Quick one on Grasshopper #2 as I had a dead battery in camera and not too many pics to show the incredible ride we had Saturday.
The nutshell goes a little somethin' like this...
All the online weather folks were calling for the end of the world on Saturday--thunderstorms, lightning, 70% chance of rain and on and on...I was in until Curtis said Jeff and Cameron (much stronger riders and his barometers of whether to go or not) were saying no way (that was on Friday night)...I was fine either way, he agreed to call me first AM Saturday and we'd decide then.
7:00am rolled by, then 7:30...OK cool, I'm doing the Azzurro ride, no need to worry about braving the weather in Occidental...ahhhhh, then like 7:35, the phone rings..."we're going! and Peter's going too!"
Oh damn, it's on. At least with Peter I would have my familiar wing-man out there suffering along with me...so get up, dress, down coffee, down cereal, say goodbye to Jake and hop in Scion for trip out.
Rain? Uhhh, no. Try blue skies and wind. Still had jersey pockets stuffed liek a squirrel for winter with heavy-ass rain coat, food, electronics, money, license...There were a ton of people out there, at least 150. One dude stood out, none other than Levi Leipheimer was there to race. Mind you this is a free event, no support, no prizes...guess the lack of a tour invite puts him out with us folk--pretty cool I had to admit. By the way the only time I saw him was at the start. He won (of course), did 65 miles with 6,000 feet of climbing in 2:59:00...
My "spy shot" of Levi...I had dreamt I would be able to get a better one at end of race..maybe if I finished closer to him (which is physically impossible for me)Out we headed in a neutral roll-out, although this time it was a bit faster paced and a little jumpy. We owned teh road for 8 miles until the fist pee-break. I was ready to pop and needed it. Of course with shy bladder, unit hanging out side of road-style and some other dude intent on talking to me while I tried to pee didn't help...it was a no go for too long. When I finally got the deed done, I was fighting to catch back onto the end of the pack. After a few miles I did, got up to Peter and just kept pedaling (sorry Peter, my nerves got the best of me). I ended up joining Alexis from Norcal Velo and a guy named Jim-we ended up staying together the entire time, and boy did we need it-the wind was a crusher and would have sucked to be alone out in it (again-sorry Peter, you are the man for doing it alone).
We rode in some really cool areas near Dillion beach, along Tomales Bay and out to the Marshall "Wall" lots of climbing and super fast descents with the wind blowing you side-ways. If you haven't guessed it, I hate the wind. It was maddening. I couldn't hear, it was in our face for like 2 hours at least and made things pretty tough all-around. With the course calling out 70 miles or so, at 63, I was stoked to know we were close. On last climb up to Occidental and Alexis and I rolled across the line together at a healthy 4:28:00, Jim was 2 minutes back after he discovered his seat bag was open!
Burritos and good company were in order as we waited for Peter. He made it across about 1 hour later and we headed back to Napa and saw at 4:00PM the first rain! Oh yeah, a necessary stop for fresh, organic bread at little bakery in Freestone was in order too, yummy goodness...
I really am glad I am getting out to do these rides and spend time with new friends and folks, it's a great spirit in the air and a wonderful time to be had while punishing yourself physically! See you all at #3...
As always, check out my Flickr, The Grasshopper Flickr Page or Motionbased for all the details I could acquire...
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