PhotoJoe 

Not a lot more to say.

https://www.cibike.org/cool-breeze.html

This is a less structured event. Start times can be anywhere from 6:30am to 9:30am. If you know your plan, let me know your estimated time. tunavic and I are starting as early as possible. I need the extra time and I want a Popsicle!!! It would be fun to start with as many people as possible, however, it is definitely a "Ride your own ride" type thing. If you're faster than me (all of you) please don't wait!

tunavic (6:30)
PhotoJoe (6:30)
TrojanHorse (6:30)
[strike]iTrek[/strike]
TJClay (6:30-7:00)
Commute Commando
volosong (6am - Double Metric)
BeachGrad (6:30)
peckma
herbm (7am)

TrojanHorse

Ha! For the reasons mentioned yesterday I'm not 100% sure I can make it yet but I'm maneuvering... I'll probably want an early start too but I'm not sure I can get my butt out of bed at 4 am to make it there by 6:30. We'll see.

I don't think I started last year until about 8 or 830 - I like the rolling starts, it's much less crowded but the rest stops still seemed to be pretty busy.

CommuteCommando

Just looked at the site, and more importantly the elevation profile. Did my first metric 6/1 with the same amount of climbing as this one. Planning my first full C in Oct-that one climbs 6200 ft.

Tempting. . .

That would make two C's in 6 weeks. hmmm.

TJClay

this was my first century back in 2010, really great ride with only a couple tough climbs. Planning on going back this year and starting around 6:30-7am

Pamestique 

One of my favorite rides, although can't do it this year. If anyone is thinking about doing this one for the first time, don't hesitate. Yes there are some long tough climbs but the scenery will keep you going. Good food as well!

TrojanHorse

Good, at least one of us will be in shape!

Actually, the route looks identical to last year's which was a bit different from previous years apparently. The first climb is pretty short and a bit steep - lots of people were cross training or paperboying their way up that thing. The second one was much longer. Once you get over those two hills it's a pretty flat course but they should set you up nicely for your October century. 6200 feet in a century will qualify as nice and hard.

jsigone

I'm short changed next month otherwise I'd love to try the double. We're having my baby's baptismal on the 25th, so funding must go there 1st

volosong

Yeah . . . I lost out on a popsicle last year! The last one went to the person who arrived just before me. It was disappointing. The year before, I missed out on meat slices for the sandwiches at the lunch stop. Very disappointing that time. A bread and cheese sandwich isn't very tasty.

And, both years, I started before 6:30. I think I hit the road at about 6:15 both years. Guess that's what I'll get by riding the double-metric century. Since the hills are front loaded, and I'm a crappy climber, I fall behind pretty quickly. I want to do the double-metric because it happens on the weekend closest to my birthday and I try to ride double my age in miles as my birthday ride. Turning 62 this year, I'll have to the double-metric again, and maybe add a few miles at the end to fill out a full 124 mile ride. Then again, my conditioning isn't very good this year. Too few miles. If I do ride this year, I'm going to start at 6:00. The only thing I'll miss by leaving so early is the water stop at the top of the hill in Ojai. Since it is still pretty cool at that hour, the on-board water stores aren't really depleted by the time I pass that stop. This time of year, it is light enough at that hour to ride without lights.

(If I don't ride Cool Breeze as my birthday ride, I'm doing SART from end-to-end. Nice and flat with plenty of places to stop for food and drink.)

TrojanHorse

I'll tell you three things I did last year that were a *bad* idea...

1) froze my water bottles at home so that they'd be cool when I wanted the water. Well, I had no water to drink for nearly 30 miles. Oops.
2) Oh yeah, that first 30 miles in the company of my much faster riding buddy went very quickly. I was excited, we were in a fast group and we were hammering. Too bad I didn't have any water.
3) The water situation resolved itself by the second rest stop (at about 30 miles I think, and after the first real hill) but I had a water bottle ejection right after the second set of hills (ironically had just finished my first bottle and swapped it for the full bottle on the seat tube and the full one ejected on a fast downhill... I couldn't find it after retracing my route) that left me without water from mile 42 to mile 54 (lunch) and then I only had one bottle for the rest of the day. I really should have found a bike shop and bought another one. The last FIFTY miles of that ride were cramp city.

It's a nice ride though - lots of cyclists out but no huge crowds of cyclists.

I may have had Volosong's popsicle last year. I know I got one of the last ones at that rest stop and it was ... awesome.

volosong

That true! Very friendly too. Changing a flat last year, just about everybody passing me asked if I were "okay" and if I needed anything.

I hate you! Even though that Rincon rest stop is right above the beach, it is amazing how "hot" it is there and after a hundred plus miles, a popsicle sure tastes pretty fine. Best part of that rest stop is that the run in from there to the finish is a pretty fast one. Great way to finish a long ride.

TrojanHorse

I was NOT a fan of riding on the 101 though - the bike lane is right next to traffic and the "breakdown" portion of the lane was just awful pavement. I was trying to hang on to a group for security and just couldn't do it.

There is definitely some bad pavement - I can't wait to see if my new Roubaix is more roubaixy than my old roubaix.

Beachgrad05

Totally want to do this ride! I would want to roll at 6:30.
wonder if anyone would want to carpool?

peckma

I'm in, have done it last 2 years. I've heard, though, that the east bound bike lanes have been compromised by the Hwy 101 widening project. Anyone hear anything different?

volosong

Been up there a couple time this year. Just too hot to ride in the desert, so I escaped to my old stomping grounds and made the ride from Ventura to Santa Barbara and back. Going to do it again this Friday, as I have a doc appt in Woodland Hills and it's not that much further.

Northbound is as always. Southbound, they are "fixing" several bridges and the bike lane is gone, for the most part. What they did is take the number 3 lane, (the slow lane), and make it a bike lane. There are only two southbound lanes in the construction area. Good in that the concrete is pretty smooth and a whole lot wider than that old, crappy bike lane. Bad in that the only thing between that number three lane and the freeway traffic is a little, four-inch wide, white strip of paint. Someone who does not drive that road frequently enough might not know that the "slow lane" is now a bike lane. There is "bike lane" paint here and there, but not as much as the old, narrow asphalt lane.

It's a fast run and only about two miles long. Pretty easy to maintain 20-25 mph on that stretch, (and I'm not "that" fast, usually). We have the wind with us and it is "flat as a pancake". I felt safe enough, but didn't want to linger too long.

PhotoJoe 

I'm starting to wonder if you really exist. PLEASE, someday come join us on a ride! Cool Breeze, GMR, the Family C/A ride....something!

Pamestique 

I AM a figment of my own imagination!

When the weather gets cool (Fall time) I definitely want to do GMR... plan something for October please!

volosong

The link to the double-metric century RideWithGPS route was marked private yesterday. Fired off a couple of e-mails and got a response about a half hour ago. The route is now public and available for download onto your GPS. (All the other ride routes were already public.)

TrojanHorse

The metric was also private. the century looks like the same link they used in 2012 so I guess that means they're using the same route. There were only a few confusing spots on the route and usually you could see other cyclists ahead anyway.

volosong

I wish! For half the ride, I watch helplessly as rider after rider pass me and disappear over the horizon. Eventually, I'm on my own. By the time I get to Sterns Wharf, and see the last of the century riders, I know that I'm almost "home" and it is an straight shot from there.

Good times. I've decided to sign up and ride the double-metric. Leaving a half hour before you, I expect we'll meet each other somewhere on the way up Casitas Pass.

PhotoJoe 

Wait! What? "UP"? "SAN MARCOS PASS"???? Nobody said anything about climbing!!!!

PhotoJoe 

Sounds like a plan!!!!

volosong

Just the double-metric. The shorter rides are for wimps. The first grind up to Thatcher School is actually more difficult than San Marcos, (or at least I think so. Thatcher School is a class 4 climb, San Marcos Pass is a 3.).

RideWithGPS says it is 9,200 feet, but it's not that much. Only 8k or so, and it is all front loaded, when it is still cool and you are still pretty fresh. It really is a pretty neat route. The hard part is at the beginning, flat from there, and a wind assist on the last stretch. Beautiful environment. Nice meal at the end. I even passed up several rest stops last year.

- - - - -

Correction: Just looked at my ride last year and the Garmin 800 only registered 7,129 feet of climbing. (But I skipped the second trip to the Montecito rest stop, which would have added a few climbing feet. Maybe 7,200 if I did that.)

TrojanHorse

You rang?

The century is really only about 4,100 feet - so flat as a pancake for the most part, aside from two little climbs. RWGPS calls it 5,600 but that's too high.

By the way, unless you start two full hours before Photo Joe and probably me i don't think we'll ever see you - the point where the two routes coincide is about 46 miles in for you, and 17 miles in for the century riders.

Mr. Beanz

Wow, predicting a 6:30 century time is pretty darn good, I wouldn't consider that slow.

TrojanHorse

Ol PJ - put me down for 06:29:24

That's what I did it in last year , but that was with horrific cramping. of course, this year I have no ankle so who knows!
(of course, that's only moving time.)