Santa Cruz Mtn Ride

This past Saturday I ponied up with a few SJBC teammates who weren't up at the District races to do the Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge. I was pretty excited to do this 100 mile ride. Sure, 11k of climbing might sound painful to some, but I was amped to ride on some new roads and climbs. What follows is just a few points of a great day on the road:

• Mtn Charlie - For some reason I thought this road was a nicely paved meandering climb up to Summit Road. It was, but the pavement was mediocre and inconsistent. But with no traffic I liked it.
• Big Basin descent - This rocks as always...though I've only done it once before. The only thing I forgot, but learned the hard way, was how the first hard hairpin turn on the descent from China Grade in the park near the park HQ has a tight decreasing radius turn. I took it pretty fast and made it through barely. The two random riders on my tail weren't as 'aware' of the corner, but they made it through safely.
• Jamison Creek - WOW. Double WOW. The bottom portion of this climb isn't anything too special, but the last two thirds just shot you up to the heavens at an alarming rate. I was in my 36-29t combo and averaged around 360 watts for the climb (mid-23 minutes to complete). Standard gearing would have really hurt.
• Felton-Empire descent - Great pavement. Too bad there were cars that made me slow down and wear out a set of brake pads.
• Zayante - Hot as always in that canyon. I know this climb, so it was bearable
• Granite Creek - The map shows this as a little blip of a climb, but when it shows up at mile 98 it's a bit tougher than when the legs are fresh. By this point my feet were on fire, but the legs and butt could have ridden a few more miles.

Thank goodness this is my rest week and I can recover. This ride capped my biggest training week of 290 miles, so sitting back for a few days with easy spins and telecommuting from home is on the agenda.