thread.

It was a little cool in the morning, but a really nice day otherwise. I think there was pretty much no wind going up, and a 5-10mph tailwind coming back, but Smooooth and Sassy were a powerful locomotive, pulling the entire way. (Thanks for waiting for me all those times on the return leg.) We got to Half Moon Bay around 11:40, and back before 3:30. There were lots of cameras, so there should be lots of pictures.

Glad to hear you made it back in one piece.

Here's one, I'll have to post the rest after I get back from dinner. Good job all you riders today!!! Thanks for smiling everytime I shot you.

It was a great day - weather was cool and cloudy for the most part. There were about 20 riders assembled at the start. Superunleaded had brought about 6 friends, so it was festive. BigBossMan brought his personal SAG group - his wife and daughter and their golden retriever. It was great to meet them, since I had read about their family riding exploits, including a metric century by his 11 year old daughter. What a nice family! Smooth and Sassy showed up in their tandem. I thought Smooth looked familiar, and it turned out I had bought a folding bike from him a couple of months ago (small world).

We got rolling about 8:30, after the group photo. Little did we know what was in store for us. Smooth and Sassy set the pace very early, and what a pace! That tandem couple is just freakin' awesome. We were going about 24mph as soon as we got onto Hwy1. The paceline trimmed down to the tandem and 4 (very happy) wheelsuckers - gpliu, damnpoor, fr.ted and me . We kept this up all the way to Half Moon Bay, with only a stop at Gazos Creek and an unplanned tube change. We did the Cloverdale/Stage inland route for a change of scenery. Even with the additional climbing, we averaged 18.9mph for the first 50 miles.

We met up with the half century group at the coffee shop and waited for the rest of the gang to trickle in. After a nice lunch, the tandem and attendant wheelsuckers were first to roll out. After a few miles, my legs were feeling punky and tight (probably from sitting around too long at lunch), so I decided not to hammer back and waited for the next group to come along.

Sure enough, along came ZorroV999, mtnwalker, Gee3, Steelblue, x136 and I tagged along with them for the ride back. It was great to ride with another group and get to know them as well. All along the route back, AzureDrpTp was SAG-ging for us and taking photos - he's the MAN! He's quite an accomplished amateur photographer and I can't wait to see the photos. It wasn't too windy today, but it was still good to have it at our back all the way down. I felt vindicated with the decision to start the ride from Santa Cruz. We made it back to the car around 4pm. By this time, the lead group had been long gone. We carpooled the half century riders back to HMB. For ZorroV999 and Mtnwalker, this was their first Century! Well done!

Thanks to all for turning out. I enjoyed the company. Look forward to seeing the pictures.

Once again, another THANKS to AzureDrpTp for the great job at SAG-ging!!!

That tandem was indeed quite the freight train. Especially on those descents. I'm on the lookout for a picture or two of our six-man paceline from the first half.

And Alan - it was my first as well, but I didn't want to let the secret out Glad you caught some others and made it back OK.

First off, big props to Alan for planning this one. The route was scenic, fun, the lunch stop was perfect, the weather was nice, and the Gazos Creek loop into Stage Road was a good challenge. WELL DONE.

It was great meeting everyone, and I had a very good time.

Man, you guys are pretty quick. By the time I hit the Gazos Creek turnoff, I was "o solo mio". I did the last 25 miles into HMB by my lonesome, and managed to get into lunch at around 12:30 - pretty much when everyone was heading back out. I did manages to hook up with a group and suck some wheel back, though. About 85 miles into the ride my wife and daughter intercepted me, and since they were hungry and ready to head home I hung my bike on the back of the truck and bugged out. We ended up driving back to HMB for a late lunch at the same place, and they loved it. We even nabbed some pastry for later this evening. BTW - I recommend the Pineapple Upside-down Cake.

Anyway, an enjoyable day with some fine folks. A few pics:

+1 Thumbs up for Alan and a personal thank you for driving x136 and me back to HMB.

Hi John, That was us hanging and kickin' it at the lunch stop. We pretty much swept the route except for the Gazos Creek part. And thank you for the magic pill, our lady rider was able to finish the ride. When one of the riders got to the parking lot, he said we should go pick them up but when the car got to them, it was like 3 miles to the parking lot and they decided to finish the route on their bikes.

Alan, thank you for organizing this ride, that was the first time I was on a bike and just pedaled for 40 miles non stop since there were no stop light and signs.
Had to bring my posse too just in case my back injury act up which it did with about 10 miles to go to complete the full century well, my computer logged only 97.8 miles.

Despite it almost being a near-death experience for me (What's a "hill"?), I had a great time. It was my first (half-)century, and really my first serious group ride.

Thanks to Alan for setting the whole thing up, and for making the return trip less strenuous. Thanks for the SAG support and photography, Azure. I'm looking forward to the pictures. Also, thanks to everyone who waited around for me to slog up some of those climbs. I hope I didn't slow you down too much.

Thank you Alan for organizing this century ride. It was great to finally do a century and the route and views couldn't have been any better. Nothing beats a group century comprised of very good people. It was great to meet everyone and even better to ride with lots of really strong riders.

Lots of props to Azure for giving his time to SAG and for being our personal photographer and water hole. I hope you got my good side.

Well, its late and I still have to ride first thing tomorrow morning. I'll post the pics I have tomorrow. Great ride, everyone!

Some pictures from the day... I'm not great with names. PM me your name and I'll attach it to the your photo.


Smooooth and Sassy first to arrive at the halfway point


Fr Ted Crilly


qpliu


superunleaded

mtnwalker followed by Angel (zorrov999)


Gary (steelblue) leading Alex (x136) and Other Gary (Gee3)

Smooooth and Sassy (Surprised this photo even came out, they were going soooo fast!)


Fr Ted Crilly


damnpoor and qpliu

Alan


Gary


mtnwalker


Gary


Angel


Alex

Alan cresting a summit with Gary and mtnwalker


Alan


Gary


mtnwalker demonstrating the NorCal secret handshake


Angel


Alex

Gary, Alan, Gary, mtnwalker, Angel, and Alex


ride leader Alan


Gary - leader of NorCal Bikeforums.net's MS Waves to Wine team! (wanna donate to the team? Click here )

Great ride report and nice pics!

Azure: You photos are sharp! Wow! No wonder you've been published.

Bigbossman: Nice scenery shots (as always). But, how can you let that pretty Pinarello lie on the ground like that? Sheesh, there otta be a law...

Looks fun, nice pics guys!

T, Those pictures are so sharp and clear. You got any more?

That was a really fun ride and it was great to meet some cool people. Big thanks are due to Alan for organising and putting it all together. Big thanks also to Smooth & Sassy for pulling several of us along for 95% of the ride at a fantastic rate of knots. It was probably one of the fastest and easiest long rides that I've ever done. The only hard work was trying to keep on their wheel, or catch back onto their wheel, when they were speeding down the hills at 47mph. I knew if I lost that wheel my day might become a lot tougher. Congratulations to all doing their first century and thanks to all who waited for me while I repaired the flat.

Sassy and I had a great time riding with everyone. The "new to me" roads - Gaza Creek, Stage- were great to experience. Nice to learn about "off highway 1" scenic routes.

One of the interesting experiences of the ride was riding with the lead group of tri-atheletes competing in the Santa Cruz race that same morning. Those guys were moving right along, and they had just swam 1 mile in the ocean.

Sesame - Thanks again for putting this together. Azure - thanks for the great pics and sag.

Hope to ride with you guys again soon

Of course, thanks to Alan for setting the ride up and being a gracious host once again!

Thanks to Gary (steelblue) and Alex (x136) for rolling out with me and to Alan, mtnwalker and Angel for letting us group with you guys.

And thanks to Thien for taking pics and having the water and gatorade for us!

I had a lot of fun and felt pretty good! Of course I was one of the three that only did the half century so my legs were pretty fresh! hehe!

Ya know... until I started cycling last year I never realized how much I took my home for granted. There are so many beautiful places to see. And meeting and riding with you folks have really opened my eyes once again! So thank you to the NorCal BF gang for letting me tag along on these rides and for being patient when I lag behind!

Gary

Great ride, incredible weather and awesome scenery were the perfect combination for this century ride.

As soon as we started riding, it was clear that the paceline leaded by Smooth and Sassy was way to fast for me, so I rode the first half with Tony (mtnwalker). We were able to catch them up while Fr Ted Crilly repaired his flat, and after trying to keep up with the paceline for about 5 min I gave up again. For the second half, having more company (Gary, Alex, Gary and Alan) was a big motivator to complete my first century.
Another highlight was meeting Superunleaded and his group at the intersection of Stage Rd. and Hwy 1, riding with them was like being on the middle of a party, it was fun!

Alan, thank you again for organizing the ride, you couldn’t had pick a better day for it.
Thanks again Thien for the Gatorade and the incredible pictures (any chance to get some higher resolution photos?)

Here are the few photos taken with my camera








Angel

Wow, looks like a great ride, sorry I missed it! Thanks for the great reports and pictures.