I was able to join up with some fun rides this weekend, rides to places I've been before, but not in a long while. On Saturday was the Joe's Crab Shack to Backbay Nature Preserve ride. It's not MY Crab Shack, so I don't take any responsibility for the quality of the food in that place. From what I hear, it's tourist grub, so not very good, but at least you get a lot of it. The ride starts in Long Beach and follows Pacific Coast Highway into Orange County. There's some good long stretches of road, so if you have a camera, you can take some action shots without worrying about cars. Here's Mike prepping his digital camera.
Well, Mike and I weren't alone. We had Sebastian, my Palm Springs ride buddy, and Cecilia, one of the Team in Training members from the Solvang Century season. As I mentioned before, there were some good places to take riding action shots. Even I did, with my meager bike handling skills. Here we are riding through the Nature Preserve. Sebastian is leading the way, Mike is taking tons of pictures while he's riding, Cecilia can't believe her parents live so close to this thing and she's never even heard of it, and I'm in the back also taking a picture.
After we rode through the preserve, it was time for the return trip, but a cool detour is to take the Balboa Island Ferry back to Newport Beach. Here's the entry gate with all the posted signage. Only three cars at a time and cyclists cost 80 cents.
We had to wait a little bit before the next ferry maneuvered to the dock, so look at all the different things we were doing while we waited: Sebastian visited the facilities, Cecilia had to tell a friend how cool it was that she was riding her bike while riding a boat, and Mike and I were taking pictures.
Can that boat hold three Hummers?
Of course, we had to make as many silly boat references as we could. But, honestly, there was a lot of boat traffic that day.
"Thar be the next vessel we board! Ready the main cannons for a broadside, yar!"
And then it was time to beat it back to the Shack. I had mentioned to Sebastian much earlier that I hoped the cloudy weather changed, otherwise we would be swimming through a headwind all the way back. The clouds did not go away, so... Bring on the pain! Mike stayed with Cecilia to make sure no one was left alone, and Sebastian and I tried to squeeze testosterone out of our legs. Of course, there's always someone faster and stronger than you are, and we got passed by some fifty year old dude on a Cervelo. We jumped on his wheel, and he paced for us all the way back to Long Beach. He was strong, and I tried to keep up with him all the way, but even with his wind blocking, I lost his wheel about a quarter mile before we hit Long Beach. I looked over my shoulder to see if Sebastian could get in front of me so I could get a bigger wind break and recover, but oops, no Sebastian. He had popped off a few moments before. When we regrouped, we consoled ourselves by pointing out that if we keep cycling for the next twenty years like we are now, we'll be that guy showing the youngsters a thing or two.
Sebastian and I had to wait a few minutes for Mike and Cecilia because they missed the train, and I'm sure there wasn't going to be another strong dude to pull them all the way to Long Beach from Newport Beach. But we all made it back safe and sound.
On Sunday, instead of a recovery ride, since everyone's schedules were kind of out-of-whack, Richard and I planned on doing Glendora Mountain Road. This would be Richard's first time, but since he'd heard so much about it, he was really motivated to do it. I was happy to accompany him up that thing since I know it pretty well. I'd ridden up it six times already, and I just love all the switchbacks on it. The cool thing about banked switchbacks on steep grades is that you can use physics to make your climbing much easier. I call it falling up the mountain. Because the hairpin turns are usually at such steep angles, you can use gravity and the road's normal force to push you up that steep angle without expending as much any energy. Just lean to the outside of the turn, trying to "fall," and you will feel the ground "push" you the other way. This does not work if you are travelling in a straight line with the angle of the incline, only if you are travelling perpendicular to that angle. On a hairpin turn, you are pretty much perpendicular to the angle as long as you are turning. Okay, as you rub the glaze from your eyes and the drool from your bottom lip, I'll continue the story.
So, Richard made it all the way up, but not without some major cramping in his thighs. What did him in was the little teaser descent about 2 miles from the top of the mountain. Well, there's the proof:
This is a smile, not a grimace of pain. Way to go Richard!
Not bad for climbing 2200 feet in only 9 miles. On the way down, we got to stop at the little cafe and market that I've written about in my Jittery Java entries. The hundred mile version of the Jittery Java Tour includes this stop:
Camp Williams Cafe and Market
Richard was still cramping a little bit by the time we finished our coffee, so I warned him, that even though we are going downhill, the climbing wasn't really over. From the cafe to the East Fork Bridge, there are three major hills. Plus, there was a headwind rushing up the canyon. Fun... Well, I beat Richard to the bridge by a little bit, just in time to snap this shot.
Richard is right at the end of the bridge.
From here down the mountain is not a straight down hill either. Is there such a thing as a rolling descent? But, Richard's thighs had loosened up a little bit more, and we stayed together, even at the flatout descent where I got to go 37 miles an hour. Richard had it easy since he outweighs me by about 85 pounds, so I had to work through the lower terminal velocity caused by the headwind. And that was the GMR loop from Duarte. All in all, a pretty good weekend for riding.
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