I got a little scared on a downhill that we had after we left the hotel. I was doing about 36 mph downhill when my bike starting shimmering almost to the point where I could not control the bike. I thought I had a flat tire and somehow I was able to stop the bike before I crashed and got off the road asap so I could see what was going wrong. The scary part is that my tire was not flat and I couldn't see anything else wrong with the bike. I have to tell you after that I lost all my confidence in my bike. Braked the rest of the way down the hill.
I passed Jim (our mechanic) who was supporting us today and stopped for him to look at my bike. He said the best way to prevent a high speed shim is "not to go high speed". Having said this he check my front wheel and re-tightened it and it seem to solve the problem Really glad I stopped.
There were one giant hill that went up for about 30 miles - with the last 8 miles at about a 7-8 degree climb. While the downhill was awesome - we hit another "mini" climb of about 4 miles. I took a shot of the ride's climbing profile that they included in our directions...
At about 45 miles we exited the woods and reached the California coastline. After that we had 20 miles of "rollers" that as soon as you went down (yea) you immediately hit an uphill (boo).
It started out in the fog, the sun burst through and we had great views of the Pacific Ocean.
Just before we got into Fort Bragg, we passed the Pacific Star Winery. Cathryn and I stopped there a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the wine. One interesting fact about the winery - the winemaker was one of the first woman winemakers in California. Thought about stopping - but I had another 15 miles and would not have made it with some wine in my belly.
Got to the hotel and have to confess I am pretty tired. We have another tough climbing day tomorrow so might be getting to bed by 7 pm tonight!
Cheers,
1 comment:
See any gems over at glass beach? And holy moly that hill was massive!
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