Sunscreen Soup

#117

Foxy's Fall Century, Davis, California
Saturday, October 15th

Now, that was more fun than may be strictly legal.
Fresh air, sunshine, puffy clouds, and more cyclists than you can shake a diamond-framed, carbon forked, aero-bar enhanced miracle of modern sports equipment at. And a few recumbents also.

I left the house at 6am, after walking the dog (and dodging skunks), stretching, and eating a nice breakfast.

It took the hour I had estimated to drive to Davis (I stopped for gas and a restroom), and then 15 minutes to find somewhere to park. This time I remembered to park my car with the hatch next to someone's driveway, so I could get the trike in and out without worrying about being parked in from behind.

Then I hiked over to registration. Holy Cow! Bikes leaned against the building, bikes strewn on the grass, bikes wobbling through the crowd. People tottering along in road shoes, shuffling in flipflops, mincing in stockinged feet (the Veteran's Memorial Center had requested No Cleats in the main hall).

I looked at the line for the bathroom (you gotta be KIDDING) and joined the line to pick up my registration instead. The 100K route was Green, so I had a green wrist band, a green route sheet, and green arrows to follow along the course.

Back to the car to unload the trike, change to my bike shoes, eat another banana, and to hit the road.

The course was all road riding: some roads were nice and smooth, some teeth-jarringly rough (my rear fender stay came loose again!), some had bike lanes, some just a shoulder, some with no shoulder.

With the exception of one white sports car, all the vehicles out there were well behaved. Even this agricultural implement which took up most of the road.

Leaving Davis itself was pretty funny. A couple clumps of road bike would pass me. Then they'd all bunch up at the traffic lights. I'd roll up behind just in time to leave. Another bunch would pass me, stop for the light, bunch... You get the idea.

The shadow in the lower right is me and my trike.

After dropping more or less south nearly to Vacaville, the course headed for the hills!

There were fun rolling hills before the reststop at about 20 miles. I ate a quarter of a bagel with peanut butter and scarfed some orange segments. And another banana. And finished off one water bottle and refilled them both.

Then up Steiger Hill Road. Not too bad at all. I just crawled up it in my granny gear. Heading down I chicken-braked and only reached 28.5mph.

This 1906 bridge took us to lunch.

Lunch was pretty good. Amazing how lovely a simple cheese and tomato sandwich can be. From there it was just 20 more miles back to the beginning.

I drank two bottles of water with Nuun electrolyte replacement in them, and probably should have done another. I don't know how many bottles of water I drank, but again, not quite enough. I used a different sunscreen than usual on my face and I'm not sure if I got a little sunburned, it is making my skin unhappy, or both.

By the last 5 miles, I could tell I was getting tired, since I forgot three times in a row to shift down before coming to a stop at intersections. So I mashed my way along in slow motion for a couple of revolutions until I picked up speed again.

I had no flats today, and other than having to stop twice to pick gravel out of my tires (left in it will work its way in and puncture the tube) and stopping the annoying rattle of my rear fender with Gorilla tape, it was a trouble-free ride.

The Official bike computer pictures.

58.67 miles, average 10.9, max 28.5

I think I want to take a link out of my chain. There is a good page here that explains how to determine the proper length of your recumbent chain. So I will do that before the next ride.

I stopped by Dixon after the event to chat for a while with the owner of PBW, the man who sold me my wonderful wonderful ride. It was great to see him again. A link to his website is in the sidebar.

And my sweetheart is making his super tasty stirfry for dinner. A wonderful end to a wonderful day!

Here's the route from today:



No telling what I'll be up to later this week, but as of this moment (Sat afternoon) I have 27 people signed up for my casual bicycle ride next weekend. Yikes!

Smooth roads and well-behaved drivers for all