Several of us wore HRC's official cycling jerseys- get it? matching? twins? yah, not everyone got it either.
What do I remember about the first few miles? there were lots of people! In fact, the lines in RS 1 for the porta potties were so long and I remember getting into the slowest moving line, bad decision on my part but I should have paid more attention. I talk too much and pay attention too little....
Soon we were riding up and down and up and down and up again and then hey! The Halfway to L.A. point!
I didn't pull off (my photos from all the past rides were starting to look the same) so instead I decided to continue on that lovely 10 mile downhill to the coast. I hit RS2 briefly where the theme was "cavemen".
So many "traditions" today-- coffee and lunch in Cayucos, cinnamon rolls and the like. I enjoyed that long downhill even though there was a bit of a headwind, then a cross wind. Hwy 46 (I think thats what it was) has a nice smooth wide shoulder and at that time of the morning there was not a whole lot of traffic.
Soon I was on Hwy 1 headed for lunch in Cayucos, where I met up with Yoichi, Gary and Michael. This is what it looked like:
you do know we ride to eat, don't you?Soon we were back on the road and on past the lunch stop (having already eaten burgers in Cayucos), and on to the world famous Pismo beach cinnamon roll stop.
We rode with Talia to the cinnamon roll place, she says the only thing she really remembers about her first ride (ALC 5?) was that I made her stop at the Cinnamon Roll place and eat. She forever remembers me by that, so we had to take a commemorative photo:
Last year my friend Annette didn't stop for cinnamon rolls, although I beckoned her from my seat outside to stop! stop! stop!This year she took my advice and stopped. This is Annette in anticipation of her cinnamon roll:
And this is what the cinnamon roll looked like, halfway through eating it...
And this is Talia looking happy with her cinnamon roll:
After sugaring and caffeining up, we headed on toward the few climbs that would put us on the way to windy Guadalupe, and across the Northern California/Southern California state line. :-)
The crosswinds into Guadalupe were there as they usually are- crazy strong. I made an effort to warn people about them before we got there.... its a good thing too because the winds were every bit as strong as they have been the past 5 years! We rolled into RS 4 which was themed as "Top Gun".
Soon we made our way thru Guadalupe and then east, which gave us a fierce tailwind into camp. This was Santa Maria and Michael and I were princessing tonight! It was on to the Holiday Inn Santa Maria for us!
