December 28, 2011
Day 3: It was a whopper
To be honest, I was a little worried about today. My legs were toast from days 1 and 2, my butt felt like hamburger and today was 100 miles. Ouch! So once again I set off early with a few other riders, though we strung ourselves out in a hurry with the 1000 foot incline in the first 15 or so miles.
That part was a slog, mostly uphill to Ranchita. Still, I knew what was coming, having ridden this way once before, namely the Montezuma grade, going down. WOOO-HOOOO! Man that was fun. I didn't 'race' it, like some of the others seemed to be doing. Heck, I didn't slog up all that way to look at the asphalt flash by so fast it wasn't worth the climb to begin with. I coasted. I stopped to take in the view. I took pictures.
It was kind of nice having other riders around to use in my pictures. Usually I have to set up my timer and do other crazy things to show the scale of things in relation to riders, but today I took advantage of the group.
After that, and a burrito in Borrage Springs, I set off with a small group towards the Salton Sea. It was then we ran across some interesting statues that I never knew existed, even though I have been to Borrego Springs many times via bike and car. They were mostly animals, spread out over a large area. I would have liked to explore them further but my group wanted to get going and, because I was with a group, somehow felt like I wanted to stay with them to get a draft on the long stretch ahead. (sigh) I plan to go back another time, though and look at more statues.
I was hoping to stay with my little pack all the way to the Salton Sea. I stayed with them on the flats, no problem, but as soon as we hit some inclines my gravitationally challenged steel framed Trucker, and sprinter's legs, couldn't keep up. The group dropped me and the Truckett and I were on our own.
In the end I'm glad it worked out that way. I put on some music and, once I hit the down grade sections, cruised real easy like enjoying the day, which was beautiful with sun and a slight tail wind.
I rode most of the way like that until a small group caught me about 10 miles out from our destination near Palm Springs. From there our little group rode in just after sunset. I was the only one with a full set of lights so I led the way.
All in all it was a great day and not nearly as hard as I was expecting.
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Today's ride: 101 miles (163 km)
Total: 221 miles (356 km)
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