11 October 2008

Saturday harbor ride

It was sunny, but cold and windy. My hands were very cold at the beginning. There was also lots of debris on the road due to the wind over the last couple of days. I stayed at the back of the pack.

On San Andreas, the pace was slow. Perhaps the wind had something to do with that. At first, I didn't have to go hard as I usually do to stay with the pack before coasting. It remained pretty slow until near the end. I let a 10ft or so gap open in front of me and I knew I was going to get dropped. But then the pack slowed just before the descent to the bridge and I caught back on.

Going through Watsonville, some guys were talking about a pro who was riding without a helmet. Sure enough, there he was without a helmet. He had something around his ankles too. Weights? No. He was just in the process of removing leg warmers.

A pretty large group including the pro guy went the Hazel Dell route. The pace up Mt Madonna was pretty easy, so the group stayed together until Hazel Dell started turning up. Then the fast guys took off. I got to the summit in a group of 4 or 5 and then descended to Corralitos hanging onto the tail end of that group.

I continued over Hames, over Day Valley and Valencia. On Valencia, I was loafing along when a guy came by. After dithering for a moment, I got on his wheel, as it was windy. On Soquel, there was a headwind. After the climb out of Aptos, I pulled until Cabrillo, then drafted into Soquel where he turned off.

It was about 10:50, so, with the wind, I figured I'd be home around 11:15, which was pretty much when I got home.