This morning, Grumpy and I, loaded up the bikes and drove 40 minutes south for the 36th annual Tierra Bella Bicycle Tour. Over the years, we've done various distances but, this year we rode the 60K route. I'm not sure I'd call that a flat route but, it was the shortest.
The recent storms have left everything clean and beautiful. When we started the ride at Gavilan College, it was 49 degrees with a slight NW breeze. I tried to follow coach's instructions and stay with in zone 2. I also wanted to work on my fueling. Grumpy sprinted off.
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| Gavilan College |
Heading north into the breeze, it seemed like I hit every stupid signal light along Santa Theresa. When we turned onto Day Road, I was happy there would not be another signal light for another 20+ miles.
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| Day Road (mile 6) |
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At about mile 5, Day Road is the transition road from urban to rural. It starts out on the flattish side but, by miles 6-7, you are climbing in beautiful farmland.
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| Day Road (mile 6.5) | | |
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After the summit, you fly down a long, well paved road. At the bottom of the hill, you find you're in a small hidden valley. This valley holds 3 small reservoirs. It is also not uncommon to have headwinds no matter which way you are heading. Today was no exception.
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| Day Road (mile 7.5) |
The first rest stop on this route is at Uvas. When I got there, Grumpy was enjoying the spread - yum.
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| Grumpy -- being grumpy |
My first Tri of the year will be at Uvas, so I thought I'd check out the water situation -- looks like water to me.
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| Uvas |
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The route continues around the next reservoir, Chesbero, at mile 19.
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| Chesbero Reservoir |
After Chesbero, there is more of the same beautiful rolling hills for another 8 miles but, more down hill. At around mile 25, there is another rest stop. Grumpy was waiting for me there but, I kept going. Around mile 36, Grumpy caught me and I drafted off of him until we hit this hill.
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| Final hill (3 miles out) |
Not as easy as I was supposed to ride it but, one can only go so slow with out falling over. See what I mean?
Beautiful photos! It seems like the weather was perfect for a ride.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good ride too! We caught the tail end of the 60k folks when we got out there, mostly the people hauling small children with them!
ReplyDeletePS I'm pretty sure you followed your instructions better than me today. Shhhhh.
I couldn't help put so many pictures in. It WAS beautiful out there finally.
ReplyDeleteAs for following the instructions, all I can think about is doing most of that ride again only following it with a 6.2 mile run -- *sigh* I'll build some character.