This was an organized ride, which started in San Mateo, then went out to the coast then back, plus a few more hills and miles. Here's my report from the NorCal Forum:
This was kind of the June BF NorCal ride, which made this ride pretty cool. We met at 6:30 am, and there were a good number of BF members here from both NorCal and SoCal. Tiffanie came up from Huntington Beach, NYGirl777 (Asia) brought along her husband Travis, and friend Lara from Las Vegas to come along with the ride (although Tiffanie left a little later than us)
We rolled at around 6:50 am (who are we kidding, leave by 6:30 am???)
Blastingradius ... one of the few times I'm able to see him on this ride
The 100 miler actually did the same route as the 100k, except doing one extra loop going up 84 down to Pescadero then back up Tunitas. Here's a shot going up 84:
There was a rest stop at mile 10, mostly for metric century riders, so I stopped by for a potty stop. But I didn't know everyone was continuing on, so I had to play catch up. I was powering up 84, and finally did meet up with Asia and Lara. We continued to ride on together down 84 to Pescadero. No big issues here.
After the rest stop in Pescadero, the route is supposed to go on 84, then turn a right at Hwy 1. However, most of the locals, including us, wanted to continue on Stage Road, which intersects with Hwy 1, then hang a right. I had to convince Asia and Lara that the reason we are doing this is it's scenic, and we get away for traffic for a little bit.
They were still whining at me ... is it because of the climbing we are doing? However, I did tell them the real climb is coming up ... a long sustained climb ... so I have this documented here!!!
Good thing I was riding with Asia and Lara, because they almost followed a couple of other riders who were not on the Giro, and were doing their own training route. I had to yell out hang a right at Tunitas ... they would have been on their way to Oregon!
I went up at my usual slow pokey pace. Asia and Lara went up ahead of me. No matter how many times I do Tunitas, it always gets the best of me. I did nothing different today. About 3 miles from the top, I see Asia and Lara waiting on the left side ... thanks ladies. They were wondering what happened to me ... I guess they never heard me say "I love hills, I just can't climb them ..." Then Asia says "How long is this friggin' hill" ... I tried convincing them the hard part of the climb is over, but somehow, she didn't believe me. So another guy comes up in some euro accent and says the same thing. Now she believes it. I guess I need to start speaking in a euro accent to obtain credibility?
Ahpook, another BF'er, comes along side with us to continue the climb.
We made it over, then we were treated to a nice screaming downhill over Kings Mountain road, with plenty of switchbacks. Very nice. That's why we climb Tunitas, to be treated with Kings Mountain going down. Ahpook needed to get back earlier, so he went back and made it a 70 miler instead. Asia, Lara and I continued on the 100 miler.
We got to the firestation rest stop, and Asia wanted to wait for Tiffanie.
So Lara and I went on ahead. Travis, who was already at mile 80, had already done what we were going to do. He says to us "there ain't nothing pretty up there" ... assuming he meant the climbs are
So we prepared for the worst. My knee was also feeling a bit of a twinge ... felt like a needle was stuck in my knee, so I made sure I wasn't pushing it too much. The climb up Page Mill was not that bad. Maybe because I was taking it really easy climbing ... again, Lara was up ahead of me. She is strong!
We were warned that someone went down on the descent on Altimont. They went over the guard railing, assuming they went too fast. We took this warning, and proceeded down with caution. No issues here ...
We proceeded to the next rest stop, and decided to wait for Asia and Tiffanie. We waited there for a good 30 minutes, but there was a no show. So we continued on. As we good back to the race track parking lot, we see everybody there ... including Asia. Tracy was worried, and was going to ride back to find us. Well, looks like Asia had a flat, and just continued on. She text messaged Lara, but she didn't have her cell phone on. Oh well.
As I am typing this, my legs are stiff, walking funny ... the usual thing with long hard rides. I think my rides this month are catching up with me. Hard double century last weekend, hard century this weekend.
I did hear that there were 9 riders who were taken in an ambulance. I really hope they aren't too serious, and hope they recover well.
Total mileage: 100.69 miles
Elevation Gain: 7633 feet
Riding Time: 7:58 ... ugh