The Next 5 Weekends
 

I figured that I would start a thread now and then append ride reports in after every ride... This will be the most that I have ever done on a bike in a single 28 day period. 661 miles (Weekend 2 will up this amount by at least 50 miles)

Weekend 1:
Tour of Two Forests: A double century with 13,200 of gain (ok, only 193.5 miles but that could change since I get to dance around a forest fire)
Total: 197.4 + ~3 miles on the unplanned detour, 9500 feet of gain, 16:47 total time

Weekend 2:
I was planning on doing the Rosarito to Ensenada ride, but lodging fell through so I am planning on a something else. :mad:
Total: 66.2 miles (43.2 Saturday, 23 Sunday) around OC, but I did beat my PR on Newport Coast :)

Weekend 3:
MS150 Bay to Bay Land Rover Bike Tour presented by Union Bank of California and Continental Airlines: 104 on day 1, 42 on day 2.
Total: 146 miles in 2 days

Weekend 4:
The Baldy Challenge: a SoCal Regional Bike Forums organized ride that will end up being 111 miles and 10k in gain.

Weekend 5:
Solvang Autumn Double: I am volunteering for this ride on Saturday and doing the staff double on Sunday.

Anyone else got a big end to the season coming up?

A 30km ride to a local campground late Saturday, return late Sunday. Embarrassingly short, but I need to get cycle touring again (after 12,000km of driving across the continent and back again for a randonnee and 24-hour race).

Hi Extort,

Yes, I rode the Knoxville Double last weekend, and I'm riding Tour of Two Forests this coming weekend. I've never ridden doubles with this much climbing on consecutive weekends, so I'm hoping my recovery is adequate.

Then I had the same thing in mind that you did for the Fall Solvang, but I emailed Deb about volunteering / doing the staff ride and haven't heard back. So I don't know about that for sure yet.

Then, or actually before Solvang (yeah, the weekend before!) is the Bass Lake Powerhouse Double, and I'll be riding that IF (big IF), I survive ToTf feeling good. I'll have to pay the late fee for waiting until after ToTf, but I think that will be money well spent with my recovery in doubt (or unknown).

Earlier in the year I rode (and finished!) Butterfield, Spring Solvang, Hemet, Eastern Sierra and Grand Tour Highland doubles.

So ToTf will be #7 for the year, and qualify me for a Planet Ultra Grand Slam jersey. I'm planning to start at the 5:30 AM start time, since there's no way I'll finish before 14 hours (Knoxville was 15:12).

No intention to ride Death Valley Double.

Best Regs,
Rick / OCRR

If you want, you can join us for the Baldy Challenge the weekend before Solvang and skip having to pay a fee all together (except for the cool tip to leave for the SAG Driver)... About 111 miles and 10k of gain if you go to the lifts. see the thread from the SoCal Rides Stickey.

That is unless 7 is the magic number for you... I know I saw you out on ToTF coming back along that lonely road from lunch while I was heading to lunch. That put you at least an hour ahead of me halfway through...

ToTF Official Ride Report
 

The Tour of Two Forests was re-named twice in 2006. The first change was due to a rather large fire currently overshadowing our route through Ojai and Lockwood Valley. This caused the name change of Tour of Two Forests to the Tour of One Desert because the entire route to be the starting 98 miles of the Furnace Creek 508 as an out and back. The second change was discovered once everyone returned and found out that a second fire had broken out, so the event was finally christened the ‘Tour of Two Fires’.

And as fire generally is linked with Hell, I think that this name perfectly fits this ride.

On Friday, Mike and I drove up to Santa Clarita to stay the night and made good time, arriving a little before the 9PM check-in cutoff. We then headed over to the local sushi place for a bunch of carbs and protein (and washed down with sake) and got to sleep about midnight. The alarms brought us awake at 5:15AM and we both prepared ourselves for the newly announced change since many people did not know what to expect on the route. We left the hotel at 6:15 with all the other riders and stayed in the middle of the pack of 85 riders. The leaders took off like a shot and some of these guys completed the route in under 11 hours. My time was a bit longer than that, and I felt grateful that I did not arrive ‘DFL’ and possibly too late in the evening to have this double count towards the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown. My official time is almost 17 hours, which now makes this the second longest that I have ever been on a bike, and this year (Solvang and Eastern Sierra) started out so well!

The ride started by screaming through the pre-dawn lack of traffic in Santa Clarita and then into San Francisquito Canyon where the real fun (climbing) was supposed to start. Making my way into the canyon I was passing farms and staying with a group that would have proved to be an excellent partner further into the ride, but I got delayed by over 30 minutes about 3 miles into the 19 mile climb when a drugged out meth head on a crotch rocket decided to attempt a turn at 80 MPH directly behind me. I distinctly remember hearing one explicative yelled loudly and then the crunch of plastic and gravel mixing to chill the blood in my veins. I looked to my right so that I can see what is coming behind me and only get 90 degrees because I saw a motorcycle without a driver doing aerial summersaults about 10 feet away and watched it land for the final time in a heap of twisted parts. I immediately stopped my bike and motioned for the rider ahead of me (about 25 yards) to keep going. There was a car coming from the opposite direction that was stopping and I could see that driver grabbing a cell phone. Running back towards the fallen motorcyclist I noticed a 6 x 6 post holding the property address and a crumpled person next to it. I could hear him moaning and wimpering as he started to be conscious of his situation.

Brian, the rider, had an intact helmet, but was lying on his side and his left leg appeared to not be lying in the correct place. I knelt next to him and started telling him that someone was already calling an ambulance and that he needed to remain calm and not move. By this time another bicycle rider had stopped and a van with a husband and wife also stopped. The husband took over tending to Brian and was superb at keeping him occupied on everything other than the pain he had to be experiencing. I walked around in a daze but still had the presence of mind to check in with the driver calling 911 and slowing traffic around the scene to prevent a worse problem. I also detailed the situation to the SAG drivers that appeared and other bicycle riders that stopped. Finally, after about 15 – 20 minutes the paramedics showed up and took over the treatment of Brian. The paramedics and the husband from the van found out that the 27 year old had a girlfriend, was high as a kite on crystal methamphetamine, and borrowing his friends’ motorcycle. :eek: His legs appeared good as they sliced off his clothes, no compound fractures or bruising, just some scrapes on his knees because he was wearing cotton Dickies instead of real motorcycling gear. We all understood why Brian was in so much pain once they tried to put him on the backboard, his pelvic bone was most likely in pieces based on the scream that came from his mouth when they tried to move his left leg. After a few minutes, the paramedics said that we could leave and I took that opportunity to jump on my bike and shakily head down the road.

The following 16 miles proved worthy of taking my mind off Brian as this grueling climb was made even harder because of a prevailing 20-25 mile per hour headwind that reduced my speed to mid single digits. Several times the wind picked up dirt and thousands of stinging pellets would assault our bodies due to the wind’s force. Once I arrived at the top for the first rest stop I found out what was clicking on my bike when I pulled a thorn and discovered a newly flat rear tire which after changing put me into 3rd place from 'DFL'. This was turning out to be just my day! :rolleyes: The next several miles tracked across the desert to the west of Palmdale and Lancaster and we had a crosswind anytime that we headed north, but then we would turn east and be sandblasted into submission. A second range of hills awaited our efforts along with a second rest stop at mile 70 to be followed by more desert and lonely roads. Upon reaching Highway 14, we turned north as we headed towards California City only to bypass that sleepy town to roll down a 13 mile stretch of empty road into the diagonal headwind (front right) to get to lunch. Several people had already stated their intention to SAG to the finish line, but we built a group of four riders and failed miserably to stay together as I wanted to use the partial tailwind and fly across the ground but most of the other guys were still beat from the morning’s windswept century.

We approached rest stop #4 (which is the same as #2 since this was an out and back) right as the sun was going down; so we check our lights and climb over the small ridge to get back into the next valley. After a screaming 7 mile descent into this valley we make our way across the darkened landscape when I realize that I did not eat anything at the last rest stop. I quickly sucked down some caffeinated vanilla orange goo, caffeinated black cherry clif blocks, and a Peanut Toffee Buzz clif bar to bring me back up to speed, and I am glad that only one major climb still exists in the ride. The last hill was an absolute killer as I discovered that my legs were becoming jello and I was running out of energy quickly. Finally, the last hill ended and I was so disoriented that I was looking up to read a street sign on my right only to discover the rest stop brightly lit on my left with people cheering…. :o The last portion of the ride was back through San Francisquito Canyon, only this time I kept my speed in check by using my brakes as it was all downhill. I passed the spot where Brian had ruined his life and slowed a bit to view the location one last time before speeding on towards home. Finally back in Santa Clarita and I could visualize the finish line when I made a stupid mistake and at the last turn went the right instead of left. I must have gone almost two miles before I realized my error and then turned around with fear in my mind. The time was now 10:35, I had been pushing myself because the official event ending is at 10:45, and I now had to make up the two miles, then complete the correct 4.2 mile stretch…
Fortunately, Debbie is wonderful and she took pity on me at 10:57 when I rolled up, allowing this double to count and telling me that I had better be at Solvang for the Grand Slam completing event. This one small gesture turned my entire day around and I went to sleep peacefully (and after eating at In-n-Out).

I won’t let her (or myself) down. :D


Pictures will be inserted after I find my camera...
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...qitoCanyon.jpg
nearing the top of San Francisquito Canyon...

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...forniaCity.jpg
one of the rare riders, but he is at least going with the wind and has just finished lunch.

WOW! what a ride..... i'm not sure i could have ridden after that ordeal!

good job.. and yes... isn't debbie AWESOME!

Extort, great ride report. Having ridden San Francisquito Canyon many times, I was amazed at the wind in the canyon. It was great to meet you, and thanks for the wave everytime our path crossed. After sagging to the lunch stop we were there for a while, the Volvo became the bike rack, everybody leaned there bikes against it. Was hoping you would make it to the lunch stop before we had to leave.

Drove about 350 miles Sagging that ride. I told Deb to count on me Sagging for them on Solvang in October so I'll see you again there. My ride yesterday was not the greatest, check out the Grand Tour Lite thread in the SoCal BF threads.

WOW! You really did great! What a great example of perserverance :D I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures!

WELL DONE!!!

Tracy

Absolutely awesome!!!

The motorcylists was lucky to have good folks such as yourself around.

So what's 'DFL'? Disqualified For Lagging? :p

Wow Extort... what a great ride report. Thanks for sharing... looking forward to seeing the pics.

Great job, Extort!

Great ride Extort. Thanks for the report.

Excellent report Phil and good job on the ride! :)

That is an incredible account of your journey, Phil (very well-written ;) ) But besides finishing the ride (which is a feat in of itself), the true show of character in my opinion, is you stopping and helping out the motorist. That was an unselfish act of kindness at a moment when we all know (as cyclists) how important time can be on these endurance events (especially a double and with a year goal like yours).

Truly impressive. :)

I like this version better than the one I was thinking of which is 'Dead F**king Last', yours is funny!

san fran is a nasty canyon man!!!!! we once saw some guys in vettes take a turn wide and force a motorcyclist into a ditch up by the ranger station! we hung just like you did! my opinion of you has gone way up. congrats on finishing the ride...yer all man!!!

Motorcycle carnage
 

I was about 1/4 mile behind xtort when the motorcycle when flying by me about 100mph. Good thing in missed all us bikers. I took some pics of the carnage

http://maddmike.googlepages.com/IMG_...arge;init:.jpg

http://maddmike.googlepages.com/IMG_...arge;init:.jpg

http://maddmike.googlepages.com/IMG_...arge;init:.jpg

I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures of the guy lying on the ground screaming in pain. It was a pretty ugly scene.

oh.... that's nasty!

For a little explination of the different scenes:
Photo 1 shows the bike and the damage done to the front end (most of the pieces that came off are littering the ground in a 75 foot long path)
Photo 2 shows the bike, road he was coming up and the post that Brian flew into (the husband from the van is leaning over him). the motorcycle left the road near where the pickup is parked. In between the post and the bike is where the bike was flying through the air while I was next to it on the road.
Photo 3 shows the rear tire, but does not show the damage to the wheel. the dark line at the top right of the photo is my bike laying on the ground so that I could run back to Brian.

Weekend #2

I was supposed to head to Mexico to have fun drinking beer while I was riding 50 miles, but that fell through so I only rode near home. Saturday I did the Santiago Canyon loop for 43.2 miles and Sunday I met up with the Training Committee at the MS150 Start Line Training Ride to guide some newbies through the first 13 miles of the course. After the first 13 miles, the group splits and some people take the flat route back to the start and other people head up Newport Coast Drive to get in a little hill climbing. The Newport Coast people departed first, and the flatlanders left about five minutes later and I was pacing the flatlanders until Newport Coast where I turned and went for my hill climb and an attempt to beat my personal record.

My personal record up Newport Coast from PCH to the water control boxes at the apex of the hill stood for over a year at 8 minutes and 56 seconds. I have attempted several times to beat my record, but generally at the very end of a 50 - 60 mile ride. This time I had fresh legs and was completely warmed up for the climb so I started quickly but backed off for fear of blowing up halfway through the hill. I passed several people from the hill climbing MS group and cheered them on by telling them how much further they needed to go, and then I passed the rest of the group that were gathered near the top of the hill. These people were on a sidestreet below the crest of the hill and I ignored they calls for me to stop and wait for everyone as I was looking at my stopwatch and realized that I was going to beat my personal record. I kicked my effort up a few notches and pushed myself past the water control boxes and hit the stopwatch to log the time.
8 minutes, 25 seconds :D

Shaving 41 seconds off my personal best was a great way to end the riding for the weekend!

You go boy. That's awesome!! Congrats! :D

MS150 Bay to Bay
 

Photos Here

There is something to be said about helping to organize a bike tour (even the small part that I played in the overall picture as the Safety Chairman) and the people that really set these events up full time deserve every single buck of the registration fees for their efforts. My stated goal for 2006 was a bit ridiculous, because I wanted to reduce the number of safety incidents by at least 50%. However, with only 2 incidents in 2005 I did not have a lot of choices since I wanted to improve the experience for all riders, it was either 50% or 100%.

Then reality sunk in…
I have never had to be as large of an a$$ as I had to be this weekend. I might have yelled at 30 people during the ride before lunch on the first day and it seemed that the overnight celebration erased all the lessons learned. There was even a nasty occurrence where a group of speedy riders blew through a red light at a right hand turn only to run into a group of pedestrians causing them to scatter but only after one of them got hit. The collision also caused two riders to fall to the ground, but instead of acknowledging their error, they jumped back on their bikes and headed down the road. The pedestrian was taken to the hospital with a dislocated finger and a cut that required 14 stitches.
While that was the worst incident of the day, it was certainly not the only one. I even watched as four police officers that volunteered to help monitor safety on the route blew right through a stop sign. It really makes me wonder how they can be an example to the other riders when they cannot follow the laws themselves. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Back to happier memories… The day was dark but beautiful at 5:30AM when I woke up from AdpiKasey’s phone call because she was waiting downstairs for me and we headed over to the Coffee Bean for some coffee. They were closed but the two ladies there provided us with two doubleshots and a bagel for free. Almost my entire team appeared for the team photos, which I hope turn out great! My team departed from the starting line around 7:30 because of the staggered start forced on us by the city of Irvine but we split up as soon as the ride started. I was going my own pace (faster than most…) but 5 miles in I stopped to help a guy change his tube (he had no idea how to take the rear wheel off) and talked to him about the safety clinics that the MS Society offered where he could learn how to do this himself. While I was changing the guys tire my entire team passed by and I spent the next few minutes back on my bike trying to catch up by speeding through Corona Del Mar. Amazingly enough I was successful and only Maddmike was at the first real rest stop before me. The day was warming up nicely and the riders seemed to be having a good time. The first rest stop was stocked with all sorts of food and extras including donuts and Starbucks coffee, all provided by Disney. They definitely get the award for the coolest rest stop because they always have tons of people, food and a gigantic cheering section to boost your spirits.

We headed down the road again on our way through Dana Point and San Clemente to the next rest stop at San Onofre and the lunch stop for the people that were doing the 60 mile route on the first day. All of the century people witnessed grass hut covered picnic tables, plenty of food being prepared by Wahoo’s while Trader Joe’s had healthy snacks and someone else provided Ice Cream Dots(?), but the TV show Scrubs (who managed that rest stop) also had first aid kits, sunblock, and lip balm handouts that were VERY cool! Yet again, the team seemed to straggle into the rest stop in groups of two or three and left the same way, but at least everyone was saying that they were feeling good and prepared for the century. Right before the tour entered Pendleton, I spotted a couple people that I knew who were volunteering (Kathy and Tony get huge perks for manning this area because it is dangerous and Tony has an air horn to wake people up) so I stopped to talk to them for a while. At this point my team was very far in front of me, but I knew that I could easily catch up as I planned to skip the Oceanside rest area since it was only 4 miles from the lunch stop. I pulled into lunch right behind several team members because I stopped to help another guy a few miles before the lunch stop. That guy said that he was planning on the century but that his longest ride before this was 35-40 miles. He was virtually dead at mile 55, so I gave him a caffeinated goo pack and left thinking that he should turn into the Overnight Location and stop for the day. I think that he would have fallen on his face if he went another 10 miles…

At this point in the route, the team had covered 58 miles and 4300 feet of gain, but the next portion was only 46 miles and had 4200 feet of gain, most of which was in the first 25 miles as the route started winding into the inland hills.

All that information leads me into the lunch stop, because while they had picnic tables this year (HUGE improvement), the food provided was absolutely horrible. Half of a hoagie sandwich and an apple in a little bag, or PBJ? :mad: It is too bad that there was not an In-n-Out down the street otherwise Mateo, Voltman, Mel and I would have cruised over through the drive through. :D Pat and Oscar’s were doing the lunch stop here and most of the planning committee was thinking pasta, breadsticks, and good sandwiches… not exactly what was available. :mad: They were also running out of food :eek: , which is VERY bad when you are dealing with cyclists on a 100 mile trek. Lessons will be learned from this experience!

Back on the route, I stopped next to a couple guys at a stop light and they indicated that I was far to ‘chipper’ for being 60 miles into the ride. So I told them that this was my recovery ride weekend and left them as I took of down the street. Hehehe! Sometimes I love being mean and evil since I could see that these guys were in for a treat as they were already tired and several large hills were in their path. I ended up stopping a couple more times to help people change their tubes and rolled into the next rest stop in the middle of my strung out team. I ended up jumping in with a couple faster guys but ended up loosing them at a stop light that I squeezed through. So I continued on my way alone (which is nothing unusual) and ended up running through the back country pretty quickly and after the loop saw many people from my team headed into the back country (about 5 miles of separation between us) but met up with three other team mates that had stopped to suck down some food. We rode a rotating paceline into the final rest stop and stayed together almost all the way back to the finish.

The overnight celebration is supposed to be fun, and I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves… because I was only able to down a couple of quick beers and a small plate of snacks before a stint in the information booth and then the 150Club and Executive Committee photo sessions. I did not even have a chance to stop at the hotel for a shower, have dinner, or have a massage with champagne in the 150Club tent. I also had to get up on stage and do an off the cuff speech about the safety clinics, but I only heard about this a few days earlier and had not prepared anything.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, and my team had breakfast at the hotel so we did not see the food tent at the overnight location or witness how bad it was, so we will take Mateo’s word for it. Although I did hear that there was no coffee! :eek: I started the day by sprinting through the mall parking lot (stop signs there are not legally enforceable :D ) and heading down the road to bypass my team mates that left before me. I got about 12 miles into the ride and had to yell at so many people I was getting hoarse when I stopped to help a lady that was having trouble with her CO2, if lack of knowledge on how to operate it counts as trouble. I’ll never understand why people use those stupid things when they are not in a race, and barely know how to change their tube. However, this was about a mile from Torrey Pines so I used it as a great rest for the impending climb…. Which I powered up easily, but there was a guy that zipped by me and I could not match his speed on the way to the top. :o I did meet Seth at the top of Torrey Pines, he is a guy that I met a couple months ago at one of the Start Line Training rides wearing cut off shorts, a t-shirt, and carrying a messenger bag that matched my speed for a couple miles while riding a single speed, and this was his home turf so he sailed away from me as we went down La Jolla Shores drive. I flew through the cobblestone section and around Mission Bay quickly as a couple guys I knew had caught up to Maddmike and I and we set up a paceline for the final miles. The BBQ at the finish line was actually pretty good, but I jumped on an early bus with a couple team mates and found myself sitting next to some people that I had yelled at for running a red light right after Torrey Pines. They all recognized me but actually said that they would be more conscious of their riding from now on since I told them the stories about Dana Point and the kids that died in Oklahoma and South Carolina during MS rides. They turned out to be a ton of fun and we all sat there drinking beer and laughing as my face appeared on the TV screen (they were playing the video from the 2005 ride), but mostly we listened to Bill discuss some of the adventures that he has been on (whitewater rafting and climbs up Mt. Whitney). They are all from the valley, so I figure that someone from SFVBC might ride with them and can tell them ‘Hello’ from me as a BF SoCal member and not as a mean, evil a$$hole that enjoys yelling at people….

I can only hope that I can have some of the issues corrected so that the riders can have a better event next year, because people that fundraise for these events need to be treated like gold. Overall, it looks like the goal of 2.4 million bucks will be reached, but that means that the MS Society really needs to be the ‘premier’ event in SoCal if it wants to continue to generate the interest from all of the wonderful cyclists in the area.

Thanks for sharing, Extort. My day job is a chemical engineer in the oil refining business, so aiming high with a safety target (we have the goal of "zero incidents") is common in my industry, and I'm glad you're taking the same philosophy to the MS rides. Believe me, I know how it sucks sometimes to be the bad cop. But it sounds like in the end those riders respected where you were coming from.

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.
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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..
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Dan and Anny
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David
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Doug
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Mike
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...lvang/Phil.jpg
Your humble narrator, Phil.
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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!!!
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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!!!