Work commute - 42.41 miles
Healdsburg Harvest Century - 60 miles
102.41 miles - 14th goal met
This week's big ride was the Healdsburg Harvest Century, a fun little ride sponsored by the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce. The first year I did this ride was 4 (?) years ago, the last year the Sierra Century was held in Amador County, the year they had a rider fatality. I had come upon the dead rider soon after his accident, too soon, it was really kind of traumatizing, I was new to riding, didn't know if the down rider was one of my friends (thank god it was not), and I decided when I got home I need a fun, fluffy ride. Barry Marcus decided to come ride with me that year, I had a great time. He "took it easy" and stayed with me the whole way, it was a perfect remedy to the mess of the previous Sierra Century.
This year there was no tragedy prefacing the Harvest Century, just anticipation to a fun and pretty ride. We wind our way through wine country, thru the back roads. I left Sacramento at 5 am, the temps were already hovering around 75 degrees, the day in the valley was going to be a scorcher. But once I dropped into Vallejo and took off over Hwy 37, a marine layer had dropped the temps by at least 25 degrees. Healdsburg was cool, a wind breaker felt good, no wind, perfect riding conditions.
I hit the road around 8 am, feeling pretty good, well rested, really looking forward to the day. Everything is going as well as it can, until I hit a slight down hill and tried to shift back to my big ring and dropped my chain. Stop, put it back on, continue on, hit another hill, need to shift down to the small ring, drop my chain again. Again, I put it back on, finish the hill, do the downhill on my small ring, hit the flats, shift to my big ring, and.drop.my.chain...again. Stopped, put it on, again, and decided this time I am leaving it. Out of a 60 mile ride, I rode about 50 miles on my big ring. For you hard core riders that can climb this would be no big deal, for me, my quads were talking to me by the time I returned to my car! A good thing really, it has been a while since I have really felt a ride afterwards, good wake up to the fact that I need to push harder.
Still, the bike goes in the shop this week, I am definitely getting a new chain, and I think I am going to treat myself to new shifters and a derailleur. Need to be set up for Shasta, there is absolutely no way in hell I am doing those climbs on my big ring!
All in all, a beautiful day, a beautiful ride. The dinner provided by the Chamber is excellent, a fresh veggie pizza, black bean/corn salad, bow-tie pasta salad, a red potato/green bean dish that was awesome, fruit, and a cornucopia of other side dishes.
The only blight on the day was the drive home, Hwy 101 is a mess at the best of times, if there is a fender bender? Took me an hour to cover 8 miles...
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