We pulled up to registration with the rest of our peleton which included the following riders:
- Hammerslaggen - LGBRC
- Jackson Stewart - KGSNB
- Fletch - unattached
- Feel Good - MVV Cycling
- Bill Nowlin - MVV Cycling
- Keith Adams - LGBRC
- Chris Daughtery - unattached
- Filip Vinatch - LGBRC
- Randy Denton - LGBRC
With this crew of riders and an off-duty pro in our midst, this was shapping up to be a fast paced hammerfest that would require maximum endurance and the ability to suffer along with the best of them. At 8:30am, the peleton rolled across the starting line and the ride was underway.
The Winter Solstice Century goes from Gilroy out to the Pinnacles and back over a route less traveled by cars. The route is mostly flat with only two mentionable climbs on the way out. The second one is a long hill climb about five miles from the halfway point at the Pinnacles Park. Very beautiful country but very cold in winter and often windy as we would all find out on our way back.
The roads have mostly good shoulders and are pretty smooth. It's a ride that everyone in the Bay Area should do at least once. This century is supported by a bunch of guys who do this out of their own spare time every year so you don't get the same support you would on something like the Solvang Century but they feed you well at the halfway point and then again at the end. It's only $10/rider and well worth it.
One other thing worth mentioning is that I discovered a crack in the bottom backet of my Madone 5.9 last weekend so it is on it's way to TREK for a frame replacement. In the meantime, I'm riding my 1984 DeRosa Pro - a Columbus SLX steel frame bike with Campy Super Record that has (almost) a billion miles on it. It still looks good and it performed up to the task for this century - thank God there were no big climbs to contend with though - with a 52/42 and 7 cog 12/25, the gear selection is limited and the shifters are on the down tube. When the action starts, you better hope you anticipated it and got into the right gear because once you stand up there is no changing your mind!
The Los Gatos guys quickly took over the head of the peleton and got us up to a pace that was very impressive. Everybody was taking turns at the front and others were keeping us on the right route. As I rode along, I was thinking how cold it was (I had only arm warmers, a craft shirt, SS jersey and wind vest and knickers and my gloves were not made for temperatures below 50F which we weren't even close to - I hope it gets warmer soon!). All I wanted to do was put in some work to get my body warmed up - little did I know I'd have plenty of that for the day. We kept weaving our way through the country roads south of Gilroy and the scenary was really nice. Everyone looked like they were working well together including Fletch who was holding his own against some pretty big dogs and Bill Nowlin who has the ability to ride almost anyone into the ground when he decides is is time to put on the hurt.
At about 25 miles we hit our first real climb. Nothing serious but enough to stretch out the peleton and make everyone work hard to stay together. We must have dropped Fletch on the climb but when everyone stopped to pee, he came barreling through and didn't even look back before he was gone off the front. The rest of us just stood there with our %^*@# in our hands wondering WTF he was up to :-) We jump on our bikes in pursuit. We eventually caught up with Fletch but not without having to work hard first. The we hit the roller and this was all we would see of Fletch and Chris for a while. We tried to soft pedal a bit so that he could catch up but the group was getting anxious to crank it back up again so after a pause, we resumed our torrid pace.
For the next 20 miles it was a steady set of roller that were just slightly tilted uphill. It was about at this point that Jackson took a turn at the front that just about killed the rest of us. I was on his back wheel (remind me never to hang out there again) and he spent about 10 minutes with the screws turned up to about 25-27 mph. I rmember sitting there with my heartrate at 165, watching him just casually peddaling along mile after mile. I kept thinking that I do not want to be gonig this hard this early in the ride but if I don't hang on I'm going to end up out by myself and that will only make this ride even more painful. So I just told myself to hang in there. Which I did up until the point that Jackson peeled off and all of a sudden, I'm the guy up front. I tried to keep the pace high but there was a big uphill roller coming and I knew I would never make it to the top. I pushed as hard as I could be the pace dropped slower as we neared the top and I figured I'd done my bit so it was time for me to drop to the back. Remind me why I do this again....
At 50 miles into the ride we hit the second big climb of the day. This one would prove to be more challenging than the first. As we hit the base of the climb, I made sure I was in my big ring on the front and mid-gear in the rear, I stood up and tried to find my rhythm. Nice and easy up the hill, back and forth, my pedaling was synchronized with my breathing and I was feeling good so far. I looked over and realized it was me and Hammerslaggen out front and everyone else was behind us. The hill kept going up and up... I noticed by breathing picking up but I'm still grinding away, out of the saddle, with HS next to me in a dead heat. The hill kept going up. Every time we'd come round a bend all you would see was more hill - I'm starting to get tired. But I push on, out of the saddle, taking it easy from side to side. Steve started to pull slightly in front and that is when I decided to sit down and rest a bit but he had the pace up too high to catch up on my breathing. At some point I let him go and dropped back with the rest of the peleton. By the time they caught me I was recovered and stayed on the wheel of the first guy by. We hit the top with Steve just sligthly out front.
Front here on into the turnaround, it was a great ride with beautiful country around us and nice smooth winding roads, the wind at our backs and a slight downhill - we were flying now. What a gas on a nice windy road. We kept the screws up until we got to the feed station at 56 miles. Lunch never tasted better because the pace coming out was so fast you rarely got a chance to eat on your bike. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, rice balls and cookies - just what I need to get some quick energy! After about 20 minutes of resting and eathing, I'm starting to get anxious to get back on the road - more importantly, I'm starting to get cold - really cold. My teeth and knees are rattling. I want to get on my bike and warm up!
Once we got rolling again, it was really cold and we were peddaling straight into a headwind. This was going to be one tough ride to get home. The going slow at first as everyone was trying to warm up. Once we got all fo the bikes together things started to get more serous. Everyone started taking turns at the front and the pace line formed with only a couple or riders sitting on the back. We were making good time now.
We took a different way back that had a little bit of climbing to it. We kept up a good pace despite the climbing that had to be done. At one of our regroups we were greeted with a special surprise. A car pulled up with two girls in it and a Red Bull can on top. They passed out Red Bull to those of us that wanted it and then drove off - what a treat! After a can of that you end up with a new-found constitution for punishing yourself and everyone else. Needless to say, the pace was fast and furious after our caffine infusion.
My Garmin ran out of batteries about 20 miles from the finish - the moral to the story is to turn the damn thing off everytime we stop to save the batteries for those times when we are rolling and need them most.
As we approached the final section leading up to the finish line, everyone was together and it could have been a bunch sprint for the overall stage winner but we all took it easy and just crossed the finish line together in formation. It was a fun ride with a good group of riders that really hammered each other all day long. Overall, we had almost a 20 mph pace for 112 miles. That says that we were going pretty blazing fast on some of the sections to make up of the speed on the climbs and the soft pedaling that we did to regroup and wait for slower riders. Awesome ride!
We all took a few minutes to get some food and cookies and talk about the high points of the ride. Bill and I had to take off so we couldn't stick around and chat with everyone. And we didn't have time to open the champagne- bummer! But it was a lot of fun and a good end to the 2006 cycling season.
Distance: 112 miles
Total Ascent: 4,200 ft.
Ride Time: 5 hrs 36 min
Average Speed: 19.7 mph
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