Monday, January 27, 2020

Santa Barbara Easy 200k

PCHRandos hosted the flat Santa Barbara 200k brevet this weekend so Amber and I signed up to get our SR series started. There were 29 riders which is a good turnout considering all the changes we've gone through in the past few months.

Photos by Stacy and Greg Kline.

We started at Mountain Meadows Park in Moorpark just at dawn in cool weather but with perfect day promised. At least it was dry.

At the start with Stacy
When we got near the coast there was some considerable fog. Being experienced randos, most of us had daylight flashing tail lights which probably helped drivers see us a little sooner. The fog misted up my glasses, and others' too. The biggest problem is it got into Amber and my bike computers and stopped them from working for a while. Amber's didn't recover for the entire ride. Probably need to take the battery out to restart it.

Early morning fog
About 25 miles into the ride my rear tube decided to split along the seam. I had made the number one(ish) rando mistake. I had not taken the time to get all my gear into top shape before the start of the rando season. New tires and tubes, new spares, new chain, and some TLC for the bike.

One of the problems with Gatorskin tires is you don't get flats. That doesn't sound like a problem, but eventually your tubes will die of old age and so will your patch kit. I should make a habit of replacing my tires, tubes and flat kit and checking the spare at the start of the year. Perhaps it should be my New Year's Resolution.

Fixing an unnecessary flat
It turns out an insta-patch on my spare had failed (also with age) so the tire went down again ten minutes later. Fortunately Amber had a spare too so I used that. It held air for several hours but I had to pump it up later.

I can't fault the weather on this ride, nor the route itself. It doesn't get much better than this. The vest and legwarmers came off, the sun came out, and the birds started singing just for us (maybe not). We were feeling so good I tried to ride all the way to the turnaround without eating, but after 55 miles I just had to eat half a pro-bar. Still - 64 miles on 200 calories is pretty good.

Headed along the beach in Santa Barbara
Lunch at Sushi a Go Go on Santa Barbara pier

We returned the way we came out except for some minor deviations like this short bike path.

Santa Barbara bike path
I love this new section of bike path just East of Carpinteria.


At the base of the Santa Rosa climb we stopped to use the restroom and grab a few calories.

I have no idea what I was so animated about. I had just chugged a Monster so it could have been anything.
The climb up Santa Rosa was not as arduous as normal, I wish I knew why. We got to the end at Greg's house about 10:05 after we started - not bad for two flats and a group that wasn't in a hurry.

Hamming it up at the end.
We ate well at the end - pizza, cream cake, and more.

Thank you Greg and Lisa



Monday, January 13, 2020

Possible changes to 600k brevet

I had to ride on my own this Sunday because Amber was working and the Klines begged off for some reason. I've been having second thoughts about the third loop of my 600k brevet because of the climbing and navigation issues I thought some riders might have. The Aliso trail is closed at an awkward point which requires an unpleasant detour so I decided to maybe look at a more coastal route. I rode down to the coast on the SART and then headed south on PCH. It was pretty cold when I started.


A cold and largely deserted SART
I used the Crystal Cove bike path which is a lot of fun except for the pedestrians that are too dumb to get out of the way of an oncoming cyclist.

Yes actually, we do own the entire trail!
I feel the traffic through Laguna Beach was bad, even though it was a Sunday, but I enjoyed taking Cliff instead of PCH through this stretch. RWGPS is recommending Gleneyre street through this town and I think that will help a lot.

I had lunch at Jon's Fish Market which I can strongly recommend if you like fish and chips. They're not really chips, but they're not bad either. PCH gets a bit lumpy as you head through this section but overall there isn't too much climbing on this route.

I rode on south to where the trail goes under I5 and then turned around into a headwind. The lumps got lumpier and I slowed down quite a bit. As I had already ridden the section I wanted to test ride, I decided to catch the train back from San Clemente, only to find out after I had paid for my ticket that there were no trains running because of track maintenance.

So I jumped back on the bike, very aware that the gate at Katella would be locked at 6pm, and headed north retracing my route. I don't know if it was the headwind but the return trip seemed far less pleasant with even more traffic. I thought about heading inland at Crown Valley to return on Santiago Canyon but quickly decided I didn't want to do all that climbing.

In the end I got to Katella an hour before the gate closed, and go back to my car in 9:37 which is pretty decent for a solo, fairly hilly 200k.

In previous editions of this route I have taken the riders inland at the San Juan creek trail and then over to the SART at McArthur. I might try that again this year. The proposed route is here. Amber and I will ride just the loop part next weekend to see how it feels.