October 15, 2009
levi’s gran fondo | king ridge, 2
This is the part of the ride where I retreat into my own head. Carrie disappeared around a corner, never to be seen again, and I put my head down and watched the pavement. The truth is that I can’t tell you much about the narrow wooded road that snaked up the hill.
It was shady and cool but I was quickly overheating. I stayed to the outside around the switchbacks, avoiding the steep inside corners. My eyes looked at my hands and my pedals, at the back wheel of whatever bike was in front, but they avoided the handle bar mounted bike computer that displayed my current speed and distance traveled.
I didn’t want to know how much climbing was left or how long it would take.
The climb was brutal. It didn’t take me long to realize I was under prepared for this type of punishment. From base to peak it was 10 miles with one short descent in the middle that divided it into two parts; the break was just long enough to make me forget the desire to get off my bike and call it a day.
When I looked up, the views were spectacular. Hills of brown grass fell away to valleys of green treetops. We couldn’t see the ocean but there was that sense that it was out there.
Then there were cows, huge, black beasts in the golden grass just off the road. An entrepreneur sold ice cold lemonade at the peak of the climb and cyclists stopped for a cold drink. I was already forgetting the most difficult parts of our first big climb and looking forward to the next half of the ride.
At the next rest stop we ate. They had peanut butter sandwiches, again, cookies, water, roasted potatoes, even a lettuce, tomato, and cheese whole wheat wrap. We ate, filled our bottles and ate some more.
comments
Leave a Reply
I’m really enjoying this, Michael.
Me too.
Black cattle seem to be everywhere.
And they’re big.
I’m glad you guys are enjoying these.
Sheila, they were big and they were close enough to the road that it made me nervous. Of course, they weren’t mid-stampede or anything, but I was ready to ride over the next set of cattle guards (which was stressful enough) just in case.