ToC stage 3 pescadero KOM

stage three of the tour of california involved a grueling (but beautiful) ride from san francisco to santa cruz, complete with 6,500 ft of climbing. part of the route runs through roads that those of us in the south bay are well acquainted with. i lucked out and was able to join alia, stephen and his friend alex on their ride to catch the peloton along the pescadero KOM.

unfortunately we got rained on during our climb up page mill. the worst part of getting wet on a tough climb is having to freeze even more when you descend.

approaching the 1K mark. pescadero's a cat 4 climb, which actually wasn't bad at all, especially compared to the hell we endured on page mill.

i left my lemond back in dc, but marc was sweet enough to lend me his carbon fiber baby. climbing hasn't been that bad for me so far. i'm not sure if it's because i'm on carbon, or if i'm improving as a climber. or maybe i'm not pushing hard enough.

the things we do to amuse ourselves as we wait in the cold.

we hung out here for about an hour. it stopped raining by then, but we still had to deal with wet shammies.

police motorcade means the peloton's not far off.

alia's brilliant method of warding off wet socks. all it takes is some tape and newspaper bags.

and the pack wooshes by, chasing the breakaway! actually they weren't going terribly fast. they were probably taking it easy before entering santa cruz county and taking on the final bonny doon KOM.

one of our cal cycling teammates, max jenkins, went pro and is currently riding for unitedhealthcare. i'm pretty sure he doesn't remember me since i talked to him only once during a team dinner way back during my brief cal cycling mountain biking days. even then, it's so damn awesome recognizing someone from college riding pro (and following their escapades on facebook). we all cheered him on and got a wave back.

sooo worth it to ride up here in the rain to see them. i want to attempt this entire stage route one day, when it's warmer and sunnier.

lance chilling out with one of their team cars. he was behind the peloton due to a flat. part of team shack split up to help him rejoin everyone else. the radioshack kit still sucks, even in person.

stephen lent me his jacket shell to help mitigate my tendency to freeze. since when does home get rainy and cold in may?! i've been gone for too long to remember these inconvenient aberrations.

the sun started poking through when we began our ride back.

old la honda-ing it from la honda. i've never take it from this other direction - waaaay easier than the usual climb from portola.

no rain = much more pleasant ride. it warmed up real fast too.

before taking skyline back, we found ourselves in a cloud. super pretty. don't get any of this back in the swampy terrain of the district.

total distance: 42 mi
distance climbed: 4800 ft
ride duration: 3:30
avg speed: 12.2 mph
max speed: 34 mph