CA Day 9 Fiddy Miler

Thur 3/30. Spent most of the morning on Doug and Weni's computer catching up on stuff. The time goes by entirely too quickly while on the 'puter. And I didn't even look at any porn sites.

Weni and Doug are gracious hosts as all of my friends have been. I appreciate the hospitality everyone!

I finally headed out for a ride from San Marino, through Pasadena, La Canada/Flintridge and up Angeles Crest Hwy 2 toward Mt. Wilson. I missed a turn at one point and ended up at the main guard gate of JPL (Jet Propolsion Lab) where Weni happens to work. When I reached into my jersey pocket to pull out my directions the guards apparently thought I was reaching for a weapon. The next thing I know they have their guns drawn and one of them has me face down on the ground with a knee in my back! Okay, that didn't really happened. Too many episodes of "24" or something.

So I made it out to Hwy 2 and started the long climb toward Mt. Wilson (18 miles). It was a good gradual climb steep enough to make it difficult, but not too steep that I couldn't stay seated in a 39-23. (That's chainring and cog size for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about).

At one point another cyclist passed me. I said "Hey", but he didn't say a word. He was wearing a college team kit from Colorado University (or U of C?). He looked back a couple times to see if he dropped me and that made me more determined not to get dropped. He became my rabbit. I kept him within 20-30 yards for a mile or so and then bridged the gap on a slight flat section. He looked back surprised as I came up on his wheel. I stayed with him for another half mile and then he just rode away from me. On the switchbacks up above I could see him getting a huge gap on me. Oh well, the kid was literally half my age.

Passed 2000' of elevation, passed 3000', on the way to 4 and the road leveled out and descended near the Palmdale road and then climbed again. The college kid was just coasting down the hill and I caught up to him. This time he chatted with me and I found out he races Cat 3 back in CO. So I don't feel so bad a 20 year old, Cat 3, from high elevation Boulder kicked my butt up the climb. :-)

He continued on, but I turned around. The temp had dropped quite a bit and it was looking like rain. Plus, I needed to get back so I could head north to Agoura Hills again. Man, the way back down was freezing! I'm glad it didn't start raining too. There were a lot of sharp corners to navitgate at speed.

Dodged traffic through the resiential/city streets and got back to Doug and Weni's with a 50 mile ride in. Showered up and luckily the worst traffic on the freeways were heading south and I made it to Jeff's in Agoura in under an hour.

Before I left San Marino, Weni, an up and coming rock and roll star, sang a couple songs for me. Her normal conversational voice is a bit quiet and high pitched a little, but when she sings this whole new voice comes out and it's amazing! She's in a band that do a lot of classic rock covers and well as modern alt. rock stuff. She also has written some of her own songs. I will definitely have to see her perform next time.

Jeff and I met two of his friends, Ted and An, from Giant for dinner at BJ's. Great time. On the way home Jeff took me for a ride in his A4 through some of the canyon roads at high speed around sharp corners. It was a lot of fun and we only almost went off the road and down a cliff a couple of times. JK of course.

Back at Jeff's I inundated him with all my cycling related technical questions. He's a good sport putting up with all my anal questions. He knows a ton of stuff about the industry and the technology and I love talking about it and learning it.