merider1

Dscott started (thanks Dscott and sorry we didn't see you out there!: https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...&postcount=174

I'll provide one tomorrow with tons of pics, but as Dscott said this one was hard for some reason. It kicked my ass.

spingineer

Hey ME
Is that a cat or something from the movie "Gremlins" in your avatar?

Happytime

My ride report is easy: DNF!!!

Too many steep hills recently + unresolved cleat position + running + no rest = Bad Leg.

Had to cut it off at 48 miles when I felt the leg blow up. So I rode slowly back to Solvang and spent the rest of the afternoon pleasantly sipping coffee, eating Danishes, reading the L.A. Times, waiting for the BF group to return, text messaging non-riding BFers, watching the trees being blown around while thinking, "Damn, it got windy!" and oh, yeah, spending a long, relaxing session at a day spa. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon, if not for the shooting pains in my leg.

thomson

Oh Joy, too bad, but you are wise to bail when things start to hurt like that. There will be plenty of good days ahead.

spingineer

Sorry to hear that Joy. Sometimes, it is not in the cards. Best to bail when you physically don't feel the best. Hope your legs feels better. The ride will be there next year.

DScott

Here's my other post, moved from the other thread:

"My second century" by DScott

Miles: 102miles
ride time: 6hr. 23 min.
total time out: 7hrs 6min.
About 16mph avg.

I saw no one from BF.net I recognized.
I spent less time at rest stops.
This ride was hard, for some reason.
Fast pacelines are fun.
Descending Drum Cyn. shook at least one filling loose, I think.
But, the downhill run back to town with a tailwind is *very* fun.
I suck at climbing.
I'm very tired.
Beer is good.

Cheers to everyone who got a chance to do this ride!



ETA:
Sorry to hear about the leg, Joy, though it sounds like you made the best of a bad situation.

I don't have much experience with these things, so I can't say just why this ride was so tough. Maybe it was just me, since every time the road turned up, it just hurt. Putting Drum Cyn. at the end of the ride was just a bit sadistic, IMO. I'd do it again, but need to be a better climber to have more fun.

My wife and kids came up with me, and they frolicked though the Santa Ynez valley, eating pastry, enduring the constant pressure to buy stuff, and played with the ostriches and miniature horses. It was cool having a little cheering section at the start!

DaveSANYYZ

Here's mine.

I also felt the century was hard for some reason. 100.53 miles, 14.5mph avg speed including traffic stops, and 4904 ft of climbing. When I first looked at the Solvang website, I thought it would have at least been easier that GT/Lite double metrics, but at the end it felt worse.

Highlights:
- nice scenery
- sections of strong headwinds countered by sections with tailwinds
- felt hungry near the later half of the ride
- almost bonked near the end of a 4 miles climb
- crawled up a 3 miles climb w/bad roads at 4-5 mph followed by jaw shattering bumpy descend
- flat tire caused by broken drill bits (!?!?) 5 miles before the finish line

Overall, great ride and company, and nice dinner!

From my bike computer (red dot=regroup stops):
solvang.jpg

spingineer

Dave,
What was the elevation gain?

It was raining here yesterday, so I'm glad I didn't do Mt. Tam, like I was going to do. It got cold and really wet at the top. I probably won't go out till later this afternoon.

DaveSANYYZ

4904 ft based on my computer.

thomson

Where's Mary? Still sleeping?

merider1

I’ve ridden the SKOR Solvang Century and Prelude two or three times (each one) and wanted to try Solvang’s Finest Century to see if it was an overall better ride. No offense to SKOR, but I had tired of their routes and wasn’t impressed with certain aspects of the ride. So, as you know, several BFers got together for yet another tour of those beautiful hills and roads at Solvang’s Finest Century.

I will begin my whining here, because I just didn’t do enough of it yesterday. But I had ZERO mojo. Zero…and from the start of the ride. Never does one want to start a ride feeling like a pile a poop. But I did and I chalked I it up to many variables, but yesterday was not a good riding day for me. I’m sure it effected how I viewed the difficulty rating on this ride, but I say it was a HARD ride. Here is my little synopsis to keep this somewhat brief:

Thoughts on the Ride:
1. Great company, as usual. I carpooled up with Scootcore and Happytime, both of whom I’ve now ridden many rides with. They were great commiserating comrades, well until Happy had to bail due to her leg hurting. I should have bailed with her and gotten a massage and Danish pastry. Methinks I erred in that crucial moment but hindsight is 20/20.
2. Route for this ride is superior to any other Solvang ride I’ve been on. Planet Ultra (whom I will get to shortly) did a wonderful job with the Spring Solvang Double, and on this ride, it seems they condensed the route to the prettiest roads only. Other than a few crazy, irate Solvang drivers, the traffic we did encounter seemed tame and the scenery remained beautiful throughout.
3. Wind. ****ing miserable wind. I’m used to headwinds. Hell, I ride in it all the time. But for some reason, with my not feeling on top of my game, mistakes on my fueling and feeling nauseated, the winds were not only brutal at times, but just downright annoying. I need to talk to PU about doing something about that on future rides .
4. Our mishaps: Joy’s leg, SCVroadies slashed-through tire and Dave’s flat. Oh, and my sniveling .
5. Indolent58 rode so strong all day. He gets best draft award on this ride.
6. Karen gets the best tired-bagging award for saying she’s tired and then suddenly at mile 75, perking up and flying up Drum Canyon.
7. Drum Canyon…I’d love it, except both times that I’ve climbed it, I had nuthin’. So, I crawled it and then cursed all the way down the backside when my teeth damn near broke from chattering on that crappy, pot-hole filled road.
8. Maddmike and Lilly were there, and it was Lilly’s first century!!! You go, girl!
9. UMD and his lovely wife Kimmy – they get cutest couple ever award and thank you, Steve, for your great SAG efforts (I saw him pass us at least 10 times).
10. I got my first leg cramp ever. I did not fuel right and that last tiny hill into Solvang caught me by surprise. Ugh.

Thoughts on Ride Organization:
Okay, so as most of you may know Planet Ultra (Deb, to be exact), posts on here. But even with her presence and my desire to be nice always, I’m going to be honest just as I would for any ride I attend. Therefore, here is my two cents (i.e. my OPINION) on this ride:

1. I’ve ridden three of PU’s rides: Butterfield Double, Spring Solvang Double and now, this one. All three have had great routes and this one takes the prize as the prettiest, easiest to follow one for sure. Great job!
2. The SAG presence was plentiful (I not only saw Steve, but two white vans throughout the day)
3. Volunteers were friendly and plentiful (yeah White Carbon Dude!!!). I met Lynn Katano at the registration desk, by the way. Many of you may know her. I’ve always heard such nice things about her (not to mention, her amazing endurance riding abilities), and she was simply lovely in person. That was a treat.
4. The rest stops were placed a little too far apart in the beginning and a little too close together at the end. Many riders that I passed lamented that they were hungry and couldn’t wait to get to the next stop after the first one at mile 28. I’m used to riding doubles and unsupported rides, so spread out stops do not normally bother me. But I was only prepared for a century yesterday and with nowhere in the hills to stop, having the rest stops 30 miles from each other was just a little too long.
5. The food on the rest stops was not good for me. Other riders may have been fine and this is subjective, but I was hoping for more salty options along side the sweet. The majority of what was offered was sugary carbs and after awhile, I can’t stomach another Rice Krispie or Oreo. I would suggest having pretzels or cut up bagels with peanut butter (no jelly – the only sandwich offered was a PB&J and it had jelly. After so many miles, I don’t want the jelly, just the peanut butter, so there again, too much sugar). Gatorade went fast as well, which left me just drinking water (again, nowhere to stop to buy Gatorade). The cokes and V8s at the last stop were awesome, however, and helped me get up Drum. I desperately needed the salt in that V8.
6. Which leads me to my final suggestion. On a ride like this, with almost nowhere to buy anything, it is imperative that some type of lunch be served on the ride. I don’t care for a post ride BBQ, which it wasn’t anyway – more a Mexican food buffet with mostly carbs – and would prefer a lunch at one of the stops. Normally, PU offers Sub sandwiches and I assumed they would have them yesterday on this ride, but there were none, nor any other type of food. The same snacks were offered at every stop except the last one where there were some Cheetos alongside the cokes and V8s, and I (as well as other riders) were very disappointed by this.
7. Raffle following ride. Granted, I won three items, so I’m biased, but the raffle was amazing with lots of great prizes.
8. I'm adding this. I just looked through my goodie bag. Thanks, Deb! T-shirt, socks, watterbottle and other goodies. Very nice.

Overall, it was good day excepting my malaise. I’m lucky such a great group shows up time and time again. It makes all the difference in the world, and the post ride eats were very satisfying and fun. Of course, I’m a bit tired today after being up 3am to 11pm yesterday, but I’m so glad I went and got my November century knocked out. I earned that one the hard way.

Lots of pics coming...

DScott

What's funny is, the more I think about Drum Cyn, the more I like it. It was an interesting twist, and an unusual experience.

For instance, the road actually creaked! The asphalt was so cracked and broken into smaller chunks that they would move and make little noises under your tires as you rode over the pieces. At first, I thought it was my bike, but when I realized it was the road clicking and clacking it made me smile. Took me a minute to figure that one out.

As I was ascending, I kept thinking that the ride planners were so smart to route us up this crappy road, since it would certainly be a lot more dangerous to descend on such a surface. Then I reached the summit and realized the road down was in exactly the same shape. Duh!

My mind isn't at it's peak after 85 miles of hard riding.

Of course, the descent was bone-jarring, but it reminded me a little bit of what the riders go through in Paris-Roubaix. Well, except for the large crowds, the foreign country, and the good bike handling skills.

Overall, I'd say i like PU's approach to their rides. They're friendly folks, didn't overload the food at rest stops, made an excellent route through an interesting area, and have nice swag!

I did learn a lesson yesterday. Find the older guy on the Calfee and follow him. He led the first leg out and moved like the wind, hardly breaking a sweat. I, on the other hand, was definitely sweating just to keep up.

BTW, I didn't notice any CAF riders on the course. Did anyone see any CAF riders out there?

merider1

Happytime, already working the crowd


Kim, UMD's lovely better half


And we're off through scenic downtown Solvang


Kim again on a bike very similiar to mine in color


Scootcore in his wool BF jersey


The many views of the day





DAVSANYYZ, with his all-day long smile

merider1

My favorite lighting shots of the day, which is why there are so many! The roads/hills up there are too pretty:

merider1

Scvroadie in the front with Karen just to his left:

merider1

The group waiting for me, of course:


Indolent58 on the front, left







White Carbon Dude at the first stop:


Me in another goofy shot


BF So Cal Wimmin


One of my favorite shots of the day of Indolent and Scoot


Dave didn't massage my shoulders like Jason would have, but he sweetly held my bike:

tprevost

That is too cool! Scootcore.... where did you get that done? (I'm sure ya'll have seen it before but I haven't )

merider1

Pink Lady (or as I nicknamed her, "Pinkie")













Maddmike and Lilly all smiles

tprevost

OMG!!!! What a great picture! Congratulations on your first century Lilly!!!

tprevost

M.E., thank you for such a great report! I'm sorry you weren't feeling your best but it seems you had a good time in spite of yourself Joy, I'm sorry to hear about your leg but best to stop and not injure yourself more just so you can finish a ride, there's lots more

I guess I'm gonna have to do this one next year now that I've gotten ME's review and comparison to the other Solvang rides

merider1

UMD's SAGmobile


Looks warm in that there car


Cutest Couple Ever (I just adore these two)


Dave, fixing his flat telling me to go on...dear Lord...please, go away and leave me in peace...


Me, with leg cramp, waiting for Dave in Solvang looking and feeling like ass:


Lilly, almost there!!!!


Not kidding, and this just cracked me up, UMD having to get in a few miles...no, really


This crazy youngin...


And we are done!!!!

VanceMac

Great reports and pics. I feel like I was there.

spingineer

Great report, ME, and great pics. I was actually thinking of making it down there, but I figured since I was going to be in town during Thanksgiving weekend, I should save my trip. In retrospect, I should have come down, because it was raining here.

Indolent58

My goal of beating everyone up Drum Canyon was achieved. After the poison blowgun dart in Happytime's leg and slashing of Svcroadie's tire, the remaining riders got the message and I had the hill to myself. Bwwuaaahahahaha!

I love it when a plan comes together.

roadfix

Good reports. Good pictures.