DScott

I'm in, and will be starting with a small group of friends. They're a pretty fast bunch, though, so it's uncertain if I'll be finishing with them.

I know we're all looking forward to this one- it's an interesting route, there's not too much climbing (all relative, though), and is a great way to kick off the year.

Cheers!

Sonoma76

Forecast looking good! High of 70, sunshine and high clouds makes for a cool and very pretty ride

scvroadie

Bump!!!

Online registration is closed.

Like all other rides, day of ride registration will be available.

Weather forecast for this Saturday, looks to be the best of the month.

Come out an join us.

lesiz

Look a little closer at the forecast, and you'll see that there's 11-14mph winds from the NE for most of the day. For the century, that means extra challenge of mostly headwinds during the climbs in the first half of the ride. Then there's tailwinds going downhill most of the second half.

I haven't ridden these hills before, so I'm eager to check out this new territory.

Last I heard, there were 60-some signed up for the century. It won't be crowded out there.

mkadam68

We're expecting in the neighborhood 200+ riders for the whole event. Right now, there's 176 pre-registered online (75-century, 101-half), 20 or more pre-reg'd by mail, plus we're expecting a good couple handfuls to register morning of.

Wind out of the east can be tough in only a couple spots. For the most part though, I think the hills and trees do a good blocking job.

Sonoma76

Bruised my rib last week riding, had to pull out this week

Hopefully you guys put this on again next year!

DScott

Great ride, Mark. We spoke for a minute afterwards, I was sitting in the chairs as the camo crew was picking everything up at like 3:30.

The wind was an added, uh, *bonus* since this was a kinda-sorta "training ride" for the KOM. It made a moderately hard course that much tougher. The first 25 mile section was just brutal. Fortunately, the group I rode with hung together, which help ALOT.

Great support, nice course, I hope to see this ride grow!

Is the wind typical for that area/time of year?

scvroadie

We like to help people train for the KOM series.

I would say about 5-10% of the time that we ride to Acton, we encounter a headwind. Then about another 15% of the time we encounter the wind on the way back. Coming back it is not too much of a problem since it is downhill.

Today was an extreme, when I was putting out the route arrows on the course yesterday, the wind was hardly blowing. Tomorrow the forecast is for light winds. Today was just an anomaly, kind of like the extreme heat on last year's Mulholland Challenge. If we could have had yesterdays lack of wind with todays temps, it would have been a perfect ride.

Thanks for the compliments, we look forward to making it a better ride next year.

hvdave2000

Excellent job on the route arrows. This was the best marked coarse I've ridden. Having each and every turn marked was real nice. I hate when only "some" of the turns are marked. I think what you did was better than what Solvang does, which is pretty good.

In general, it was a great event and I was glad to have done it on the first year. Hopefully it will turn into a big ride in the comming years, cause then I'll be able to brag about how I did it the first year.

I started a few minutes after 7am. I ended up riding with a group of about 8 fast guys, which made a huge difference with the wind. I ended up getting dropped going up Aliso since I was starting to cramp, but I did catch up to them later at the Bicycle Johns rest stop. That turned out to be of no real value since my legs were really too fried to ride anyone else's pace other than "my own". I got seperated from them comming down Sierra Hwy when I hit a little rock with my front tire at 45mph and flatted. I managed to come to a stop safely though.

On Sand Canyon road I came across a burning motorcycle laying off to the side. The thing was fully engulfed in flames with thick black smoke pouring across the road. It was pretty surreal.

Those Italia deli sandwichs are pretty tasty. I'd be happy to see them there again next year.

mkadam68

S'funny you say that. Back at HQ, we were getting reports of unknown persons moving the arrows and pointing them in the wrong directions (my favorite was the "up and over a fence" one ) on the bike path.

It looks like nobody got real lost, so that's good. We're already brainstorming ideas to keep these "somebody's" from moving the arrows again in the future. I voting for the armed Sheriff deputies on patrol, but I doubt that'll happen...

mkadam68

Also, for those that did ride, if you could help us out: let us know where we screwed up, how we can make it better... Just go to this little online survey I threw together. Shouldn't take much more than a couple minutes to complete. Thanks.

lesiz

I disagree here. For us hard-core types, this is part of cycling -- you're subject to the weather. You can't just push a little harder on the gas pedal, you grunt harder. It's part of the challenge.
For me, this was a perfect ride.
Having fought the surprise winds give more feeling of accomplishment now. We ascended 7000 ft on the century, but I'm personally taking credit for 9 thousand, considering the wind.

hvdave2000

I finished around 1:20pm, so I may have gotten by some of the mischef before the fact. Hopefully there won't be some new episode on "Jackass" featuring a bunch of confused cyclist going around in circles.

My guess the problem you had with the arrows was probably only on the bike path, which is a bit twisty. At that one detour, getting back on the path was easy to miss. The group I was riding with at the time spotted the arrow, but a buddy of mine just went straight on there. However, I would guess that particular detour won't be there next year so it's probably a one-time issue.

mkadam68

lesiz

And on the topic of the weather, organizers need in the future to state in the website whether this is a "rain or shine" event, or if it possibly cancels with rain.