Tag Archives: Old LaHonda

Just because your star climber abandons doesn’t mean you get in the broom wagon too…

It was a beautiful day to ride! Which is always a good excuse for another shot of West Old LaHonda.
It was a beautiful day to ride! Which is always a good excuse for another shot of West Old LaHonda.

Kevin and I needed to get in some miles; it’s less than two months before we head to France and tackle some nasty climbs. Would have been nice to do a Santa Cruz run,

The "big curve" on Haskins
The “big curve” on Haskins

but school work for Kevin meant he had to get back at a reasonable hour, so we set out to do the loop I did April 21st (I think)- Over Old LaHonda to Pescadero, Bean Hollow and south on Highway 1 to Gazos Creek, return to Pescadero via Gazos Creek and Cloverdale. Food. Cokes. Mix more Cytomax.

Up to that point, things went reasonably well. Kevin was running into some pain issues from his kidney (isn’t this getting to be pretty stale news about now?) so he was just barely hanging onto my wheel as we rode into a stiff headwind, but kept it to himself until we were just about ready to leave Pescadero, saying he wanted to pack it in, call home for someone to pick him up.

Fun. I talk him into heading to San Gregorio before calling for the broom wagon (in racing, the broom wagon “sweeps” the back of the race, picking up racers who’ve abandoned), since it would be much easier for someone to come straight over 84 looking for us, rather than have to figure out Stage Road etc. He makes it, painfully, we call from San Gregorio, then head east on 84 for the intercept. I figured La Honda, and sure enough, just past La Honda, the broom wagon appears.

Waaaaay too soon for me to pack it in though! Can’t even believe my wife asked the question. As if she doesn’t know after 34 years? Just 50-something miles by that point, none really hard, it was time for me to finally shake my legs loose, which I did, getting a new personal best for upper section of 84 up to Skyline.

77 miles, “only” 6200ft of climbing, so it didn’t even meet the definition of a “tough” ride (needs 1,000ft of climbing per 10 miles). The original plan had been to head up Los Lobitos Cutoff and Tunitas, which would have been 1000ft more… still not enough! Maybe next weekend…

The only constant this morning was me

A bit cooler this morning but looked to be a very nice morning, something to really look forward to when the forecast show 10 solid days of rain ahead. As I’ve said so many times before, any day you can see your shadow is a good day. 10 days straight of gray is not.

Eric riding over the "repaired" section of road on west Old LaHonda. We'll see how it does with 10 days of rain coming up.

Just Eric at the start, but we picked up Markus (that’s the third way I’ve spelled his name and, according to Ludo, possibly the first time I’ve spelled it correctly… maybe?) before the start of the climb, caught up to Millo at the park entrance, and Ludo caught up to us from behind shortly after that. This was a completely different group than Tuesday, with the exception of Markus’s brief visit (he heads home shortly after we hit Skyline).

37 degrees was the coolest spot, a bit warmer up on Skyline and 41 degrees on west-side Old LaHonda, making this possibly our last ride in the 30s this season (even though it’s a “cold” storm heading in, the cloud cover means it isn’t likely to drop below the mid-4os). No rabbits yet; I think they’re waiting for it to warm up a bit more (although Eric says he’s seen them around his house, up in the hills above Los Gatos).

Do I really believe we’re going to have 10 days of rain starting tomorrow? No. Experience tells me that it’s very rare that we ever go more than three days before a break in the action. Unfortunately, it’s even more rare that such a break in the rain coincides with when I can ride!