19 January 2008

Saturday harbor ride

It was very cold early. It remained cold in the shade, but it warmed up some in the sun. In the early part of the ride, I was bothered by the low sun glaring in my eyes, especially when headed east on Soquel. There was a bigger group at the start this time than the other times I did this ride. Riders joined the slow precession as usual.

After the right turn from Bonita to San Andreas, the pace jumped as usual. This time on San Andreas, there were an unusual number of obstacles. There were slower groups of cyclists, including a couple stopped on the side of the road. There was also something, a truck, I think, on the side of the road that caused the pack to slow just before Buena Vista. The pace kicked up after that, and I think I wound up at the back of the pack, but managed to not get dropped. Then came the slow procession through Watsonville.

On the climb of Hazel Dell, I got dropped. It turned out that I got a new personal best on Hazel Dell from Green Valley to Browns Valley. I was falling behind where the road was washed out and overtook a tandem just after that. At the summit, some of the faster riders were taking a break. I was going solo on the descent, when a train of the riders taking a break earlier came by, so I latched onto the end going into Corralitos. I continued up Hames solo and on Freedom, I overshot Day Valley, and took a minute or so waiting for a break in the car traffic to turn around. Returning to Day Valley on Freedom, I cut in the left turn early, since there was a break in the oncoming traffic. Just then, a truck pulled up to the stop at Day Valley. That could have been a disaster if truck driver, with head cranked to the left, had decided to accelerate into a right turn to fill the same break in the traffic that I had taken advantage of.

Day Valley and Valencia and Trout Gulch is a nicer route than Freedom and Soquel. At Aptos, I turned right and took Soquel to head back home.