A Really Grand tour!

[Fredwina]

About 2 years ago , one of my friends in Pennsylvania passed away. This week, they had a memorial ride for him. Since I could not get to Pa I decided to dedicate my double metric at the La Wheelmen's Grand Tour to him.
We startedout by climbing a hill. wasn't bad but I should have gotten it into my granny - (Yes Steve, I'll pay for it later)we were on PCH for about 4 miles before we turned on to Latigo Canyon.

This was fun if will go from Sea Level to about 2,000 feet in 6 miles. We then did more and more climbing , There was some descending, but not nearly enough. We finally got on to Westlake road, we lost about 1,000 feet in 4 miles This road sacred the Bejesus of my when I did Crusin the Conejo (Steve would insist that I use a Four letter word as an adjective, but it's my ride and I'll curse if want to, curse if want to.. You would curse too if it happened to you!)
Where were we? Oh yes, I was really concerned about not making to the first control on time. we started to see the double, triple, and Quadruple Century Riders(see, I'm not that insane!) A coouple of my friend doing the double said hello
I made to the control with 10 minutes to spare. as My boss would say, (woo & hoo).

I made it down the next big descent on Potrero Road, and passed CSU - Channel Islands. I stopped to take a photo of a lettuce field and a Citrus Grove:


We then road through Camarillo and came to the second stop in Simi Valley.
I stopped and talked to some of my club buddies (Steve Liked to blab). I made it there with about an hour to spare. Less climbing=faster Fredwina!.

I did mention the "c" word? well , we started the climbing again. along the way I had to stop at a informational control. They put a sign on a post and you had to write down what it said I took a pic of the first one "Paris" but I didn't think I could get a good exposure of the second one "rando" (gee we must be on a brevet).

I was cutting the timeshort again. I finally got on flat terrain. on to have to deal with the usual gusty headwind coming off the ocean in the afternoon. The road was named pleasant valley. Maybe they need to change the name unless you idea of "pleasant" is getting run off the road by giant fruit trucks! We were soon back into Oxnard. The final Control was at a civic center. I rode into the parking lot and there was no one there, and I had an hour to spare. It was right next to a park where we had a control at the January brevet so I rode there. no go, I finally rode back by the Civic center and saw folks rolling their bikes out of the door. Yeah!
coming back, I stopped and took photos of a Cabbage field , the Phantom on display at Point Mugu NAS(The plane's a Fellow native of the Show-me state) and Mugu rock. Since I had the wind at my back, I able to make some good progress.



The last six miles on PCH have some very good size rolling hills. In January, I cramped up and had ride very conservatively> No cramps today. as a matter of fact, I managed to make it up some in middle ring. The only problem was that the Sheriff's were towing illegal parked cars at the beach, so i had to avoid about 6 wreckers.
I saw David Nakai on the way back to City Hall in Malibu. I had talked to him at a registration. I went to get my dinner, and they were my buddies!. they had made a wrong turn and went to Ojai!
I thought that it would take me about 12 -13 hours to do the irde. I got done in a little over 11.

Speaking of wrong turns, I decided to avoid the traffic downtown and come back the 10 and 210, I avoided the traffic, but added a lot more miles as I went back trough Oxnard. Nothing ventured , nothing gained
total Stats
Miles 126.48
time 11:15
avg speed 12.32
max speed 38.44
climbing 8,153

[Tri Girl]

Can I just say: HOLY SMOKES!!!
You're a stud puppy! I can't believe you did all the mileage and all the climbing and still finished in a VERY respectable time with a smile on your face (presubably- I didn't see a pic of you smiling). Congrats on a great ride, and thanks for posting all the pics. It's so nice to see what you get to see out there in that beautiful countryside of yours.
Congrats!!!!

[Blueberry]

Thanks for sharing the ride - what a lovely tribute to your friend!!

CA

[Jiffer]

Hey Fredwina! It's been a while since I posted. Nice to see pics from your big ride. You certainly go for the endurance stuff. Eleven hours on a bike?! You ROCK!!!

So, I finally did the Saturday morning club ride this week. Haven't been able to because I always have to take my kids to their horse lesson. Alex has offered to take them for me a few times, but for whatever reason, I was not prepared to do it. Partially because I couldn't mentally handle being the slowest one and didn't want to kill myself trying to keep up. Well, I did the 23 miler and, as it turned out, I was NOT the slowest one!!! That group, as a whole, rides right at my level, so it was way cool and I plan to do lots of Saturday rides with them in the future. Woo hoo!!!

[sundial]

You blow me away with your epic rides. I enjoy all the stories of your travels and the pics as well.

[Fredwina]

Can I just say: HOLY SMOKES!!!
You're a stud puppy! I can't believe you did all the mileage and all the climbing and still finished in a VERY respectable time with a smile on your face (presubably- I didn't see a pic of you smiling). Congrats on a great ride, and thanks for posting all the pics. It's so nice to see what you get to see out there in that beautiful countryside of yours.
Congrats!!!!

When I turned in my card, one of the guys said to the other "she's still similing after all that!"
Life is meant to be enjoyed. I have a book that tells me that

[Zen]

Hey, your average is about the same as mine.
If you leave out the downhills and endurance part

Thanks, Fredwina.