solvang prelude

WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Just had my personal best ride this weekend! I am so stoked. I went down to Solvang, Ca for the Solvang prelude and rode a metric century (63 miles). It was a great warm up for the Solvang Century in March which will be a full century. The course is rated as difficult and the prelude had about 4,000 feet of climbing. (The full century has around 5,000 feet). This was a major challenge for me. My personal drawback with cycling has been "hills." And believe me, there were plenty of them in Solvang. If I don't say so myself, I think I'm over my hill phobia now. I completed the metric century in just over 4 hrs, which is a great time (my personal best) when you take into consideration the amount of climbing involved.

This ride, I had 0 flats, 0 blown tires, 0 crashes, and 0 busted rims. It was so nice just to be able to actually ride. Though there was a lot of climbing, I can tell I'm becoming a stronger cyclist because the hills didn't really even bother me. Although the last hill they threw in was about 6 miles from the finish line and was kind of a dirty trick if I don't say so myself. Everyone thought we were done climbing and with 13 miles to go, we hit a gradual grade for about 4 miles. Then at the end of that grade there was a hill with between 12-15% grade (probably the steepest of the ride) that went for about 2.5 miles. That was just low down and mean. But I did it with no problem aside from diminishing the last of my water supply. It felt good to be able to make it over that type of a climb when I already had 55 miles on my legs.

Solvang is a cute little Danish community. I will post some pics later today. Very cool. It's like you stepped into another world. The ride was all through the country side around Solvang and was gorgeous. The weather was picture perfect. I finished before noon, so I didn't have to worry about the heat or the wind very much at all. The other riders were a breath of fresh air after Hawaii. Hawaii was a lot of fun, but full of inexperienced cyclists that would pull bone head stunts in the middle of the road. I think because this ride is so much more difficult, the majority of riders had a lot of experience. It was a pleasure to ride with them. Everyone on the road called cars out, passed on the left, let you know they were there-- in short had good road etiquette.

Can't wait til the full century!!!! For now, off to train some more. E team watch out- here I come!!!!

Great view of a winery along a ride...


Somewhere along Ballard Canynon


more scenery along the ride


even more along the route


Downtown Solvang


more of Solvang


I dunno, there was a "tarantula crossing" sign infront of M. Jackson's ranch?!?!?!