We rode out & went back to Torrey Pines to dip our wheels in the Pacific Ocean. From there, we rode out the Pacific Coast Highway about 65 miles to Laguna Beach. We ended the day a few miles early in order to get to a dinner in time, no problem. The community we stayed at in Pasadena was a group of neighbors that fed us & opened their homes to us for 2 nights.
4/3/2009 Day 2; LA Event Day
No ride today.
4/4/2009 Day 3; Pasadena, CA to Hesperia CA
Today we climbed out of LA & over the San Gabriel Mountains. The first 10 miles were easy. After that, the climbing began & we went from about 1,000 feet to almost 8,000 feet over about 30 miles (my estimated distance). Hard, hard, hard! I had tried to get a new cassette for my bike with a bigger climbing gear, but neither of the 2 shops we tried had one that fit my bike. What I’d heard was totally true. You sweat on the climbs & freeze on the descents. Like I said earlier, my max speed on the climb was about 7 mph and my average there was probably more like 5.5-6. We stopped at the Mile High Café for a water stop & a photo.
We put on our windbreakers & long fingered gloves for the descent. Fun, fun, fun! Even though I needed to brake from time to time around the turns, I still maxed out at 41 mph coming off the mountain.
I have to tell you, I made it over the mountains, but didn’t finish the day. After the descent & some flat road, more climbing ensued. My legs just gave out about 55 miles into the ride that was scheduled for about 95 miles total. The support team racked my bike & I climbed into the sag wagon. Ugh! Then the whole team stopped riding about 5 miles after I had since we had to be in Hesperia at 7 pm for an event at the church there. We made it just in time, but there was some confusion & we wound up not being able to do any presentation that evening.
In Hesperia, the local Catholic church housed us & let us use their kitchen for our dinner & breakfast. We all squeezed into the 2 small rooms they let us use. In the morning, we were able to speak after an 8 am mass in English & then just before a 10 am mass in Spanish. We left there around 11:30 & headed to Barstow.
4/5/2009 Day 4; Hesperia to Barstow CA
After that long hard day in the mountains, a short 45 mile ride was just what everyone needed. Nothing too eventful. We stayed at the Barstow Community College in a huge gym where we all had plenty of room to spread out. We had showers & laundry, but no kitchen. No problema. Mexican restaurants are easy to find.
4/6/2009 Day 5; Barstow to Kelso, CA
Our first century day (100 miles). We drove about 30-40 miles out of Barstow & began riding on Historic Route 66. I remember that rule about “if you can’t say something nice…” OK, here: There are no cars on Route 66 outside of Barstow. That’s the nice part. Otherwise, the road pretty much sucks. The first 10 miles or so were cracked, stony, holey pavement that felt like it hadn’t been maintained in years. Fortunately, if you keep going, things get better. The next 20 miles were pure heaven. I rode alone for most of that time cruising easily at 20 mph.
After lunch, the dessert heat set in. I rode the rest of the day with Jess & we pulled each other through the hills, the heat & the wind to the end. I did a century!!! I’d done one a couple years ago on the MS150, but that was flat in NJ; nothing at all like this one.
We camped out at… ready?... Hole in the Wall Campground. Really cold, but a beautiful clear & starry night. Not that I could appreciate the night. After dinner & a support team meeting, I crashed out, still sweaty & covered in sunscreen (no showers here).
4/7/2009 Day 6; Kelso to Tecopa, CA
My turn on support, so a day to help everyone else & rest my own legs after the 100 mile day. Another camping day, but pretty different places. There’s a natural hot springs. After dinner & showering, a hot soak just felt perfect. Then there’s the wind. “It’ll die down” we were told. Wrong! It gusted all night long. I had to reverse my position in the tent just to have the tent hitting my feet instead of my head when it bellowed inward.
4/8/2009 Day 7; Tecopa, CA to Las Vegas, NV
Vegas Baby!!! It was a 70 mile ride with time to practice our teamwork & pacelining. There was also a good deal of climbing after lunch, about 20 miles worth. Then the payback. Over the crest & down the mountain with Vegas in the distance & a mostly straight road down. My max speed hit 47 mph & some of my teammates went even faster. I covered 10 miles in about 15 minutes. YAHOOOOOO! Man was that ever fun.
4/9/2009 Day 8; Las Vegas NV
No ride today. We had 2 presentations. One at a local High School & another at the Medical School here. Mostly, today was a day off to decompress & do some laundry. And to write all this catch up stuff, too.
Last night a bunch of went to see Mystere at Cirque de Soleil. In a word, incredible, amazing, wild. (Yeah, I know). That’s about all I did Vegas’ish. We’ll go out for dinner tonight, then prep for tomorrow’s ride to Alama, NV.
For more photos, click here.
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