12 July 2008

Solo ride

In the morning, there was thick fog and the roads were wet, so I decided to ride later. Around midday, the roads had dried, and it was sunny and warm. It was also a bit humid. Fortunately, it wasn't hot.

I started off going up Hwy 9. At one point, there were 4 horses crossing the road from right to left. By the time I got there, they were all on the left. I continued through Felton, then took Glen Arbor to Ben Lomond, then headed up Alba. It was 12:34 at the bottom. After 4 miles of steepness, it was 1:09 when I got to the top. About 35 minutes has to be faster than my previous best. I continued on Empire Grade to Pine Flat, headed down Pine Flat and around the Bonny Doon loop, then down Bonny Doon Rd to the coast. After the bridge, where the road got narrower, I started catching up to the car ahead of me and then had to ride the brakes most of the rest of the way down to stay behind it. I took Hwy 1 back without much of a tailwind if any, then hammered up Western.