Primavera 2006- Sunday April 23

[Bike Goddess]

Anyone planning to do this ride? Maybe we'll have sunshine for a change!

[bikergal]

My husband and I are doing Primavera. I've got to say that the Wall is kinda freaking me out! We are going to try to do a trial wall ride next weekend.

Shelley

[aka_kim]

I'm planning to do the 100k.

[jobob]

I've got to say that the Wall is kinda freaking me out!

Gear way down, breathe steady, and take your time. The good news is, it's not a very long hill. It's finite. Keep telling yourself that.

[Bike Goddess]

Thanks for the words of encouragement JoBob! Not ever having cycled in that area I too was wondering what all the fuss was!

Maybe we should find a place to meet afterwards????? I'm planning to do the century.

[Veronica]

The Calaveras Wall really isn't that bad. And it's fairly short.

V.

[snapdragen]

The Calaveras Wall really isn't that bad. And it's fairly short.

V.

Easy for you to say Amazon girl.....

[Bike Goddess]

Looking good for Sunday weatherwise. So far it looks like we have 3 TE gals doing the metric and 1 (me) doing the century. Anyone else coming? Tonight at 11:59PM is the LAST time you can register. NO day of registration for this ride!

Metric
Kim
Biker Gal


Century
Nancy

Would love some company!

[snapdragen]

Considered it, I would have been comic relief. Instead I'm going to a memorial celebration for a co worker.

[Adventure Girl]

Metric
Kim
Biker Gal
Adventure Girl

Is that me? Sorry. I have other riding plans. I have not even been involved in this discussion. I don't know how I got on this list.

[Bike Goddess]

No Adventure Girl there anymore! Must have gotten AG and BG mixed up! Oh well, you can ride in spirit with us!

Snap- you'll be missed, humor and all! But memorials are important too!

[Bike Goddess]

The century ride was quite nice if you eliminate all the traffic we had to deal with coming, in the middle, and going back!

Veronica was right! The Calveras wall wasn't that difficult especially since it came in the first 15 miles of the ride. As we rode past Sierra Rd (sign said it was closed 5.5 miles ahead)I thought of the Tour and how lucky they were to have done it before the road caved in.

The tour around the Calveras reservoir was quite beautiful as it is very green right now. Since it was cloudy, the colors were somewhat muted. No wildflowers yet, but soon I would imagine.

The 2nd big climb over the Altamount Pass was pretty interesting. When we started at the bottom, one of our riders mentioned that we would be going over the freeway above (it looked pretty high!)and then on over the old pass. After a long not so steep hill we made it over the freeway and then eventually over the pass (that was a bit steeper). It was interesting to hear the windmills cranking away in the wind. Of course we knew that active windmills meant strong westerly winds going back to the start and indeed that's what happened!

Au contraire the hardest hill (at 90 miles) was getting out of Palomares Canyon. (I think my top speed towards the top was 4.2MPH and I managed to pass a few other riders who were also suffering!) To reach the canyon we had to go due west over the Dublin grade (parallel to HWY 580). The headwind was pretty strong so it took a bit of work to get over that grade. Fortunately we had a reststop just before going through Palomares. A guitar player serenaded us as we stocked up for our final climb of the day.

I recommend this ride. The food was great, there weren't thousands of riders so we never really saw a lot of pacelines and such, and the volunteers were most helpful. The only downside regarding the route was at times it was difficult to follow. Fortunately, I was with my club guys. 2 of them had done the ride before so they were our guides when a route question came up.

I managed to make a wrong turn at the end of the ride which resulted in a 5 mile detour, but that was my fault not the ride directions!

So Kim and Biker Gal - how did you do? I looked for you, but we started late (around 7:15). Maybe you saw us! We were best identified as the ones with the argyle socks (our latest trademark)!

[bikergal]

DH and had both been sick towards the end of last week and I was feeling pretty run down during the entire ride. We live about a mile or two from the wall and I was so tempted to just ride home and forget the whole thing but I talked myself out of it. DH made it up the wall and then came down to find me and went up again! I'm not a great climber yet so I made it up part of the way and then had to walk the rest. Riding along the resevoir was beautiful. Had a near collision on the way down when the two cyclist in front of me decided to slam on their brakes without warning while we were going around 23mph.
When we got to the second rest stop I was really beat. We bailed and took the 70K route which was only 10miles to the end. Riding along 84 was slightly scary with all the big SUV's who think they own the road but we made it!