Thank you! (and a 3R novella).

[Narayan Krishnamoorthy]

Hello all,

Some of you may remember my plea for help on the 3CR a while back. I received some wonderful tips from this group, so I thought I'd say thanks and post a mini report. In the end I did take a rain jacket and that was a life saver. There was no rain, but the temperature range made me definitely regret leaving the wool base layer back home! :)

On the ride itself, the organization was incredible, the company was superb, the volunteers kind, cheerful, encouraging and plentiful, the roads were all new to me, and the course doled out vista after sweet vista, and of course there was some vertical to be gained to see said vistas! I had a great time on the course, and many a California-based rider slowed down to ride with me, guided me on course, or offered company and/or encouragement. And that was much appreciated!

Many many thanks to the ride organizers Bill Bryant and Lois Springsteen, all the volunteers: Peg Miller, Roland Bevan, Susan Gishi, Ken Shoemaker, Kelly Ann Macy, Jack Holmgren, Dzung Dang, Sourav Das and others I may have forgotten, and my friends Mahesh Seetharaman and Nicole who spent a lot of effort in ensuring my success at this event. Also, to Kevin Sayler, Osvaldo Colavin, Kitty Goursolle, Sandra and Terri for riding several parts of days 1, 2 and 3 with me. Couldn’t have done it without you all.

Shortly after I finished, I found out that Metin Uz had lost his life while riding the Treasure Cove 1200 in Virginia! It made me incredibly sad as I had met Metin a few times: the 2017 “Dart to Darkness” event hosted by the Willamette Randonneurs, at the 2018 Cascade 1200, and for the final time at PBP 2019. He was a genuinely nice guy and very humble and modest despite his exploits on the bike! What a loss to the randonneuring world! My condolences go out to his family and friends and the randonneuring world!

Day 1: An early start with a drive down to Santa Cruz amidst some serious butterflies. It was good to see Bill, Lois, Chris, Dzung, Kitty, Grant, and Sourav, and make the acquaintance of several new riders. We set off into a slightly chilly morning and I rode with Kevin Sayler for most of the day! Kevin regaled me with stories about his rides with his Seattle friends, the names telling me in no uncertain terms that I was riding well above my pay grade, and should possibly consider backing off the pace. I gave a tube to a rider (name escapes me now, but he was a doctor and went to UDub) on a beautiful green Calfee one of my spare tubes as he had run out of spares, having flatted twice earlier. We got to the overnight slightly before midnight and settled on a 5a start the next day. I downed some recoverite and spent 3h 45m in bed, but I didn’t sleep well, tossing and turning for much of the night. Considering what came next, this didn’t bode well.

Day 2: We set off on time and the morning was chilly. The road got climby and I didn’t do as well as the day before. But, I was once again with Kevin! We climbed Cahoon summit together and I stopped many times in the sparingly available shade. When I finally got to the top I was met by a smiling Jack Holmgren who had saved me a baklava. I quickly downed a Coke and some cookies and after a nice break left with Kevin. We made good time to Carmel in the increasing traffic of the day. We stopped to get a bagel and some coke and cool down and met “the 3 Floridians”, one of whom was downing a nice beer. Carmel also has a Lucky grocery store, which brought back wonderful memories (I shopped at the one in Milpitas). After a nice long break, we took off to tackle what I knew would expose my “riding prowess” cruelly. And sure enough, Kevin started dropping me at regular intervals. It was hot and I couldn’t muster any power on the climbs. I saw Jack again at Lucia - apparently the store was no more and he was handing out more goodies. This was phenomenal and timely support, and it felt even better to see some cheer! He told me I was solidly midpack (17th) and to keep moving!

Progress after this was truly slow. I caught up to Kevin again and we rode for a while through Gorda (stopped at the store briefly), but my wheels were coming off. It was hot! I was stopping a lot and Kevin was dropping me even more frequently.

Kevin came by to say he was moving on down the road to make sure he didn’t get in too late. No worries, and he took off. About an hour or so later, I stopped to take a photo and found out that my front brake was rubbing against the rim. Fixed that and the going got much better. The scenery was spectacular and traffic was heavy but mostly nice. There was a nice tunnel, but the climbs were never ending. Daniel came by and rode with me for a little while before he went on ahead as well. I finally arrived at and got over the double humps before Ragged Point (reminded me of Rock Creek Grade before Bickleton).

Kevin was leaving just as I arrived and I knew there was little to no chance of seeing him again. I left after 20 minutes, and caught a beautiful sunset an hour or so later while changing into night gear. The terrain flattened out a little bit and it looked like we would have a bit of a tailwind. Osvaldo caught up to me and mentioned he had Achilles issues and wouldn’t be starting Day 3. That however didn’t stop him from repeatedly dropping me on every single rise or flat. We rode into the night until we came upon two riders fighting with a tyre and looking for a tyre wire. Osvaldo stopped and after a few minutes I rolled on mindful of the hour and the sleep loss that would accrue. It had also gotten pretty cold.

We got to some bar in Atascadero and I ate the last of the food that I bought at Ragged Point. The Floridians were there and a very strong rider (the one who helped the rider earlier and drank beer at some controls) pulled them away at a mighty speed.

Osvaldo and I rolled into San Luis Obispo at 1235 or so. I checked in (Bill recommended a 6a start), picked up my drop bag, drank more recoverite and a cup of soup, and crashed at 115a with a 520 wake up call, and went out like a light.

Day 3: I was woken up by Chris’s alarm and proceeded to get ready. Saw Linh outside and he took a photo of those of us leaving (Kitty, Sandra and Terri). We made quick work of the info control and then headed to the next control at SLO without incident except my Garmin putting me on a bike path that went nowhere, but Ioannis asked me to follow him, and after a series of steep hills we finally made it back to SLO, with about 35 minutes to spare. The line at the gas station was insane, though.

The four of us left together again and made our way to Orcutt through some sketch pavement, heavy truck traffic, heavy commute traffic, steep hills that forced us to walk (Halcyon Road, Orcutt Garey road), and nasty, nasty wind road. The day was now officially hot. We climbed another hill and found Ioannis waving us to a burger place where we got a veggie burger, fries and shake. I was leery of eating so much midday but I wanted sustenance and everybody took a break here, so figuring they knew something I stopped for long too.

We all left together, but as we started on Foxen Canyon Road, I felt pretty good and rode ahead of the Kitty group and caught and passed the Kim Freitas group, but they knew something that I didn’t: that it was too hot to push! I eventually hit a wall and pulled over under a tree and sat on the grass trying to compose myself again. The climb was gentle but a little while later it got steeper and I got dropped rather fast. The two climbs really tested me but I caught the others atop the second one and passed them on the descent (and I never found Matthew O’Neil’s memorial).

Jeff led me through Los Olivos proper and to the lovely store. We spent another 45 minutes or so here and got ice cream, coke and water. The Kim Freitas gang left before us and after the horror that was the wind started and the pavement degraded terribly until we got to Solvang. (My memory tanks here, but the pavement was so bad we stopped pacelining). We made our way to Lompoc and had dinner at Taco Bell. Now, with the wind forecast being what it was, this made me supremely nervous and I got the gang going even before I myself was ready which elicited some ribbing from the ladies.

We left Lompoc and started climbing immediately but something was amiss as we got to the top of the climb near Vandenberg AFB! There was NO wind! We were suitably pleased with ourselves and plunged down the other side to the hard to make turn onto San Antonio Road and the climbs that followed. And it was very cold!

We messed up when we got to Nipomo and had to ride a mile back to the control, but the lady at the store was super helpful and let us buy things though the store was closed.

We climbed to the info control and my ride partners were in various levels of alertness. My lights seemed to bother them so I rode at a decent distance behind, and traffic was light. We stopped a few times because of some uncertainty over where Tiffany Ranch Road was. We finally got going again and launched into the Corbett Canyon climb. I wore everything I had and was warm everywhere except my ears. Sandra knew the climb and told us that we were due for two more steep climbs and then a big plunge down the mountain.
Daylight broke just as we started the descent with traffic at 5.20a already picking up. We got to the hotel as a unit and finished at 5.33a.

71:33 and done!

Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Narayan

[Mike]

Narayan

Congratulations on completing this ride. I enjoyed your ride recap.

Sent from the dark side of the moon

On May 25, 2022, at 9:48 PM, Narayan Krishnamoorthy <otta...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all,

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