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April 25, 2007
Chico Wildflower
In spite of all the rain Saturday night, and the constant "threat" of rain on Sunday, the Wildflower ride went off without a hitch.
I met up with Paul and his buddies at 7:00 and we headed out for 100 miles of fun. The first hill was humboldt, which was pretty easy. The only "challenge' was to be able to see - I bought a hooded, very light weight rain jacket from Trailhead Adventures on Thursday in anticipation of rain. With the hood on, and my helmet over the top, I created my own little microclimate around my head (kinda like a sauna), and my glasses were completely fogged up by the time I reached the top.
The weather was still a little damp, so we had a pretty mild trip down Hwy 32 - I had no interest in breaking a speed record with wet pavement.
Our next challenge was HoneyRun - what a beautiful ride. It was still just a little misty/foggy, and the scenery was breathtaking. With all the rain the night before, there were two waterfalls going strong - and they looked like a postcard from Hawai.
Just a little rain as we went across Pearson, and down Pentz Road. Lots of riders going really, really fast on the downhill. I maxed out at about 40 mph, but lots of guys I talked to hit over 50.
About the time the rain and damp weather went away, is when I started having problems with my pedals. I have Look Brand clip-ins, which have performed flawlessly for the last two years. Unfortunatly, walking in the mud at the start of the ride seemed to have jammed everything up - and it was getting more and more difficult to clip in or out. Anyone that has ridden with their feet "clipped in" understands the horror of trying to get your foot undone at a stop light - and not being able to get it out.
Once we hit the North Forebay, the pedals were really starting to bother me - as now I couldn't get in or out. I borrowed some lube from the bike repair guys, but that didn't really help much. I warned my riding partners, so that if I fell over at stop light they would understand why (luckily I was able to keep upright).
The ride up Table mountain was tortourous as ever. I was really glad to see the last uphill as we crested the summit. Last year I had to stop and walk three times as my legs were just burned out - this year my goal was to not have to walk - which I accomplished.
The rest of the ride was really good, we set up a pretty long pace line once we got on Durham Pentz, and even though the pacing was a little squirrly, we made it back in to Chico with no crashes, only one flat in our group, and everyone still in pretty good shape.
Overall a fantastic day. Only weird thing this year was the flat tires - we must have saw hundreds of bikes off the side of the road, with the riders changing tubes. It started the first mile of the ride, and continued all the way to the end. We ended up finishing in about 6 hours and 35 minutes, which averaged to around 15.2 miles per hour. Not too bad for a bunch of old guys!!!!
A special thanks go out to Ed at Chico Velo, and all the volunteers that made this event happen. This is a huge event, and I'm sure all the motels and restaurants were happy at the end of the weekend.
Posted by Dennis at April 25, 2007 05:57 AM
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