Trancas

The labor day weekend and 3 days not working and hopefully some longer bicycle rides. Today turned out to be such a day.

I started out at around 6:30 AM and met the Saturday group around 7:30 AM. I live in the valley and they live on the Westside (a hill separates the Valley from the Westside (and also 10 degree cooler temperatures). We rode on the Pacific Coast Highway. It is a pretty flat and nice terrain. There are some climbs, but not that bad.

We pass through Malibu.

A few miles past this we pass by Pepperdine University. There is a nice little climb and I speed up and lead the group up the hill. I am joined by Moshe and we wait at the top of the hill for everyone. After we all continue on past Pointe Zuma and finally to Trancas. As it was Jay's birthday and he turned 62 yesterday he wants to continue further north so he can bicycle 62 miles. We bike the additional miles and then turn back. Dan suggests another ride with a 15% grade climb of about 200 feet at Pointe Zuma which is right next to the Pacific Ocean.

We make a left and we pedal over a few LA rollers. A little different from Missouri and about 145 less hills.

As we are heading back I stop to take a picture. I am quite behind the group and out of nowhere comes another rider who must be around 6' 5". He was drafting on me for a little bit and all of a sudden he tells me that he will take the lead and I should follow him. I get up to around 24-25 mph and the pedaling is easy following him. He paces me up to my group and i thank him.

The group pedals back to our meeting point and I bike the 15 miles back home alone. The temperature is now around 87 degrees, sunny and hot. I had drank enough liquids and at filled up an extra bottle at a water fountain so I was properly hydrated.

Total miles biked today was 89. It is the most miles I have biked and I feel that my conditioning is not that bad even though I do not ride as much during the trip. Let's see how I feel tomorrow.

Lastly, if any of my fellow cross country riders are reading this, September 8th is Champ's birthday. Below is a buffed picture of Champ taken from his website. Happy Birthday Champ.