23 September 2007

NorCal Coastal Century

Stage Rd I headed down to Natural Bridges for a group ride to Half Moon Bay and back. It was cloudy and chilly in the morning, and the roads had patches of dampness from the rain yesterday. There was the after-rain smell also. Fortunately, the weather forecast called for partly sunny skies and no rain and mild wind in the afternoon. I even heard on the radio that the wind would be about 5mph from the south in the morning, turning to 5-10mph from the north in the afternoon.

I got to the start on Delaware, only to see that Sentinal Triathlon was going to coincide with our initial route. The triathlon wasn't a problem, and the roads were still open, so we didn't have to change our route or park the cars elsewhere. After getting everyone gathered, we got some group pictures, and got started.

When we started, the first wave of triathletes were coming through. Guys with huge shoulders on tri-bikes with noisy disc wheels where zipping by. There were also a couple of entrants on road bikes that joined our paceline for a while. I guess those two were just freakishly fast swimmers or something. Anyhow, the triathlon course turned around at Davenport, and we continued.

Our paceline was now four riders being pulled by a powerful tandem team. The rest of the group rode at a more leisurely pace. The tandem had the pedals 90 degrees out of phase, which I had never seen before, so it looked odd to me. They preferred it that way, as it smoothed out the pedal stroke. We took a break at the gas station and diner by Gazos Creek, then continued on Gazos Creek Rd and Cloverdale, where a rider flatted. While he changed his tube, a pair of riders in the group caught up and joined us. We swooped up and down the last few rollers on narrow Cloverdale, then blasted down wide Cloverdale after the Butano turnoff. We were back to the tandem pulling four riders, the other two taking their time to enjoy the scenery. There were a number of tri-bikes headed the other way on Cloverdale as well.

We stopped at Pescadero, filling up on water outside of Arcangeli's, and the other two riders caught up and joined us as we headed out on Stage at a more comfortable pace. When the climbing started, one guy went ahead, and I went with him. There were many groups of riders headed in the opposite direction, most of the riders wearing the green Alto Velo jersey. I fell behind on the descent, but got caught up on the climb after Pomponio Creek, then fell behind on the following descent. We stopped at the San Gregorio store to regroup, then headed up the final climb of Stage. The one guy went ahead, and I went as well. At the top, he stopped to advise a couple of other riders that were stopped there, but I continued on, to get the big descent out of the way in front of everyone instead of having to redline it trying to keep up. So I made it down to Tunitas, then up the brief rise after that. Soon after that, the tandem, towing one guy, came rolling by, so I latched on, and rode all the way to the lunch stop in Half Moon Bay.

I had a wrap that was huge plus pasta salad, which I didn't finish. A few more riders were there who were doing half of the ride, from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. After lunch, I headed back with the tandem and three others in the lead group. At Verde, the ride organizer dropped out to join one of the other groups, as he was giving some of the riders doing the half ride a ride from Santa Cruz back to Half Moon Bay.

Then came the descents and climbs. I was dropping way back on the descents, then redlining it on the following climbs to get caught back up. After a few of these, I was shelled and had to fall off the pace between Bean Hollow and Pigeon Point. I rejoined the group after they stopped at Gazos Creek. After that, whenever they noticed that I had fallen behind, they slowed down until I caught back up, which happened a number of times. We stopped briefly at Davenport. Around the entrance to Wilder, there was something going on that stopped up the traffic, so we went by a long line of cars. At Western, I said goodbye and headed up to home.