Tierra Bella Century?

[melissam]

As an ALC alumni I can tell you that there aren't a lot of "tough" hills. What you need is time in the saddle and back to back rides. What was tough for me (and I had 3000 miles on my pretraining rides before the ALC) was the back to back days. No rest days and even the shorter day turned out to be a hilly one.

Keep up your training and you will do fine!

[ThreadDrift = ON]

BG,

Yeah, Quadbuster didn't seem that tough. OTOH, we didn't have to climb it after 2 days of riding. Then there's the Evil Twins that I keep hearing about. Are they about the same difficulty as Quadbuster? Shorter & steeper? Longer?

I had Friday off, so I was able to do 3 back-to-back longish rides. While I wasn't as fresh on the second or third day, I wasn't exactly struggling either. I take that as a very good sign.

Any specific tips you can offer for riding longer distances on consecutive days?

Less than 2 months to go until Day 0!

[ThreadDrift = OFF]

Back to your regularly scheduled Tierra Bella thread. I'm still pondering which route I'll take. Prolly won't know until the day of the ride.

-- Melissa

[Bike Goddess]

The Evil Sisters are not hard at all! That's the ride from Paso Robles out to the ocean on Hwy 46. It's a gentle climb but you may run into some traffic since that's a main route to Cambria.

Great descent, but a bit chilly since you get over to the ocean and the cold ocean air. Even if it's warm when you leaver Paso, be sure to bring a good windbreaker and some leg or knee warmers.

By the last day, any hill is hard because by that time you are just ready to get finished. But lots of fun surprises on the rest stops to keep your spirits up which really does help!

Yeah, do Tierra Bella and then do another 85 mile ride the next day.

[melissam]

The Evil Sisters are not hard at all! That's the ride from Paso Robles out to the ocean on Hwy 46. It's a gentle climb but you may run into some traffic since that's a main route to Cambria.

Great descent, but a bit chilly since you get over to the ocean and the cold ocean air. Even if it's warm when you leaver Paso, be sure to bring a good windbreaker and some leg or knee warmers.

By the last day, any hill is hard because by that time you are just ready to get finished. But lots of fun surprises on the rest stops to keep your spirits up which really does help!

Yeah, do Tierra Bella and then do another 85 mile ride the next day.

Actually, the Primavera Century is the day after the Tierra Bella, so I am considering doing it as well.

My current thought is that the TB has the 18% grades on the Century and Double Metric. So why not do the Metric century at TB, then do the Full Century with Primavera.

Well, we'll see.

Oh, and I definitely planned to be well stocked for arm warmers, leg warmers, knee warmers, jackets, etc. A cold Mel is a very, very unhappy Mel.

[jobob]

My current thought is that the TB has the 18% grades on the Century and Double Metric. So why not do the Metric century at TB, then do the Full Century with Primavera.

Yikes! Who are you, and what have you done to Mel?!?!

[melissam]

Yikes! Who are you, and what have you done to Mel?!?!

Not to worry, Grasshopper. There's plenty of evidence that nothing has been done to Good Ol' Mel:

* I still don't like cold
* I still don't like to get up early
* I'm strongly considering not doing the rides with 18% grades: you of all people know my track record with steep ascents and Fig Newtons

[tealamb]

Well, I'm totally humbled after reading about Melissam's great ride (and perseverence!) on the century, but I promised a ride report, so, for what it's worth, here it is.

It was SO cold and windy when we got there! We had to wait while two in our group went to check in, and it was torture - I was kind of nervous, and anxious to get going, and, I was freezing. We finally got rolling, but I don't think I really warmed up until halfway through the climb up Gilroy Hot Springs. Speaking of which, I'm kind of surprised that people have compared it to Old La Honda, because IMHO, it's not even close. (I haven't ridden OLH in about a year, though, so take that with a grain of salt.) Still, it was a little longer than I expected, and was definitely a good climb.

After eating a bit (and not enough, as it turned out), and getting our picture taken at the rest stop at Gilroy Hot Springs, we pushed on. Our group really split up on the descent down Canada Rd. We have some pretty aggressive/confident descenders (is that a word?) but I'm pretty conservative, especially on roads I'm unfamiliar with. Even so, I got stuck behind someone even slower than me who was hanging out in the middle of the road, and with the car traffic, and other cyclists wizzing by, I didn't feel comfortable passing him. So I was on my own when I got down to the valley, and had to deal with the wind for the first time. It was pretty bad in the morning - I can't imagine what Melissam was dealing with in the afternoon! I just put my head down and slogged away for what seemed like forever, heading north right into the wind, and then turning west and getting buffeted by cross winds, and so on, and so on...

At one point, I found myself behind two other women. We weren't pacelining, but we were on a busy road with very little shoulder, and we were riding single file. After reading that thread here about drafting, I was really conscious of sucking uninvited on someone else's wheel and was trying to keep at least a bike's length behind them. I had to slow at one point because of something in the road, and all of a sudden, I heard a guy behind me bark, "SLOWING!" I looked behind me, and there was a line of at least 6 or 7 other cyclists behind me! I felt really uncomfortable, because I wasn't feeling strong enough to take the front, but I also felt like I couldn't gracefully get myself out of the line without causing problems because of the heavy traffic, and narrow shoulder. I slowed down just a bit, and I guess people got tired of my slow(er) pace, and they finally passed me.

I finally caught up to my DH and another guy in our group just as we started on the rollers leading up to Uvas reservoir, and by that time, (about mile 38?) I was hurting. My muscles were getting tight and kind of achy, which always happens after about 35 miles, and I could tell I was running out of gas. I kept thinking that the Uvas rest stop was coming right up, but it seemed like it took forever to get there. When we did, I was pretty out of it. I couldn't figure out where to put my bike, and I just kind of stood there in front of the racks, staring. My DH told me later that I actually asked him where I could put my bike. It was weird. I was so thankful that they had PB&J, nutbreads, and trailmix, because even though I knew that I really needed to eat, most kinds of food didn't sound at all appealing, and those were things that I felt like I could get down without gagging. (I'm a weirdo, I know).

After that, the ride was a breeze, and I really started enjoying myself. The food that I'd eaten, and the Advil that I'd taken at Uvas kicked in, and I felt MUCH better. The last rest stop at Machado school was my favorite. Maybe it was just because I was feeling so much better, but the people seemed super friendly, the sun finally came out and I could take off my windbreaker, and they had a sweet pup named Cindy hanging out there, looking for treats under the food tables. She had her own name tag, and I found out from her owner that it was her fifth Tierra Bella!

It was only about 10 miles to the finish when we left Machado school, and I just seemed to feel stronger and stonger, even though the wind really started picking up. At one point, a crosswind almost knocked me over! I felt fantastic when we rolled back into the parking lot at Gavilan. I was actually wondering if I had it in me to do 40 more miles. Yeaaaah, right. I think it was just the euphoria at finishing!

I have to say that this was an extremely well-organized ride. Every single volunteer I encountered was friendly and helpful, and the food was excellent. And the scenery was beautiful. I was so impressed! This metric was definitely more challenging than the Wine Country we did last year. It seemed like there was a lot more climbing, definitely more wind, and, I guess, just the caliber of the average rider on this ride was higher than the Wine Country, based, from what I could tell, on the average pace.

Anyway, for all two of you who are still reading this novel, I just want to thank everyone who answered my call for more information about this ride. It was all very helpful, and I definitely appreciated it. This is a great community, with many caring and supportive members, and I hope to be able to contribute more as I get to be a stonger and more experienced rider!

Thanks again! (Oh, and Melissam? You totally rock, and I'd guess you're going to kick some major butt on the ALC ride this June!)

[Bike Goddess]

Tealamb (Sarah #...) Thanks for your report. Great details and great reading.

I only have one question for you: Before you got to Uvas were you eating and drinking? You sound as though you had run out of fuel since you were doing much better after food.

[snapdragen]

Yikes! Who are you, and what have you done to Mel?!?!

My thinking exactly!

Mel - you are going to kick some butt on ALC!

[melissam]

My thinking exactly!

Mel - you are going to kick some butt on ALC!

Boy I sure hope so! Actually, I just want to finish the ride (or week of riding) without feeling totally miserable.

[NYGIRL777]

Hey ladies....hope to see some of you out there. Maybe we can all ride together. I'm meeting with a bunch of the folks from the Northern California Bike Forums group (www.bikeforums.net) near registration at 7:30 -- most will have on the Northern Cali kit.......Look for us.........ride with us........swear and curse with us some are doing the metric century, most the century and maybe a few double metric takerss.........I'm doing the century unless someone slips me some ride enhancement drugs..........

Asia

oh yeah is anyone doing Sea Otter the next day??