Day 2 Big Sur

Day 2 in the books and wow now this is a vacation!!

Start was later today and I was glad to be able to sleep in…  it wasn’t the best sleep I’ve ever gotten but I did “sleep” for ~10hrs… up at 7:30am and packed my bag for the transport to the next hotel.

I headed down to breakfast ate a couple bananas, granola and oatmeal. Lill to coffee to warm me up (fresh from the French press yup they know cyclists)  and I kit up arm warmers, knee warmers, and vest again… its foggy and misting at the start in wattsonville, ca home of what seems like all of the strawberries grown in CA…  We start out on quite farm roads turning into and out of a nasty head wind. We are moving well 20+ mph we get about 6 miles in and the 1^st flat of the day happens… better now than later.  SAG was nearby so we had a pump to fix quickly.

So onward we rolled 5 of us in the “fast group” and we are working well together ea taking good pulls I take my 1^st good pull of the day and my legs feel good I stick to educate and keep our speed 21-22mph as it has been.  But I was feeling good, I peel off and happy to feel like I did a good bit of work, we work on and off like this for a while.  We come upon a farmers market where the slower group (started early) was stopped we rolled in used the bathrooms and geared up and rolled out.  Onward we pushed still moving well, we had a few turns to navigate and then we were on a bike path so speeds had to come down a bit.  The path paralleled the 1 highway for miles it was great no cars no traffic just pedals rolling over and good conversation.  The path got more rural so we opened it up again and I took a nice dig at the front splitting the group of “slower” riders that had left with us and we were down to 6.  We rolled on here for miles till we swung into seaside and the path dropped down to the beach!  What a view! Clouds be damned it was nice!

Form here it was thru Monterey to the climb to lunch at vet’s park we slowed to navigate a few turns… here was the low part of my day as we got started at a light my foot slipped on the damp cross walk paint and BAM nuts right on my top tube… yup I had to pull over and gather my thoughts that sucked!  One left turn to go and it was the short but steep climb to the park.  Angry about me balls I stomp on the pedals a bit and am jointed by the resident Pro on the trip (Daniel is strong!) I lead for a bit but hold back as I don’t know the climb at all!  Daniel started to lead and I follow his wheel and up we go he keeps the tempo high so there is no chance for me to attack…. I reserve myself to just trying to follow his wheel.  We start into some switch backs I have no idea how many there are and ea time I think I might be able to muster up a burst he sees it coming and accelerates he keeps the pace high and I’m thinking I’m going to get dropped but I see the top and hold his wheel to the top.  I’m sure that was a pedestrian pace for him I was just happy to get up there on his wheel.  It was a couple mins before we saw the next person….  Quick lunch (pulled pork sandwich anyone? Not for me!:)

We head up and up a bit more climbing to a rather busy descent past pebble beach golf course where we saw not 1 but 2 Bugati Verons drive by….wtf?  We ride on and once the road gets less busy we start to roll the pace up again. I get to the front and take what I thought was a tough but measured pull and oops I’m a dick I dropped everyone but Daniel… we soft pedal and 1 other regroups I pull over for a nature break and we all come back together.  We eventually reach the coast headed to big sur.  The arm warmers are off, the vest is gone, the sun is out and the views are amazing!  We cross over a couple bridges we mistake for the Bixby.

Before the bridge we got flat #2 of the day not bad for a group ride on rough roads.

Sick views!

Daniel and Tim waiting as tires are changed

Then after some really nice riding we cross the Bixby amongst a scary amount of tourist in HHRs and PT cruisers….

From here is it was a bit of climbing till a final descent to the Big Sur river inn.  We were pulling full gas at 40mph not my comfort zone but fun!

We pull in and I go straight to change into my bathing suit and into the river which felt like 40F! I mean it was cold after a few mins my legs were totally numb and I was sitting there with my arms crossed just chilling out literally.

After 20-30mins in the river it was off to the ventana hotel up the road for a massage to clear out all the junk from the last 2 days this place was prob one of the nicest resorts I’ve ever been to.

An hour on the table and a swim in the pool some cheese (I skipped the wine) and it is time for dinner (I’m starved!!!)

100+ miles is in the cards for us tomorrow with lots of steep short windy climbs (the ones that don’t suit me the best) tomorrow will be the toughest day of the trip I’m pretty sure so I’m glad I got in the recovery while I can!