A very busy afternoon - so a little late in posting.
A busy day with a few surprises. We were up at 5:30, off to Denny’s for breakfast. The cycling start for the day was at the junction where we picked up the guys the day before back onto Hwy 1 - no bike paths today.
A busy day with a few surprises. We were up at 5:30, off to Denny’s for breakfast. The cycling start for the day was at the junction where we picked up the guys the day before back onto Hwy 1 - no bike paths today.
Once again, the scenery was amazing. Up and down hills, around bends, over
bridges, through forests and fields, taking us through the towns of Carmel,Big
Sur, Lucia, Pacific Valley, Gorda, San Simeon – to our lodging in Cambria, Casa de Vining.
It was a somewhat eventful
day for the cyclists – a gear shift battery issue, a flat tire, and NO cell
coverage the entire day. Sometimes it’s
helpful to be able to communicate when you are herding riders. At one point, I waited with Jerry while he charged
his battery and Tom went on ahead. Then
I went back and forth between the two for the next 20 miles, forward 6 miles,
back 4, forward 7, back 5. If I missed
any scenery, I had several opportunities to revisit. I did get to to see the
Elephant Seals and the Hearst Castle on several passes J
Tracy and Kathi had gone ahead to Cambria and they certainly had the welcome mat out. Tracy met us all in town, while Kathi was busy at the house getting things ready for guests and more guests, and more guests. Surprise - Tracy had arranged to have a "few" friends join us at the house for drinks when we arrived and a great time was had by all.
Notes from Tom:
On yesterday's blog I said today could be a long tough day. Unfortunately I was right. We made a full century ride--100.8 miles, a minute short of 7 hours of riding, 6800 feet of climbing, and thanks to a nice tailwind for the last 20 miles, an average speed of 14.4 mph. The last 1/2 mile up to Tracy and Kathi's place was the toughest part of the day However, we were REWARDED when all the cyclists were greeted at Tracy's house by an excellent massage therapist who worked out all of our kinks for a full hour each. THANKS Tracy.
A banner day of riding! That's 100.8 miles
Jerry's Notes:
The one thing that can go wrong with the electronic shifting
system is that the idiot rider lets the battery run out of juice. The
battery is usually good for 3 months of riding - so said my friends, the bike
shop boys etc. I personally got 4 months of use out of mine before I
recharged it before the trip. Of course that is not cycling daily for 80 miles
per day. When I couldn't shift between the little chain ring and the big
chain ring I knew I was in trouble, because the bike is setup to make only 50
more shifts on the rear sprocket and none in the big sprocket. I was in
the middle of nowhere on the Big Sur coast, 15 miles from Lucia. Luckily
the front chain ring was in the little gear so I could go up pretty easily and
coast down. I made it to Lucia with 40 shifts to spare! 45 minutes of
recharging at the eatery in Lucia (while eating lunch) and off I went in
chase of Tom who left about 15 minutes before me. A flat tire ruined any
hope of catching Tom and I straggled into Cambria a lot later than the rest of
the gang, What a day! The fun was only beginning however with a
ride up to Tracy's house and a cocktail party upon our arrival. Tracy had
arranged for a massage for us riders which was incredible and got us ready for
tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment