Solvang Spring Double RR

[MTBMaven]

This was my first double and really wasn't that bad. I hadn't really trained very much, no long 100+ mile rides since December. The only real training I did was 2-3 20 mile rides in the Pasadena hills west of the Rose Bowl a week and a 50 mile ride last weekend with Mike up the 2 from the 210 to Newcombs Ranch. The following is a recap of the days events.

Mike and I drove up to Solvang on Friday night. Good thing Mike hauls arse as we got up there in no time. Fuel for the night was some good ol Taco Hell. Mmmm Bean and Cheese Burrito and 2 Chicken Soft Tacos.

We got in to Solvang in time to get registered for the event before they shut down for the night. We then headed over to the Quality Inn in Buelton for the night. I was able to get a good deal on the hotel through kayak.com (the best travel site out there).

We arose at like 5:00AM, got some free breakfast at the hotel (oatmeal and hard boiled egg), and headed over to Solvang. The morning was cool but not that bad. I wore a wind vest and arm warmers. Looking back I should have put on my knee warmers and shoe covers. The temps never really got that high through out the entire ride. I never took off my arm warmers, only pulled them down on a few climbs. Mostly I was borderline cold to numb throughout the day.

We started at 6:30 AM with lights heading out of town. Because Mike can't see very well and we all know how he likes to investigate alternate directions (i.e. gets lost) I was put in charge of navigation. Now I have done about 5 organized rides like this before. Mostly there are enough other riders out there it's hard to get lost or someone else is doing the navigation. This is the first event I have actually had to follow a route slip. We did miss a few turns along the way but in the end only added maybe .25 miles of "bonus miles" because of it.

The sun was up pretty shortly after starting and the scenery was beautiful. We headed north (I think) out of town and rode through beautiful rolling terrain of vineyards and horsey land. Pretty soon we were on the fabled Foxen Canyon. The first part had some good climbs of 8%. Once at the peak of Foxen it was lot of miles of fast downhill. We made up some time from our slow start with sustained 20+MPH on the downhill grade.

At this point the sun was kind of out and the temps warmed up a bit. The winds were light too which was nice. The miles ticked by and most of it is a blur right now. As we were leaving SLO on PCH heading to Morro Bay we had some really strong head winds for about 11 miles. This part sucked. Morro Bay was freezing with thick cloud cover and wind.

Morro Bay was the turn around point at mile 90 something. It was good to be heading back. More blur and blah blah blah. Can't really remember too much. After Guadelupe we had a wonderful 8.5 mile stretch with a stiff tail wind. It was glorious. Around 150 miles in I started getting cranky. The road seemed never ending. All I wanted to see was the next rest stop, which seemed like it would ever come.

For those that know the route, there is a sizable climb at about mile 170. Perfect right? The climb was less steep than I was expecting but much longer. Luckily Knights in White Satin came on and gave me an energy boots.

We came into Solvang again just after dark at 7:40PM, 13 hr. 10 min. after we left. Considering this was my first double I was very pleased with this time. Not sure of the total ride time as my GPS die 7 hours into the ride and I didn't bring my battery pack for some stupid reason.

My next double is the Grand Tour Lowlands Double several months from now. Which is good because I don't think I will be interested in doing another double for a few months. I need time to forget...

BTW I also listened to most of a lectured titled Six Months That Changed the World: The Treaty of Versailles and World War II, which is part of the Portable Professor series through Audible. Very interesting subject for those interested in history and the history behind many current events in Southwest Asia (Middle East) and Eastern Europe. Amazing how the decisions of a few men in 1919 have shaped our world today.

[VTVic]

great write up Brian...where are the pics.

[MTBMaven]

We were going to quickly to take pics. This isn't mountain biking you know.

[xwhoopax]

i was in solvang yesterday.

but i was only there for some good ol' tourism.

i did ride one of those 4 person bikes though haha.

good job on the ride though. sounds like hell to me.

[Pain Freak]

I'll give my .02....

Like Brian says we started out at 6:30 on the dot. I had surgery earlier in the day (Friday), just minor surgery, but I was swallowing blood all damn day. After I had the surgery the doc hands me this paper about what to do and what not to do. First thing on the list....No strenous activity for a week. Brian and I got a good laugh about that one. So we check in and I was asleep in minutes. Morning came way to soon. I woke at 4 am, but just layed there for a while waiting for the alarm to go off. Finally Brian started to stir so I got up to use the restroom and by then he was awake so I asked him if he wanted to get going and he was ready. We took our time getting prepared and I have to tell you, I have never seen anybody who was as prepared as he was. He brought every kind of food and drink known to man, and he ended up using them all. In fact he even saved my sorry ol arse with some pickle juice near the end of the ride.

Getting started was another issue. I went out slow, and I mean slow. Brian as his ever patient self, waited up for me, but I just didn't have it. I was dogged tired and I got passed by folks that I normally fly by. But good ol Brian didn't say a word, he told me that it'd come back and it did. After we rode till the lunch break I was thinking this is the hardest double I ever done. Problem is it is also the one that I've had my fastest double on too. I'm still not sure why I suffered so much in the first 100. Well, after lunch I started to feel like my ol self and things got a lot better. We estimate that we did our first century in about 7 hours and our second was closer to 5 something. We honestly flew back. Still Brian pulled most the way and really helped to keep my spirits up. Only problem with letting Brian pull is he has a gas problem and even at 5 to 6 feet away you can smell some of these bombs!

Overall I'm very pleased with the outcome considering how fast we got back.

We really should of taken some pictures as this whole place is picture postcard beautiful. There were so many scenes I wish I had my camera, but I can't find it.

Thanks a lot Brian for being a great riding partner.

[MTBMaven]

Mike it was a real pleasure. Sorry for all the gas. It must have been all the Hammer products. I can't believe I eat and drank so much. I took a leak at every stop and had to stop at least three times to go in the bushes. I went through almost an entire package of whole wheat fig bars, a whole package of chili lime mangos from TJ's, 8 oz of pickle juice, 5 scoops of Perpetuem, probably 8 scoops of Sustained Energy, half a Subway sandwich, a few hand fulls of chips, some halloween sized twix and snickers, and a bowl of Cup of Noodle. I was so full I didn't really eat dinner. I think all that food was what kept me going. I would like to run the numbers but I think I did eat too much. However I probably burned close to 11,000 calories (that's like 19 Big Macs).

What Mike also forgot to mention was that after the lunch stop he was unable to clip his right foot into his pedal for the rest of the ride. He rode something like 80 miles without complaint or incident.

Thanks again for doing all the driving. It was really hard to stay awake all the way home. I dozed off a few times but I guess that is to be expected after a day like that.

[Pain Freak]

BTW, Hemet double is this weekend, but I think I'm going to Hurkey.