Good Google

Despite being sick for the past week I decided to ride my easy Four Rivers 200k permanent today. I wasn't looking for a fast time which is good because I was struggling out there even with favorable winds.

At the first control in Seal Beach something happened that has never happened to me before. Hard to believe considering how much I ride. When I pulled my front water bottle out to top it up, the whole cage came with it. The weld that attached the cage to the base plate had failed (good thing it didn't happen while I was riding). I pulled up Google maps and typed in "bicycle shop" and found one a mere 0.2 miles away.

I put the filled water bottle in my back pocket and cycled over to the Main Street bike shop and bought a new cage. The nice man working there installed it for me and said the total was $5 so I gave him $10 and told him to keep the change. Mechanicals don't get much less painful than that!

Heading out to El Monte I had a nice tailwind which I knew I would pay for on the way back. I had ice-cream at the control because I deserved it! Sure enough I had a head wind all the way back to the coast - it reminded me of Willie's Wrightwood brevet.

At the Long Beach marina I went to Twisters and Coffee and had a hand made garlic pretzel and a pina colada smoothie. Oh Yes!

Heading south on the nice new beach path I saw a cool electronic sign just before Belmont pier that told me I was the 1109th cyclist to pass it that day. I have always wondered how many cyclists use bike paths - I'd like to see more of those signs. It would be great to be able to justify the cost of bike paths by showing how many people use them each day.

Once I reached Huntington Beach I turned inland and picked up a very welcome tailwind all the way back to Yorba Linda. My time was a very average 10;05 but this was still an hour longer than I normally ride this route in.

I've been talking to Michele Brougher recently and her group up in Minnesota is planning a unique 1200k for 2018. It's a point to point but the start and the end are separated by a ferry ride. The route is fairly flat and the couple of bits I looked at in detail look lovely. Hmm - maybe I have one more 1200 in me. I'm thinking take Amtrak to Chicago, drive to the end of the ride, take the ferry to the start, do the ride, drive back to Chicago and Amtrak back to Los Angeles. The idea of a 43 hour Amtrak ride after a 1200k sounds pretty good to me.