100 Miles Weekend

Ta da!

I did it.

SATURDAY
... was the Foxy Worker's ride over Cardiac and into Napa county, Solano county, with lunch at Mankas Corners, and back again. Metric, while the 'hardcore' riders did 100 miles, starting in Davis, instead of Winter's. The weather was really perfect. We started riding at 7:00am, an ungodly hour, but honestly, my usual body temperature had me down to sleeveless by the time we hit Berryessa dam! It was really a great ride. Did flat out, but John was to be my bike angel of the day, and fixed it for me. As he was working on it, the 100 miler's went by, and my 'stalker' :) , Dave stopped, and a few others, and chatted. Note: I'm light enough that my flats don't hit the rim, just 'whiff whiff' on me. It went flat at the bottom at our rest stop, and I remember wondering why it was so hard climbing, and why my bike didn't seem to handle right...duh!

Once my flat was fixed, John and I 'caught' some of the 100 miler guys, and it was sort of a blast (huff puff) for me! Held on to the group, and kept 22-24 mph. That only lasted a few miles though, then they lost me on the rollers! darn. But John stayed with me, and we finally made it for lunch, with only one tandem pulling in after us.

Lunch was very good. Of course, we got our food last, and left a bit later than the group. But there were toasts, and jokes, and visiting. Then it was mostly John and I and the tandem that rode back together, although John and I did catch a few slower riders and passed, by the time we got back to Winters. And John and I chatted it up the whole way back, so we weren't exactly 'hardcore'! :) Our birthdays are only 2 weeks apart! If that's so, why is his IQ about triple mine? lol!

SUNDAY

Sunday's ride was with the Norcal riders, and Red also posted it open for the Monticello riders. My face blanched when she said that! Luckily the Fates were kind, and Mr. Really Bad Date racer guy aka Mr. First Date Butt Grabber, didn't show! Whew. :) I'm in the middle, dressed in black. Can you spot me?

Really fun meeting the online Norcal group! I knew Red and her hubby, but that was all. We took off out of the parking lot, and this other cyclist guy rides over, not from our group, and starts talking to me. ??? Asks if I work for the goverment, where we're going, weather...I repeat: ??? Dang, musta forgotten to turn of the 'weird guy magnet' when I left! Anyway, he finally raced ahead of the group, and I was engulfed by familiar new faces, and then, apparently the race was on.

Man, it was fast. 40 miles of 22-25 mph, 1000 feet of climbing. I learned that tandems are godsend to draft behind! Ah, the kindness of tandems... I learned the Monticello boys and girl are hardcore. And that Red's idea of an easy ride, isn't!! We grouped at Pleasant's Valley and Putah Creek, where I learned there would be no Steady Eddie's (what?? No food? What kind of people ARE these?!) and we were off again!

I ended up in a tail group with 6 or 7 others (that's me with the fredette camelbak) but we made it back well enough. I got turned around just once because I rode ahead up Steiger, and started down Gibbs, but the heavy traffic had me rethinking that move. Turned around, then caught sight of some others coming towards me and turned around again! Good thing, I would have missed the turn back to Vacaville! Man, my legs were beat.

Back at the clocktower, we headed for a coffee shop, ate, talked, laughed, and visited. BigBossMan and Curtis kept us entertained. Smoooth, of the Smoooth and Sassy tandem, was so funny! Too bad kb5ql left soon after, heading back to Palo Alto, he was hilarious too!! I love that nerd humor. Here's a pic of he and Smoooth comparing iphones.

I'll have to make some other Norcal rides. My goal next year is Mt. Diablo. Yikes!