Very nicely written, Phil. At least those struggles you had on this ride were coupled with your responsibilities (i.e. you are inevitably put in a position of reprimanding when you're the Chairman of the Safety Subcommittee!). Anyone who encountered you and who is a conscientious human being would have realized you were doing your job. And there is no doubt that you made an impression, even if the impression was made with a raised voice. I'm disheartened to hear that this event was so poorly organized. Last year's was top notch. Of course, I try to think "I'm doing this for the cause," but it's tough when you're the one riding all of those miles and they throw a half sandwich at you! (I wonder what I'm in store for on the 21st.) Anyway, great report - thank you for sharing! :)

First off, this is being posted a little late because I have been so busy finishing these rides that I really had no extra time. However, this means that I get to blatantly pilfer commentary from the other riders… but I’m sure that they won’t mind as we all suffered together on this ride.

Also, photos for this ride are in this thread srating on page 14.

The morning started out early (and I went to bed late the night before) as I still needed to finish putting my bike back together after attempting to clean the bottom bracket the night before. The sky was cloudy, but it appeared that the rain was done for the weekend, a little ahead of the prediction made by the weather forecasters. Mike had called my phone and left me a message telling me that I was better off in bed since he was driving over to the meeting spot and the sky was pouring rain in Huntington Beach. I called him back after I jumped on the highway and only ended up being a couple miles behind him (and then I beat him to the meeting location, so how bad is my driving?), and we noticed that the sky was clearing up nicely. The group was assembled and ready to roll pretty quickly, so we headed out into the morning light at a brisk pace. I had not been on a ride with Pat for a long time and we caught back up by discussing all of our rides that we were finishing up for the year. The rest of the group (Dave, Jason, George, Jeff, Mike) helped maintain a quick pace through the initial residential sections and we quickly arrived at Carbon Canyon for a bunch of rollers. We regrouped several times as we headed north, and the clouds and rain kept on getting closer until we started getting wet.
I must say that after completing the Solvang Spring Double earlier this year that rain does not bother me. I get wet, but my body temperature stays good unless I stop moving. This is why I was just using arm warmers and a short sleeved jersey for the morning (I changed into dry clothes at the lodge since we would be heading downhill after that) ride through the cities between Anaheim and the base of Mt. Baldy. Everyone kept looking at me and asking when I was going to put on a jacket or a base layer, then we joked that because I am from Colorado that I don’t really get cold out here (which is true, to a point).
The rain started slowly, but built up exponentially and we were soon very wet and the streets were flooded in many places. We were all running standard road bike (except for George on his fixie) and no one had fenders with mud flaps so we all had to stay 10 feet back from the guy in front of us, or we just could not follow the exact same line so I choose to continue to talk and had to stay away from the spray off of Pat’s wheels. Pat kept moving to the right, which made me move to the right to stay out of the spray and several times is had to cross the stream or I would have ended up in the dirt. Pat seemed to enjoy this immensely. :D As we rolled into Claremont, the sky stopped dropping water on us,,,but still remained threatening, so we made a run for Glendora Mountain Road after fixing Pat’s flat. We met up with James and Chris next to the gate and geared up for the only part of the ride without personalized SAG support from Mandy and started the first part of the climb. I was surprised that I was staying right next to Dave, Pat and Chris (who had fresh legs!) on the first part of the climb and that is when I realized that I had wanted to suck down some goo while at the base of the hill, but still had the packet in my jersey pocket… I slowed up a bit and fell of the back quickly but kept up a steady cadence up the hill while sucking down the goo pack and some water. This slower pace was sustained for about 7 or 8 minutes and I decided to start giving chase to the leaders which I could still see (around a couple of bends but only about one minute ahead) and picked up the pace right as the caffeine and carbs hit my bloodstream. I also started up the MiniDisc and I believe that I had a complete mix of KMFDM singles to energize my spirits. Granted, this was too little too late if I had wanted to catch the leaders before the rest stop at the junction but I rolled in feeling good and was amazed that Mandy was not there yet.

After the group assembled to head up the rest of the road, I decided to hang back so that I could talk with a different group of people and stayed with Jeff and George… Okay, I actually had a flat in the first downhill section and by the time that I fixed it everyone was long gone.

Have I explained how much I like personal SAG vehicles yet? No, then let me reiterate that I really enjoy having a SAG vehicle while on this ride. Mandy stayed and we talked while I was putting the bike together with a fresh wheel and then followed me for a couple minutes as I took off to try and catch the group, knowing that I would not see anyone for a long time.

I had kicked on the music again and was just enjoying the ride at this point because I had a clearly identified goal and my bike wasn’t making any serious noises for me to worry about. I met up with Jeff and George and continued with them for a while, but then took of to hunt down Mandy to send her back to George when he decided to call it quite. George is so amazing to do this ride on a fixie, especially since we were not exactly nice to each other in the 35 warm-up miles.

I arrived at the lodge right before the sky opened up again and was grateful to be inside and able to change into dry clothes for the impending descent. I sucked down some hot chocolate and potato skins then we headed back down the hill. Everyone left me behind by miles and I calmly continued down the mountain until I reached everyone just as they were splitting up. The group was down to Dave, Jason, Mike and I and we raced along the streets and a great speed because were all felt fairly refreshed and it appeared that the further southwest we went, the better our weather was. Dave led the group most of the time, and he is such a strong rider that he can literally pull you along for 30 minutes without being weakened. I decided to pull for a while and nearly killed myself leading Dave, but we had dealt with Brea Canyon and were on the final stretch back to the cars. The final miles were broken up by Dave getting a flat right after the SAG vehicle left us, and we laughed and joked all the way back to the cars.

I cannot believe it! I am finally writing my last ride report in completion of my 2006 goals! Last weekend I went up to Solvang for another bike ride in this wonderful area and it seems that I am in the area two to three times each year. My last ride up here is filled with happy, but very soggy memories and I was determined that this experience was going to end my season on a positive note.

Mike and I left Friday evening and arrived in Solvang right at 9PM for the staff meeting so that Debbie could explain the duties to each of us. They were not much, we were supposed to SAG the route and help out any riders, but it would be a great way to preview the course and get a free hotel, gas, and food while helping out. We left the meeting and went out for drinks and dinner. Too bad we didn’t find any food that night. After a bit of sleep we hit the road after the riders departed and followed the route until we caught up with three of them heading into Tepusquet Canyon. We started seeing more riders and ended up at the start of the dirt road in Prefumo Canyon to try and prevent people from making meat puppets of themselves. Then we followed the tail end of the riders to the fourth rest stop and called it a day. After a nice meal, we fell asleep in anticipation of our staff ride the following day.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ng/TheTeam.jpg

The day started early as we all agreed to meet up at 6AM, but we got split up immediately as Dan and Anny thought everyone left them behind and started the route. We all raced to catch up with the tandem and were 10 miles down the road before we caught up to them at a bathroom break. We started having fun on the route as we all got to know each other. Dan and Anny were on the tandem, David is a wonderfully strong and consistent rider, and Doug proved to be adept at facing every type of situation with true grit and determination. Tom was our driver, and I am now a true believer in private SAG vehicles, there is nothing more pleasant for a difficult ride. Dawn broke on the farms as we headed into Foxen Canyon just like the spring route, but shortly after the first rest stop (which is right down the road from the skeleton bride’s house) we detoured into Tempusquet Canyon for a 9 mile gentle climb that terminates in a nasty ¼ mile kick at the very end. The technical downhill scared the crap out of me, but I actually did somewhat okay..
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...DanandAnny.jpg
Dan and Anny
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...vang/David.jpg
David
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...lvang/Doug.jpg
Doug
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...lvang/Mike.jpg
Mike
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...lvang/Phil.jpg
Your humble narrator, Phil.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...tCanyonIII.jpg
Tempusquet Canyon from the summit

Our next area to travel across was Highway 166 that made it’s way north towards San Luis Obispo. This road is filled with large rollers that take your breath away on the downhills just as quickly as the uphills. It was here that I encountered my first real obstacle of the ride. Some kind of bug went inside my jersey and I got nailed 6 times on the right side of my chest before I squashed him to a sticky mess. These bites or stings did nothing for my mood as I had never been stung before this year and now I am up to three separate encounters this summer… But never fear, I continued on for another mile or two when as I started on a long and straight downhill I spied a large black object flying right at my head. This was a large bee and it got caught in my helmet straps and was extremely pissed at the situation. I got nailed again, right on the earlobe and I can tell you that I cursed myself to a stop while batting furiously at my own head. Mike caught up with me at the side of the road and said that there was not a stinger still in my ear, but a sharp and stabbing pain echoed in my head for the remainder of the ride (and the next several days as my face swelled).

Everyone regrouped and started the final stretch into San Luis Obispo when Tom noticed that my rear tire had really taken a beating and had at least two splits in the riding surface that showed threads. I offered to pay Tom back if he would stop at a shop for me, and I departed to meet him at the lunch stop. Finally, about a mile before the lunch stop I stopped at a stoplight next to Doug and on the green started moving, but heard the jingle of metal hitting pavement so I pulled off to the side and went back to find the portion of my cleat that had taken this opportunity to fail on me. Somehow, I was thinking that something didn’t want me to finish this ride, but I limped into the lunch stop to see about repairs. Tom handed over a new tire and I started changing that while he attempted to remove a pedal from his own bike so that I could have something to clip into. Without a pedal wrench, that is rather difficult and I decided to head up Prefumo Canyon before eating my food. Everyone else had made that same choice as this was a nasty 3.8 mile climb with pitches up to about 14% that was right outside San Luis Obispo. I crested the hill to find out that one sandwich was missing and that Doug was going to stay there until it arrived. Mike, Dan and Anny had left a few minutes after I arrived and David wanted to get moving, so I left with him as we wound down the road (and over a dirt section about a mile long) and into Pismo Beach. We rolled through the city quickly as we were attempting to catch up with the others that had left about 20 minutes before us. We caught up with everyone before Guadalupe and grabbed our lights from the SAG vehicle. By this time I was in considerable pain because of not having one foot clipped in, and I had never realized how much of a difference there is because once I went clipless I never used tennis shoes again. The nice thing was that we were at mile 145, so I only had another 55 miles to go!!!
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...umeCanyonI.jpg
Prefumo Canyon, and I am already heading uphill (~3% grade)

Darkness fell quickly because of a heavy fog that rolled in, and that also made us all a little wet and cold. There was many distinct sections of road that were 5 degrees warmer 100 feet behind you and the breath caught in the back of your throat in a stifled gasp. I remember looking off into the distance and seeing an area of lights far above my current location, I could feel that I was headed downhill into the valley and I knew that we would end up passing those light. Sure enough, at the top of the Vandenberg Grade we had a mini rest stop right next to the lighted area. We continued south along many roads unto we reached Santa Maria road, which bolstered our spirits. 17 miles of this road, then a turn and through Buellton into Solvang for the ending and I was giddy with excitement. My pain subsided as my adrenalin kicked in and allowed me to stay with the group, and still challenge the hills in a decisive manner all the way back to the hotel.

I made it! I had now become one of 58 people to complete the Planet Ultra Grand Slam in 2006, and one of 65 to be included in the California Triple Crown Gold Club.

So that was you at the top of Perfumo. I rode that climb a couple of year ago when the steep side wasn't paved. I made it up the climb, the top before the cattle guard wasn't paved and I sliced the sidewall out of my tire. Lucky I had someone following me. That was a good climb, I seemed to just take it easy all day. I qualified for the Grand Slam and the Thousand Mile Club. Hope to see you next year, maybe at In-n-Out.

my heroes!!!

As I've come to expect from you, two very colorful and well-written accounts of your journeys. You're one tough man and your determination to finish the double and ultimately succeeding is impressive! Congratulations on the grand slam and gold club. I can't even imagine attempting that type of endurance goal. :)