A great day in January in the Bay Area. I was the ride leader of the 17 folks who left Natural Bridges Park in Santa Cruz on a fun ride to the Monterey Wharf. Along the way we picked up four other riders thru Santa Cruz and Capitola. Click on the map above to see the photos.
Only nine of the riders were club members, 8 were Maura and her friends, and the other four were my friends. All but four rode all the way down to Monterey and four others found different ways home from Monterey. It is a bit early in the season to knock out a 100-miler but since I ride two or three a month it was just another long ride.
As leader I made a couple of mistakes early on letting one of the riders change the course which split the group until we rejoined at mile 34 at the Elkhorn Superette. I need to be sure to be out front when we’re making so many turns through a city like Santa Cruz and Aptos.
On top of that, the route sheet didn’t provide any details about some complicated turns on the Monterey Bike Path in Seaside. I’ve fixed that and uploaded a new version of the route here.
I had a great workout chasing Maura’s triathlon friend, Martin, 14 miles from Castroville to the Wharf. He slowed down a few times thankfully. Martin left the Wharf after a short break so I rode with club member Spencer the 50+ miles home. It wasn’t the first time I barely hung onto Spencer’s wheel for a long distance and probably won’t be the last. It was an excellent workout even though it was a relatively flat ride.
This was my second century of 2008 so I’m on track to knock out at least 20 again this year.