Hello Hello from the road. Well actually right now I am in a hotel room of another rider. It is day 6 and I am not on my bike which is turning out to be a VERY good thing. I had started to feel a bit of a cold coming and last night while trying to sleep in the tent, it began to rain. The rain did not wake me up because I wasn't able to sleep in the first place as there were some extremely vocal frogs. They kept it up ALL NIGHT!. My super sonic NASA ear plugs couldn't even stop it. As well, Cicely and I had to set up the tent on a bit of a slant and I kept rolling into her. Long story short, is was a rough night in the tent and I woke up at 5am feeling pretty congested. Did I mention the tent wasn't water proof LOL! Wet pillow, wet feet, wet suitcase.
Luckily for me I have a friend on the ride that is working for a few other riders. He is helping them with all there stuff and they are in a hotel. One call and the Land Rover was on the way to pick my wet ass up. I was a bit bummed that I didn't feel up for riding because in all honesty the weather was not my issue. It was that I felt sick. However, Cicely just called me from camp (she is working bike parking) and told me that CHP has shut down the ride for the day because the rain in the mountains is so bad that they do not want riders descending. Obviously for riders at my level, the rain would not be an issue, but they have to make decisions based on the slower, less experienced riders. Boy am I happy that I am not stuck out there! That would not help my situation.
The last two days have been pretty good. We had a nice long day starting out of Paso Robles that took us up a pretty sweet climb they like to call the "Evil Twins". The Dope Peddlers and I had gone to coffee first and about two miles into the ride I realize I left my Camel Pack at Starbucks. That had a good majority of my calories in it. Mike waited with me as I tried to get a hold of someone at camp that could get it and take it to the next camp. By the time I found someone we were now way back and would have to pass a gazillion people. We did the majority of the passing on the climb which let me see how the other riders handled it. Lets just say I now understand why ALC gave the name "Evil Twins" to the two hills. There was some suffering going on and I am sure that having me fly by them wasn't exactly "encouraging".
I dropped Mike on the climb and ended up riding solo for most of the ride. I had waited at a rest stop after the descent but he ended up breaking his seat post and had to deal with all that. The ride was a bit uneventful. I was too far back to catch up to my crew so I just enjoyed the foggy day.
The next day was a shorter day and we made sure that we rolled out first so we could just get er done. 67 miles of some of the best riding So Cal has to offer. We went through Solvang which is very nice town. We didn't stop because we all had our sights set on South Side Coffee shop in Lompoc. We got there in just over 3 hours and then proceeded to sit there for about 4 hours LOL. It was nice and sunny and we all just soaked up the day. I could feel that cold coming though. I think it is allergies but no matter what, I definitely do not need to ride 85 miles in the rain today.
Xavier has gone out to rescue the other guys. I am going to take advantage of the hotel room and clean up. We will drive to Ventura in a bit and depending on the weather and how I feel I shall either be back in a tent or I may get a room. If I start to feel really crappy I am going to pull from the ride and have someone come get me and take me to LA. I am racing Buff Springs 70.3 at the end of the month and want to be sharp for it. Getting sick won't do me any good. Other than that I feel awesome. The riding is making me stronger and my feet are holding up. Like I said before....GAME ON!
You can still donate to the cause at: www.tofighthiv.org/goto/bdc
Cheers!
bdc
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