Tour of California Day 3

When we checked the weather for the final time last night, we were convinced that today was going to be a total washout. Sure enough, the hell that rained down in the middle of the night seemed to confirm that Tuesday was going to be spent inside taking it easy.

Waking up early though, the clouds had parted, the sky was blue and it looked like the roads were drying up nicely. An updated forcast showed that it was going to be clear for several hours, just enough time for a good solid ride.

The triplets and I headed down to the coast, through Santa Barbara and Monticeto before cruising into the countryside. The views of the hills and valleys were fantastic. Unlike the first couple of days, today didn't include any crazy long hills, just rolling big ups and downs. About 2 and a half hours of riding, it was time to point the wheels home and roll back. Within moments, the skies started to rain and picked up from there. The rain was coming down so hard and cold, that it hurt when it hit your face. My back and neck were hurting from holding them in the same position for so long, but when I tried to move them, parts of my body were exposed to the cold and it sent a shiver through me. Back to the same position of warmth and another ten minutes or so holding still before trying again. The roads were amazingly twisty and turning, and if the conditions had been dry, we could have railed them hard to carve down the roads.

Rolling back to Camp Douville, we ended my first long day of riding. Well, almost ended it. We chilled out for several hours, then after watching extended coverage of the true Tour of California on television (short rant, if you want to be taken seriously as a network, you can't cut away from the end of a sporting event and tell the audience to catch the conclusion on the Internet. ) the fifth member of our groupetto arrived, Tom, and we took off for another ride. Only an hour and six minutes of riding, but it put the days total climbing at 5,550 ft. Sadly, there wasn't any monster climb in there. I'm not sure if I think long steady climbs are better, or a lot of short punchy ones are. I'm pretty sure that crits are the best though.