Day One

FINALLY…the only thing I can remember preparing more for in my life was my first crew race at BU as a freshman when we started in the barge in September preparing for the race against Brown in April (we won). This was no where near that but we were definitely ready to ride today.

Some days I plan to take along a virtual rider (whether they like it or not). It's only appropriate that my first rider was my wife Lois because I LOVE riding with her. Although I know she wouldn't enjoy this trip I truly appreciate how easy she made it for me to be here.

And what a great start with blue sky and temps in the low sixties. After a dirty little climb over the Silicon Valley ridge and we plowed right into the fog for a run to Golden Gate Park and the famous wheel-dipping ceremony (back wheel in the Pacific and front in the Atlantic when done). One of our guys even gathered a bottle of Pacific water to dump into the Atlantic. Sure hope there’s no BP oil when we get there! Huge AIDS benefit ride starting today (SF to LA) and we passed a bunch of those guys going in the opposite direction.

The fog was crazy thick so we were eager to get moving to the Golden Gate Bridge and we were on Instrument Flight Rules the entire time. Next time you go over the bridge look ahead two light poles and that was the extent of our visibility. Quick stop at Vista Point and then a sweet downhill to Sausalito where the fog evaporated for the rest of the day.

Nice pedaling through Santa Rosa and kind of an ugly finish with about a dozen miles on Highway 37 skirting Somona and over the Napa River to Vallejo where we are comfortably lodged at Howard Johnson…honestly, I didn’t know there were any left! At least this one doesn’t have an ORANGE roof!! Maybe I’ll have a clam roll for dinner because I don’t think they have 3-D burgers anymore.

All in all a great start to the trip with a few flats and one minor fall. Should be an easy day tomorrow but who knows. I’m looking forward to it.

So we’re going to rate each day with three factors on a scale of 1-10:

1. Scenery: With 10 meaning beautiful.
2. Road Conditions: Referring to traffic, weather, surface with 10 meaning fabulous.
3. Grunt factor: Overall how difficult did the ride seem with 10 meaning super easy.

Today’s ratings:

Scenery 6 (would have been 10 without SF fog!)

Road Conditions 6 (would have been higher without Rte. 37)

Grunt factor 8