Route started in Lompoc, through Buellton, Santa Ynez, Foxen Canyon, Santa Maria, Arroya Grande, San Luis Obispo (lunch), Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Guadalupe, Vandenberg, and back into Lompoc. Were on some of the same roads as our Santa Barbara trip...only in reverse direction. Good roads, little traffic (except thru Pismo Beach).
Not much wind in the morning at all. Terrific head wind heading out of San Luis Obispo and into Morro Bay. Once turned south at Morro Bay, had some tail wind (although not as strong as expected). Overall though, favorable winds.
I rode with Karl and Mike & Charlotte (tandem friends of ours from Foster City) for about the first 50-60 miles and then I was solo must of the remainder of the ride. As it turned out they would stay longer at rest stops than I would and then eventually they would catch me and go by. What this meant was that we all finished within 15 minutes of each other.
We would have all finished together but Karl had a flat about 20 miles from the finish. We were going up a hill (there were only a couple of 'real' hills...everything else was rollers...but it was like doing rollers all day long!) and all of a sudden Karl stopped. I wasn't sure why but I kept going and waited for him just over the crest. I waited 15 minutes and then started getting really cold and could feel the legs starting to shut down. So I, with a tremendous amount of guilt, starting riding again (other riders DID tell me that a guy in pink/blue had a flat so I at least knew he was OK).
As it turned out Karl broke his tire lever and had to wait for someone to go by to lend him one. Then as he was pumping up the new tube, the valve broke so he had to wait for another rider to stop and lend him tire levers once again. Turns out he lost 40minutes with those incidents. He didn't want to bother anyone else by saying that he had a flat but now he will think differently because of the broken tire lever! He also was kind enough to relieve of my guilty feelings after the ride!
Start time: 5:00am
End Time: 5:14pm
Elapsed Time: 12:14
Karl finished shortly after (I think he said he was only 8-10 minutes behind me??) So, as you can see, Karl was BLASTING those last 20 miles after his flat tire(s)!!!
Karl, Charlotte, Mike and I thought that this was harder than Davis because of all the rollers. I think we had 2 true downhills...while the majority of the day was turning over the pedals constantly and jumping out of the saddle to tackle the rollers. Oh yeah, they did stick in one REAL climb at the 185m mark along Highway 1....yikes! Perhaps, it's harder too because it's earlier in the season.
It was well-supported so I have no fears about doing Hugh Murphy rides (I know some folks didn't enjoy his earlier rides). Stoker bar was one of the sponsors so we made sure we had a small stash in our pockets as we left the last stop! This was a very enjoyable double century and I recommend it to to everyone!
Saw quite a few ACTCers.....chatted with Patti quite a bit!.....saw John Blaine, Dustin Coy, Sara Keenan, a guy who was one OATBRAN last year, Janine was riding her tandem with her Reno captain (he was riding with a cast because he was hit by a car while CLIMBING Highway 9 a month ago...the driver was taking a corner to fast, hit him, then crashed. He had to have surgery on his hand)
Sunday, Karl and I drove to Hobee's in San Luis Obispo for breakfast, then drove to Paso Robles and did a 33-miler to loosen our legs. Ate a late lunch at Lolo's mexican before hopping back in the car for San Jose.
Was an awesome weekend....Can't wait for Davis!