Dan's
AIDS/Lifecycle 8 Pictures
Day 5 (Thursday 6/4/2008) - Santa Maria
to Lompoc
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Day 5. Santa Maria to Lompoc. 68 Miles, 2600' of climbing
I was looking forward to this day as it had a major route change. It used to be a convoluted 45 miles (as Santa Maria is 25 miles to Lompoc by freeway). The route was now going to take us through Solvang with an honest 68 miles. I love Solvang. If you've ever seen the movie "Sideways", then you might recognize the scenery as we were riding on Foxen Canyon Road where much of that movie was filmed on. It was also Red Dress Day. This would be the first time I really participated. Kathryn bought me a cute, albeit too large red dress for the ride. It was also cold. So I layered up with my usual bike garb and threw on the ample sized sheer red dress. I was all dolled up with a size 22! :-O
Morning of Red Dress Day. Me in my hot red tent..uh, dress.
Roll out of Santa Maria.
It was again a cool misty morning. You could tell it was going to get sunny and
I was looking forward to that! Out to Foxen Canyon Road was about 10 miles of
agriculture land. A rat even gave chase to my back. On second thought, it may
have been a dog...
I passed Rich. Who the heck is Rich you ask? A long time rider and even better
than that, he's the son of Mom & Dad! Real nice guy that prefers to do the ride
on his mountain bike. I asked him where his new shiny road bike was and he said
and I quote, "home where it belongs". I said, "uh, OK".
From the left, Rest Stop 1 roadies, bike tech crew with my friend Stan on the
right and then me in the middle.
At Rest Stop 1, I ran into my new friend and fellow fixie rider, Pete. We were
the oldest fixie guys at 55 years of age. I'm four month's older than Pete. He
was riding a slightly easier gear than me at a 46x19, meaning his climbs were a
bit easier but straight and level or on descents , I had the advantage.
On the way to Rest Stop 2 and now on Foxen Canyon Road, we started a very
gradual climb. I love gradual climbs as I can motor up the climbs pretty well.
Then we hit a nice short but steep 9% grade that would mean the summit. Then on
to Rest Stop 2 at mile 29.
After the Rest Stop, I caught up with Pete who rode out as I rode in. After
passing him (remember, I had a faster gear than he did), I rode though a town
called Los Olivos and saw some miniature ponies. Too cute!
The
fabulous Solvang! Check the windmill in the middle picture. This was our lunch
stop at mile 40 something.
Between Solvang and Buellton, we passed an ostrich farm. I stopped and took
some pictures.
On
the way out of town headed toward Camp Lompoc was new uncharted territory for
me. I've ridden quite a bit in the Solvang area when I do the Solvang Double
Century almost every year. So, to ride a new ride in this beautiful part of the
country was very cool. Absolutely gorgeous! There were a few nice climbs too!
There was water stop that was devilish that I stopped to water up. Then out on
the road to Lompoc. There was a headwind that many complained about. Honestly,
it didn't bother me too much. I just got into a tight tucked position on bike
and hammered through. I was definitely getting stronger.
Riding into camp and me with my fabulous red dress. I'm what you would call a
full figured gal ;-)
My other tent neighbor, Deb who was a roadie on gear truck N.