How was the Cinderella! Let's have some ride reports!! :)

[velogirl]

it was windy and chilly but dry. I've ridden windier and chillier cindy's. it wasn't my fastest Cindy and it wasn't my slowest. but I suffered. something went very wrong with my nutrition or hydration (haven't figured out which yet).

I met SmilingCat. I met BikeGoddess (easy to pick out because of her argyle cycling socks). I saw CindySue (is that your name, Cindy?). And BikeMomma. and Gnat. and I can't remember who else from TE.

I rode with a group from Velo Girls then sat in our booth and pressed the flesh. I was very proud of all the women who participate in our training ride series and my Tuesday/Thursday indoor training sessions and completed the ride -- yay!

I bought a sparkly pink cycling skirt from DOL that matches my Velo Girls jersey.

we went bowling last night. oh, yeah, no one cares about that. I won! I beat my bf (the genetic sports freak). does that tell you anything about my childhood?

[velogirl]

my cinderella photos are here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32910&l=3abc8&id=617196282

[gnat23]

The wildflowers greeted us on several straightaways, there was some sort of horseshow at the first rest-stop, and I have never seen so many hats-taped-to-helmets in my life! I'm kinda glad I got started early, because we passed a ton of wineries that might have been fun to, erm, take a little break at if they were open then.

It was damn chilly. Not cold in that OMG I SHALL DIE winter sense, but a wet sort of cold that creeped under your clothes and soaked into your bones. The start of the ride was awash in safety green windbreakers that made us look like a crazy matched costume crawl. The sun finally started peaking out around 10:30, but it never felt like it got ubercomfortable, and the wind never really died down.

Pretty good spread of cookies, crackers, bagels, and carbs at the rest stops. I skipped the sandwiches at the lunchstop since the line had gotten pretty long, but there was certainly no lack of eating anywhere else.

I was so thrilled to see creaky old mountain bikes and cotton sweatpants and young and old and tiaras and feathers and panniers and mirrors and costumes and every woman out there just getting through 60 miles no matter what. YOU GO GIRLS!

My pictures!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnat23/...7604403977717/

-- gnat! (I blew kisses at everyone that honked)

[BikeMomma]

....otherwise known as BikeGoddess and her awesome Benicia Cycling Club cohort Sarah.

I was like Cat -- got in the gates and waited an eternity to actually park. But once parked and assembled, I headed over to registration, got my number, went over to line "Z" to find the others, stood there for a minute or so seeing no one familiar, then figured I was too late. Turning to head to my bike, I literally almost bumped into BikeGoddess. Comical! She asked if I had seen anyone else (no), then said she was going to bring her bike over to where I had mine while she looked for Sarah. So, I stood there for a few minutes, eating my banana nonchalantly, then to my amazement, saw her leaving! lol Guess she found Sarah and lost me! Chuckling at the irony and the "needle in a haystack" craziness of even momentarily thinking she could have found me too, I finished my banana and figured I'd catch up with those two at some point.

Yup, sure enough, at the first rest stop, I literally just about bumped into BG again, this time with Sarah and the matching argyles. And there it was - clearly, it was fate that I was going to ride with these two.

The rest of the ride was alot of fun, wind and all. Actually, each time I ride with BG, she seems to get stronger, and Sarah was just as fun to ride with. You can tell she's a triathlete...she just goes and goes, steady as could be. We made a great trio.

BG had informed us that she had heard wind gusts of 50mph reported earlier at Patterson Pass, so between that and, for myself, some research for a project at work I needed to do after the ride was over, we decided to scrap our initial plans to do the Challenge route. I sortof had tired legs anyway from training hard and racing the past month, so it was a welcome decision.

The food was good, fresh, and plentiful as always, I filled my pockets with animal cookies as I do every year, the Princes were charming, and the horses along the way gorgeous. I was having so much fun, I kept forgetting I had a camera to record it all.

But I did get this one:



Argyles rock. lol

Oh, and saw Velogirl at her 'Girl booth and bought myself some new sunglasses at the expo....I conveniently broke my regular sunglasses sometime after arriving at the hotel friday.

Hope everyone had fun!
~BikeMomma

[velogirl]

Argyles rock. lol

no, Nancy rocks!

[BikeMomma]

Here, here! Can't dispute that! lol I think I told Sarah a couple times and BG herself that I hope I'm that spry at her age. Heck yea, she rocks!

~BikeMomma

[cindysue]

I got up at 4:30 which turned out to be kinda silly since we didn't actually start riding until well after we got our registration pack. About 15 miles into the ride there was an accident, and we stopped for awhile because one of my riding partners was good friends with the girl (who turned out just fine).

The challenge was indeed a challenge due to the ridiculous headwinds mentioned in previous posts. My muscles were definitely feeling it! Happy to run into Bekki and friends at the lunch stop and then again after the last rest stop.

Champagne at the finish line was a special treat brought by the husband of one of my riding partners and then I got to chat a bit with Kim (Bikemomma) as she was leaving the fairgrounds. Also saw Lorri and my good friend Sharon. I saw a few of the Benicia Bike Clubbers but never saw Nancy.

Overall another great Cinderella; excellent riding partners and the pleasure of seeing so many women enjoying the day.

p.s. Sue is my middle name; southern girl, y'all.