Siu Blue Wind

Who's going?

https://www.seaotterclassic.com/

JourneyLightly

I did the circuit race last year and wouldn't mind doing it again. But, I didn't pre-reg this year, and it's staggeringly expensive now!

Dchiefransom

The Tierra Bella is Saturday, and I heard they they did not fill up.

pelikan

But think of all the great swag you get. Im in for circuit, debating on staying over night for Santa Cruz Classic crit.

Pizza Man

I'm in for the circuit race. I love doing hill repeats.

loopybunny

I'll be there!

As a spectator of course. Told someone I'd cheer for them on Saturday and I'm a woman of my word.

Siu Blue Wind

I wish I could go. But as usual, I'm working.

momo15

I'm doing the long gran fondo. I am just hoping that I finish. I may have bit off more that I can chew. We shall see.

Wish me luck. If nothing else, it will be a nice weekend in Monterey with my wife.

Siu Blue Wind

Good luck. Be sure to post about it.

SteelerHoo

Pizzaman, you hurt us in that circuit race. I couldn't keep up with the repeated accelerations and you finally broke us. Maybe I should have been a bit more conservative?

That was a strong group of riders in your breakaway group. Congrats on 3rd!

Here's a video I filmed of the successful efforts to get away:

Pizza Man

Awesome video, thanks! Love the power & HR data, that's too cool!

103

The Gran Fondo we rode was amazing! From the weather, route, support and organization, to the entry fee was awesome. For $65 they provided fully stocked rest stops with tech support, post lunch, bike and bag valet, portable showers, free beer, swag bag, massages, spare tubes and 3-day pass for the event. Way worth it!

momo15

This is the long and far too detailed report that my father-in-law wanted me to write up for him. It was a great event. I was happy with the fact that I finished this after only about 9 months of riding. My Allez held up like a champ, and I can't say that a much better bike would have helped me any more than being in better shape.

Stage 1
Actual start time, 7:14am, 24.32 official miles, but they got us lost at the beginning of the course, so that added a mile or two. 2hrs, 11min with the water stop. Max hr-172, avg hr-148, 1298 calories.

This was the first flat part of the ride. We got to start on the Laguna Seca race track, which was cool. We took a few turns on the track, including the famous corkscrew, and then went off track for the rest. We were directed to the road race course by the event staff, and then chased down by a crazy guy in a race official van who made us turn around. The ride was nice once we got down the first hill. I am not one for the fast descents, and this first one was a beast. I was doing well on the flat section, but I missed my first paceline because I was too nice to pass the guy who let the gap form. I managed to get a small group together and rode the last 5 miles or so with them, but most of this stage was done solo. The scenery was gorgeous.

Stage 2
Start time, 9:26, 20.22 official miles, 1hr, 9min. Max hr-172, avg hr-149, 733 calories.

This was the second part of the flat stage. I quickly caught onto a paceline that time, and they were moving. They were going a bit faster than I thought that I wanted to go, but you can save a lot of energy riding with a group like this, so I figured that it was worth it to shave a bit of time off of this part of the ride.

Stage 3
Start time 10:41, 22.29 official miles, 1hr, 52min. Max hr-178 avg hr-149, 1361 calories.

This was the long climb of the ride. We started at about 400 ft, and ended at about 2400. There were several parts where we did go down hill for a little bit, and this made me angry, as I knew that I would soon have to climb right back up. The climbing for the first 10 miles was gradual, at mostly 1% to 2% grades. For the next 12 miles these were much steeper. The last three miles had several sections where the grade was over 10%. I spent the better part of an hour churning up the last couple of miles at about 5mph. Slow and steady, I made it to the top. This was the part that I was unsure of when I signed up for the ride. I was quite worried that if I had to call it off, it would be going up this hill. When I got to the top, I found out that they had run out of water. I had saved one bottle on my last stop, so I was okay, but that could have been a disaster.

Stage 4
Start time 12:55, 20.11 official miles, 1hr, 28min. Max hr-167 avg hr-130, 689 calories.

Every hill that you go up, you have to come back down. Most riders were looking forward to the 20 mile drop for most of the ride. There were people just flying down these hills. They were keeping up with, and sometimes passing, the cars going down the hills. I, on the other hand, was hyperventilating and hoping that I didn’t crash. Despite the fact that this entire part of the ride was down hill, it took me longer to do this that the flat stages of the same distance. I tried to just let loose and fly down some of the hills, but then my good sense would take over and force me to look down at my speedometer. I draw the line at 35 mph. I have no idea what my overall max speed was because a computer error at the beginning of the race set my max speed at 77mph. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t my actual speed. The end of this section was quite nice. The last few miles were flat through Carmel Valley. As I was enjoying the scenery, I misshifted and threw the chain off of my bike. This was the only repair I had to make the whole day, so that was nice.

Stage 5
Start time 2:26, 8.11 official miles, 1hr, 2min. Max hr 182- avg hr-151, 758 calories.

This was the final road home, but in this short section, we added one 900ft climb and another 450ft climb. Max grade for the first part was over 10%, and the second section had signs for 16% grades. These were ridiculously difficult for me, especially at the end of such a long day. The first climb was too steep in many parts to even stop and take a break. You couldn’t get your bike started again if you did. I had to stop at a turnout to catch my breath at one point. The guy in front of me said that he had done this same climb a few weeks ago, and he let me know how far we were from the top a couple of times. This helped. At this point, I was near the front of a group of 30 or so riders. I would have finished with this group, but we had to drop off of the back of this hill, and again, I was busy testing my brakes while others were chasing cars down the hill. The final climb was the road into the Laguna Seca race track. My wife and I had seen this driving in the day before. We saw several people climbing it on their bikes. These people must not have climbed nearly 6000 ft so far that day, or they were just in much better shape than me. Most of the people who I was still with at this point tried as hard as they could, but at one section, most of us got off and walked up the hill. I was able to remount at a flatter point in the road and ride up the last 100 yards or so. Once we entered the race area, I noticed that there were no signs on how to get to the finish line. We pretty much had to ride through a crowd of people before we found where to cross the line. The time at the finish line said 8:11. There was only one person in the ambulance at the finish line, which I think was a good sign. I noticed that my computer said that I had gone over 97 miles, but not the full 100. If they would have had any extra room on the finish line, I would have ridded back and fourth for 3 miles just to hit 100. There was not, so I got off the bike and called it a day.

Thank you to everyone for the support and well wishes.

loopybunny

I have pics from Saturday's pro men's circuit race if anybody is interested. I didn't get there as early as I had originally planned and had a hard time finding where I needed to be so I missed the women.

Oh well, I was there cheer on one of the guy's anyhow.

bam

is that a delta 7 Swindlehurst is riding? interesting bike at any rate..

loopybunny

Yep! I noticed a lot of people stop and stare at it. A couple of them looked a bit confused.