Saturday, April 13 in Gilroy, California:
I woke up much earlier than I wanted to at 6:45, & headed down to Gilroy. It took about an hour to get to Gavilan College, and once there I geared up, stretched, and went and checked in. Denise & Ralph arrived shortly after me, and after checking in, we rolled out at about 9.
I wasn’t sure I should do the 100k route, since my tendon injury from the Solvang Double hadn’t yet fully healed, but it looked like it’d be easy enough to shortcut the route if desired. I opted to head out on the 100k route, since it went to Gilroy Hot Springs, which I’d heard was pretty. The official 60k route didn’t look all that interesting.
The route went out to Monterey Rd, then out on Frazier Lake Rd. to Hwy 152 and Holsclaw Rd. This was nice agricultural country, with onions & garlic growing everywhere. The I Care Classic went on some of this route. Its pretty and peaceful, with very light traffic, and … um … diverse olfactory sensations ;-). The day was warming up, so I ditched my vest, and we continued east-ward. After a few more turns, and a stop to remove our unnecessary arm & leg warmers, we were right at the base of the eastern hills. We missed a turn and went a mile or two out of the way before we realized our (OK, my, since I was navigating!) error and turned around.
We got back on course and started the climb up Leavesly Rd., a beautiful, verdant road that wound its way up the hillside along a lovely little creek. The hills were super-green (which they wouldn’t be come June), and there was virtually no traffic – lovely! My front tire flatted about halfway through the climb – argh! After I fixed that, we continued on our way, taking a very easy pace up the climb (which wasn’t all that difficult, really). A few miles later, we arrived at the rest stop at Gilroy Hot Springs Rd. & Canada Rd. They were out of gatorade here, unfortunately, but I topped off my bottles, munched on some tasty nutbread (I’m glad I did, as they were out of food when I left!), and we prepared to head back out. When I put my bike back on the road, it felt somewhat bouncy – arrrgh, a flat in the back tire this time! This was not my day for keeping air in my tires! I went back up to the rest stop so I could use their floor pump, patched my tube (I only had one spare tube this day as opposed to the two I usually carry), filled up both tires, and then we headed out. It was getting pretty warm by now (low 80s I’d guess).
Canada Rd. gently rose through even greener pastures and was also largely un-trafficed. We enjoyed the great views and kept the pace mellow for the next 5 miles until we got to the summit of Canada Rd. The descent on Canada Rd. was a fun one – 4 miles long, and pretty fast (mostly 30-40mph)! Once we got to the bottom, Denise & I decided we didn’t want to push it and risk injury (though my tendons were feeling fine, why push it?), but Ralph wanted to do the whole 100k route, so we parted ways there. I was happy just to have gotten in a ride on such a lovely day, and to have experienced the Gilroy Hot Springs loop while it was so green.
Denise & I decided it would be simplest if we just returned on the same surface roads that we headed out on and so we did, going back to Gavilan College on Hwy 152, Frazier Lake, Bloomfield, Monterey, and Luchessa.
We arrived back at our cars at around 11:40, changed, and went over to chow. They had excellent lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. Ralph arrived a couple hours later, having completed the 100k route. We hung out for a bit, then I went home.
This was a fun ride, if rather short. Just as well, since Denise & I weren’t feeling anywhere near top-form! It would have been quite warm had we done a longer route – my car said it was 88° outside when I left – warmer than usual for this area this time of year!
Ride Stats:
| Distance: | 42.4mi |
| Total Time: | 3h 37m |
| On-bike Time: | 3h 1m |
| Average Speed: | 13.9mph |
| Maximum Speed: | 41.8mph |
| Total Climbing: | ?? |
Ride Rating:
| Difficulty: | 1 |
| Support: | 3 – they shouldn’t have run out of food & gatorade at the first rest stop, but otherwise no complaints. |
| Food: | 4 |
| Route: | 4 |
| Overall: | 3.5 |
Adam Paul 