IronCamp Day Four Update
Seaside to San Luis Obispo: 85 miles

Today's stage was set up to be the longest of the tour...a whopping 130+ miles, all along the Pacific Coast Highway. Also known as the PCH, this road is the scenic route down the coast. The views were stunning.

Unfortunately, we woke up to pouring rain and 40-degree temperatures. As the first few miles were headed out of Seaside and out to Big Sur (one of the KOMs), we decided to skip ahead to have breakfast further south in the hopes that the weather would break. While we got poured on during mealtime, a short bit up the road things opened up.

We jumped out of the car and quickly got ready on the side of Highway 1. Hopping out on the road, we quickly linked up with a group of 10 riders who were on their way towards San Luis Obispo. Most were demo-ing some new Cannondale prototype frames. This was a pretty solid group, mostly local. Jumping in, we got right down to pushing the pace.

Things were moving along quite well until the KOMs appeared (yes, plural). Then our nice group wasn't really willing to play THAT nicely. The two sets of climbs really tested my fitness, and I was out the back in no time. Thankfully the scenery was so fantastic, I didn't really mind going it solo. Our group got back together when the local roadies punched out a bit early. After saying thanks, we were on our way.

We were still ahead of the peloton, so we decided to keep things moving. Unfortunately, this was also about the time that I was totally bonking. I was 100% useless and needed food badly. We found a smoothie place in the town of Cambria that hooked us up, but we go stuck at a major intersection by an overzealous volunteer who wouldn't let us hit the road again. 20 mins later, after the 7 man break and the peloton rolled through, we hit the road again.


There was one more short hilll and then we were on the way down - with a nice tailwind - to Morrow Bay. Even saw some elephant seals fighting over the womenfolk. We were moving along nicely at about 28mph, but things were starting to move inland and get a bit ugly, so we pulled the plug and headed over to Solvang where we prepped for the next day's time trial.

As a random sidenote, we ended up having dinner at The Hithching Post, that restaurant / bar from the movie Sideways. Small world! Until tomorrow...