Babageik News: The ride of the hillbilly

Yesterday was an incredibe road ride out in the "dark side" of the Napa area-specifically Lake Berryessa and into the meth-capital of the world — and home to Conocti Harbor Resort— Lower Lake/Middle Town. The loop was 80 miles and the group was great. We had to have at least 20 people out and full Inglis/Retrotec representation.

How did the ride start?

Pick up Curtis: 7:20 AM
Meet crew at Pizza Azzurro: 7:30 AM
Start Ride (in Pope Valley): 8:40 AM
First giant truck flying by and screaming at group: 8:42 AM
First flat: 8:43 AM
Second flat (same bike): 8:45 AM

That there back country can get really hot, so the early morning start was definitely needed. The group splintered almost immediately after flat number one, with the majority moving forward and our pack of 5 hanging around to fix more Parlee flats (nice work on the domestique tip Curtis).

A re-group at Lake Berryessa had the whole crew back together for a bit as the pace line flew by the heavy metal stylings of white trash wakin' up (or did they ever sleep) fer' sum breakfast of benydrel and coffee.

The ride took on a whole new, and incredible dimension, when we entered Knoxville road. A beautiful single lane, almost totally car (and 4x4) free stretch that lasted almost an hour. Here, my wingman Peter and I took advantage of a group pee-stop to join the lead group for a while. The pace was great and hell-we were in a new position, off the front (short lived).

The road led to some bigger climbs and higher temps and after a couple of grinders, I head the sound of riders back...curtis and Andrew had bridged the gap-we were caught!

The opportunity was perfect for a re-group and that's what we did. With visions of Foster Freeze in everyone's heads it was time to descend. A wicked long downhill descent (thank god we didn't have to climb it) led to a few more short climbs (can you say cramps...already!). Peter and I were last men in the group and vowed to stay together, so we battled throught the pain and soon enough we were at 50 miles and heading into Lower Lake.

Nothing like a sweet convenience store (with a wonderful walkin freezer to cool down in) to take a break. Gatorade was downed by the gallon, Reed went to Fosters Freeze for some tasty BLT's and Cyurtis did his best man-yoga in the parking lot to impress the locals.

Knowing we had 30 miles to go and Hwy 29 to contend with the break was over and off we went. Hwy 29 SUCKS, but it was a necessary evil to get to Butts Canyon to the road home. Our 6 man group was doing really well in a pace line and soon Butts was on the rise. I took the opportunity to chomp down on the delicious slices of pizza (thanks Mike and Reed) that I had been saving for just this occassion. Ol' Butts was a bit of a headwind and we soon found another of teh group, alone and stretching. A quick pee break and some pics of teh Retrotecs and we were off, 20 miles to go and ready to be out of the saddle.

Of course there was 1 MORE climb before we were done, but it came and (painfully) went and soon we were back into teh parking lot and regrouping with the crew for some talk and beers.

Overall an outstanding day and an early bed time!

Can't wait to explore some other areas with the crew...

Here's the GPS info, Thanks Andrew!
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