The most hellacious climbing yet


54 miles, 5880 ft

On June 3rd, I did my most hellacious climbing ride yet to prepare both physiologically and psychologically for ghastly ascents to come.  This ride has so much climbing that the person who suggested we go riding that weekend (who shall remain un-named) dropped out the day prior because he is a wuss.  By then, two other team members had already been persuaded to join, so there was no backing out for non-wussy me.

This particular ride starts and ends on the east side of the Santa Cruz mountains with the mid point on the coast, which thus necessitates not one but two mountain crossings in one day!  We began with an ascent up the infamous Old La Honda.  I experienced instant queasy regret regarding the large amount of cheesy marmite toast I had just consumed as fuel for the ride.  OLH was followed by a delightful descent then rolling hills towards the coast, then some more mini-mountains to reach the quaint village of Pescadero for lunch.  We were nearly flattened on the ascent by a vigorous hundreds-strong herd of Californian cyclists on the downhill-for-them segment of a race in the opposite direction.

After a tasty lunch of artichoke bread (highly recommended) we re-crossed the coastal dwarf mountains then made our way along Highway 1 to the dreaded Tunitas for the backside ascent of the Santa Cruz mountains.  Just prior to the climb, we had a chat with some riders from the race that had nearly squished us earlier.  They lamented the lack of women racers and encouraged the two ladies in our group to take up racing.  I expressed doubts as to my racing ability, due to the unfortunate attribute of being a slow rider.  Later, as I was climbing Tunitas at an agonising crawl, they encouragingly shouted "you're not *that* slow" whilst whizzing past.

How I prayed to die on Tunitas.  I implored the gods to send a speeding car to hit me so I would not have to carry on climbing.  As you have probably deduced, neither deities nor drivers obliged, so I made it back in the end.

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