Sunday Ride

So due to various circumstances my mountain bikes are still in Colorado.  At least I have a road bike.  But I had this crazy idea to do the longest ride I've ever done today.  Just to see how it would feel.  There's a stage in the Tour of California from Sacrament or Davis to Santa Rosa that I'd been wanting to try.  So today Jen was riding with some friends in Vallejo which was the perfect opportunity for me to ride most of that stage.  I set out at 6:30am (yeah, on a Sunday, on purpose!) from the house with 4 bottles with Hammer HEED, 5 Hammer Gels, 8 mini Clif bars, a stick of Clif Shot Bloks, a Lara Bar and a Justin's Peanut Butter packet.  Too much food but I didn't know really what my body was going to need for that kind of ride.  Turns out my usual 100 calories every half hour still did the job.  Those mini Clif bars turned out to be great for that after the 3hr mark.

The delta breeze has been cooling us off nicely here in Sacramento in the evenings, but when your on a bike heading south/southwest it's not so nice.  Headwind, ugh.  It wasn't too bad actually until I made my way up the canyon towards Lake Berryessa where the wind gets funneled down and picks up steam.  Well, enough about headwinds, they stink.  It's beautiful country around the Lake and made for a great ride.  Especially once I got to  Pope Valley Rd. and rolled through the vineyards in Capell Valley (I think that's what it's called).  I started to see other riders out on the road and getting ready for their rides around the valley on this beautiful Sunday.  I may have been the only one on the day to turn up Howell Mtn. Rd. for the 1000ft. climb. I hit the base of the climb at the 4hr mark and settled in for the grind up.  I crested the climb after about 18 minutes and cruised through the town of Angwin happy with myself that I didn't take a cutoff to avoid the climb and made most of the climb standing on the pedals.  I was in good spirits as I sped down Deer Valley Rd. thinking the hardest part of the day's ride was over.  But I didn't know the wind had picked up was waiting to push against me once I got down to the valley.  I turned south on Silverado Trail and headed toward Vallejo, wind in my face.  Oh well, I've already mentioned my hatred of wind.  I finished off my 4th bottle and made a stop at a vineyard along the road to fill up two more after I passed the 100 mile mark at 5hrs 15min.  After a couple calls to Jen since I missed a turn to our friend's place I arrived... and boy food never tasted so good after 125 miles and 6hrs and 45min on the bike :-)

Hope everyone had a great Sunday!