IronCamp Day Two Update

Santa Rosa to Santa Barbara: 110 miles in 5:45

After yesterday's epic ride along the coast, I was really looking forward to a good night's sleep and today's stage. I slept so well I didn't even get out of bed once last night...that means I was BEAT!!! Today's stage had it all: great weather, hills, killer views, amazing descents, vineyards, wineries, and a massive headwind.

We started out from our hotel and just started riding. We had a fresh Rich Strauss as our leader today (he was admin yesterday), and it showed. We blitzed through 22 miles in the first hour even though the group was tired. This got us nice and warmed up for the first KOM of the day.


This was a solid 19 minute climb for me today, with some great turns and views. We dropped down from that into Napa Valley and rolled right by some grade-a wineries and through gorgeous vineyards. The terrain was surreal...we rolled right out the other side into the climb out of Napa Valley. Despite the map, the terrain wasn't actually that bad on this side. Maybe that's because yesterday was so killer. We rolled through the hills and then hit the flats through Davis.

Davis, home of Steve Larsen and more bike paths than the entire eastern seaboard combined, was awesome. The couse had a killer sprint set up, with a 90-degree left hand turn at 200m to go. We regrouped on the other side at the 88-mile mark to eat some real food. It was then back on the bikes towards Santa Barbara. We had a sick tailwind for 3 miles...so sick we were taking turns leading the group at 30mph. Can't even imagine how fast the peloton was moving through there.

Unfortunately after that, we had to turn into the wind and were on some seriously crappy chip-seal roads. The kind that saps your energy and turns a 20mph effort into an 18mph hour slug fest. Add to that a sick cross-head wind, and you are going 15mph. Capital O-U-C-H. Add to that the fact that the tour entourage of cars, bikes, support crews, etc, are rolling past on the way to the finish. That's pressure. Thankfully this was ended - just before I cracked - by the sag wagon. We chilled on the side of the road for the peloton to pass and I got this photo.

Bottom Line
It is soooo killer out here...97 miles yesterday, 110 today. 100 slated for tomorrow w/ a 9 mile climb that starts out at 15% grade. Even though we climbed 30 mins at an avg of 13% today, I am still scared. :) It's just so gorgeous, somehow it doesn't hurt as much...hopefully that trend continues. Until tomorrow...