SLO 300k

On Sunday Amber and I rode Vickie's 300k in San Luis Obispo, hosted by PCHRandos. Last year this was a wild and windy ride - the first time I've ever been blown off the bike. This year the wind whipped up the evening before the ride but the weather forecast for the day of the ride was 20% chance of showers until 10am then warming with winds 10-15 mph.

I woke up the morning of the ride with a sore throat. An unmistakable sign of an impending cold. We all started at Vickie's house at 6am covered with lights and reflective gear and headed up North towards Cuesta College. At some point my pump fell off the bike but I didn't know. When we got to the info control Kitty showed up with my pump. Thanks Kitty.

After the info control we then headed south towards Los Alamos. I was feeling weak from the initial effects of the cold. To try to counteract the cold I stopped at a gas station at mile 27 but the only cold medicine they had was Nyquil. I took some. Bad move.

By Los Alamos I was as weak as a kitten. The climb up Drum Canyon seemed twice as steep and long as last year and the descent wrecked my back, even at a cautious 15mph. Then we turned towards Lompoc up a long hill into a strong headwind. I estimated it was about 20mph. In Lompoc we stopped at the Albertsons and refuelled and I got some Zicam. Then we headed towards Solvang on Santa Rosa road and the 246.

I was still very weak and barely able to hold 12 mph on Santa Rosa. Every climb had me in my granny gear, barely able to turn the pedals at 4-5mph. At Solvang we ate at Nielson's market and then had the long climb up Pinto Almada (or whatever). Eight miles at 5mph even with the strong tailwind. Eventually we got to the top of Foxen Canyon and had a long downhill with a strong tailwind. When we got to some small risers I found I was able to power over them. Yay - Perhaps the Zicam was kicking in. This was Amber's first chance to see her new Schmidt dynamo and Lumotec light working at high speed. That thing is awesome. Coming down Foxen at 35-40mph, the light still shone far enough ahead that she didn't have to constantly brake. We got to Sisquoc in good time but my back was still killing me.

I lay down on a bench and gave Brad, the control mom, a bit of a scare by screaming as I lay down. Part of that was because I forgot I had my glasses in my back pocket and they dug into my very sore back. Brad was great and looked after us as a good control mom should. Just before Amber and I left Ivan showed up so we stayed to talk to him and decided to finish the ride with him. He was visiting from England so we had many things to talk about.

We finished the ride in good shape - even my back felt better. We were slow - I normally finish a 300k in about 16.5 hours but this one took 17.5 hours. The route and weather were far better than last year. This year I brought all my own problems. I would love to swap my road bike for a full-suspension mountain bike between Los Alamos and Lompoc. I don't think it would speed me up at all, but it would be great on the back. Reading the rules, I think this would be OK.

Thanks Vickie - see you at my 600k.