Breakaway Ride..Stage 8 of Amgen...

[kenyonchris]

For our slightly delayed honeymoon, my new DH and I are loading up the MTBs AND the road bikes, and traveling west from North Texas...doing a little bit on the MTB in Tucson, then heading to California to ride amongst the redwoods, then will do The Breakaway ride (Santa Rosa/Davis/loop). We are aiming for the medium route of 55 miles. I haven't done it before, I am a pretty good rider technique/ strengthwise when I am fit, but the weather here has been pretty much against me (add it moving and getting married...), so I am just now seriously hitting the roads. Anyone out there doing this and am I going to just die? My DH is a Cat 3 rider, and even though I insist that he NOT wait for me, he does. He likes to pull for me, but pretty much continually drops me (even at my fittest when I average 19 or 20 mph even in hilly conditions, he drops me). He doesn't mind waiting, spinning along while I catch up, but it makes me hammer the whole way while he catches his breath. I am looking forward to riding with him, but our paces are so different that a casual fun ride to me is a hammerfest, to him a hammerfest is 25-27 mph race speed.
Any suggestions?

[maillotpois]

Medium route looks nice. It will be moderate/rollers with the exception of the climb, which I assume is up Cavedale and then down Trinity. Cavedale is not a steep climb, but it is probably 3 - 4 miles long. The pavement stinks, which will be less of an issue for you than if you were descending Cavedale. The Trinity descent should be taken with caution. That road IS steep and twisty.

Have fun!

ETA: http://www.breakawayride.com/storage/stage2medium.pdf

[azfiddle]

I don't have an answer to your actual question, but when will you be in Tucson?

[marni]

make sure you have a copy of the route map, or have it mapped into your GPS or however you navigate. That way you can tell him to go ahead without you and you can find your own way. My husband, while not a CAT 3 rider, used to finish ahead of me and then he would log in some extra miles by coming back to ride in with me. That doesn't apply anymore since after three cross country rides, I can ride a biit faster and a bit longer than him, so now I sometimes go back and meet him. Turnabout is fair play.

Congratualtions on all of your events and have a marvelous time.

marni

[kenyonchris]

I don't have an answer to your actual question, but when will you be in Tucson?

I'm not sure....we leave here on Friday the 16th, probably there on the 18th or 19th. I think we are staying at the JW Marriott resort, they have some mountain bike trails right there. He is not a strong mountain biker, so probably resort grade singletrack will do him fine?
I would love some more challenging stuff, but it frustrates him still.

[azfiddle]

I haven't done any mountain biking, but if you decide to do any road rides, I have suggestions on places to go. Mount Lemmon is Lance's training ride when he's here...