Well, the weekend is over and we all head home tomorrow if we haven't already. So which is better, a full-blown Eroica weekend or the more informal gathering that was? The answer is: Yes. Both are great experiences.
There wasn't the incredible concentration of C&V eye-candy as at a regular Eroica, but there were a good representation of really nice machines. The vibe was a bit mellower. I will do Eroica CA again (in April, God willing at the COVID rates don't rise), but I'd do another weekend like this one in a heartbeat.
Two special shout-outs. The first is to Velo Cambria. They had fun rides on tap Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, all led by Rick Denman (former pro noted for his racing on the Euro 6-day circuit BITD); you could not ask for a better leader of group with widely ranging abilities. The owner and staff threw a nice party Friday evening and welcomed everyone for the rides all three days. (Special treat: John Howard was there. Yes, that John Howard, riding a Da Vinci tandem with his lady faire. Here's photographic proof of Team Howard going up Santa Rosa Road on an amazingly steep little pitch (20+%) that levels out to a merely stupid 16% or so. Based on one's first viewing of it, I have dubbed it "Holy Sh*t Hill". I am glad I never tried going down that (or Cypress) with Universal 51 brakes. To give you some idea, the part of the road you can see at the upper left is about 9 or 10%. The pitch they are on is a
lot steeper.
The second shout out is to my wife, who has close to zero interest in cycling but came along and let me have a ton of fun and enjoyed the fact that I was having a ton of fun, She's a keeper.