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| Merlin on Nacimiento-Ferguson Rd. |
By now, we all know the route south fairly well. Maybe too intimately. So, people are starting to tack on new segments, alter routes, or just shake things up a bit. And that's good! Usually, the route goes either inland or on the coast, alternating each year. At least the first two days. (Then it's all the same for days 3-4.) This year, the memorable change for me was heading west on Nacimiento / Ferguson Rd. to avoid the typical boat and truck traffic that is common around Lake Nacimiento. What a great choice! It made for a combo inland/coastal route. Gorgeous, quiet, and not very tough at all. There is also a loop that I've wanted to complete out of San Luis Obispo and we did that this year. More on that later! The other alternative route that Peter and Bruce took went over the mountains toward Solvang and then hit San Marcos Pass, which then drops back into Santa Barbara. It sounded beautiful, but maybe a bit much! These guys are typically super fast, but they said there was a segment where they had to walk, do bike repairs, and ride on dirt for "4 hours at 3mph." Those were Peter's words. Maybe someday....but not for me this year.
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| Looking north from Nacimiento-Ferguson Rd. |
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| Mike and Janine descending on Nacimiento-Ferguson Rd. |
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| Hwy 1 South from Nacimiento-Ferguson Rd. |
A Small(er) Group
The MDR had peaked out at about 55 or so people in recent years. We sort of create our own moving party, but sometimes there is by far too much chaos. This year was a pleasant surprise. We were down to 43. This smaller number and the absence of a few very fast riders who pushed the pace beyond what I could tolerate made it less chaotic and a bit slower too. Kinda nice!
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| About half our MDR group at Gaviota Pass, getting ready to head into Santa Barbara on the last leg! |
A crash every 30,000 miles? It was back in 2009 on the MDR when I broke my first bone ever (collarbone) coming into San Simeon. My estimate is that 30,000 miles have rolled by for me since then. It was my collarbone-snapping time, but no real crashes since that one. Well, I guess my time came up again. Remember that loop in SLO that I mentioned? Well, I did it, but not until I had a date with gravity and poison oak! I knew there was dirt coming up on this leg, but not so quickly! About 6 of us climbed Prefumo Canyon Rd., a beautiful winding, windswept ascent that goes nowhere of note. That made it quiet and that's what cyclists like! Two guys turned around at the top and headed back down. My mistake was not to be one of them.
Off they went down one way and off the remaining 4 of us went the other way to complete the loop. Down-down-down the other way! At the bottom of about a mile descent of 8-12%, I saw a narrow bridge with cattle grates. Hit those babies fast and they'll be smoother.....just like the cobbles in Paris-Roubaix! With Matt just ahead of me, the little bridge quickly approached. The road flattened right at the bridge and Matt braked hard. He saw the dirt and I didn't. But seeing him, I braked to avoid him, shifted a little to the left, still going pretty good until I saw what was just on the other side of the bridge......gravel!! Awww shit. I whizzed by Matt's left shoulder, hit the gravel braking to slow 'er down, but got caught drifting too quickly to the left to maintain control. The road, one lane wide consisting of loose gravel, quickly ended with a little ridge of dirt. The front wheel suddenly washed out and I plowed into the ridge with my left arm, hip, leg and....helmet. I'm sure there was a cloud of dust.
I immediately thought....oh, that wasn't so bad....kinda soft....let's get up and go! My buddies stopped, offered help and their own thoughts on the cause of the pileup. They checked me and my bike. Then one said, "ooh...that's all poison oak you landed in....clean up as soon as you get back". Then I thought...oh...that's why it was so soft! That worried me more than anything else. I didn't seem to tear any clothing, so I thought yeah, this P.O. is what I need to worry about. That'll last 10 days! Poor Matt apologized over and over, thinking he should have warned me or not braked so hard. But it was my fault. Gotta keep your eyes ahead up the road. No one's fault except mine. I straightened the brake handles, mounted back on the bike and hit the gravel road with a newfound burst of adrenalin.
I actually felt ok and rode the next mile of gravel mostly ahead of the guys. Maybe they wanted to keep clear of the crazy, poison oak covered guy? Or maybe I was faster! Uh....probably not. The next few miles of See Canyon Rd. was nicely paved, sinuous and quiet. It's a small back road heading towards Avila Beach. So, off we went for the last 10 miles back to the hotel and I felt ok. Once back, I cleaned up, bagged the P.O. covered bike clothes and took a few ibuprophen before heading into town for dinner to see Brendan. Even with the "vitamin I", the adrenalin was wearing off, so the hip started talking to me. While riding was ok, walking was getting labored. I made it ok, but sleeping was a bit tough.
The next morning, I rolled a bike around the parking lot early to see whether it made sense to ride that day. It seemed acceptable. It was the last leg of the trip and I really wanted to ride the whole thing, since so far I had ridden every mile. So, I thought, what the hell. I rode the 110 miles and it wasn't bad at all! Walking and lifting the left leg proved a little tough for a few days, but I feel much better now and I'm glad I rode that day!
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| The cattle grate and start of the gravel.....with my crash point marked |
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| Isn't one Mike enough? (Top of Prefumo Canyon Rd, right before the tumble!) |
The Spill
Not off the bike, but oil. Santa Barbara had a terrible oil spill back in 1969. People down there have since been understandably concerned about what might again happen to their gorgeous coastline. And two days before the ride start, it did happen again. It was far smaller, but right along our course, there was a pipeline break just inland from Refugio Beach on Hwy 101. 100,000 gallons spilled out of a broken pipe and of that, about 20,000 gallons made it to the ocean. Sadly, it fouled about 7-10 miles of the coast and many critters. Of course, folks from my office were soon down there in an emergency response capacity. When we passed, there were lots of hazmat suits, boats, a helo and ships out there aiding the cleanup. And causing traffic jams too. We rode past many orange cones on our final leg into Santa Barbara, but more importantly, it was sad to see what can happen to the environment. When I returned to work this week, I found out we had 7 EPA folks down there helping out. Hope we made a positive difference.
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| Brendan and Mike in SLO |
Arnica. Use it for all kinds of pain! I used the Te-Nu poison oak cleaner right after the crash, but nothing else except a few ibuprophen. 3-4 days later, the hip/leg pain was still there. I started using Arnica topical ointment at about day 6, and don't know whether it was just the time since the crash or the Arnica making a positive difference, but things started feeling really better after using Arnica for a couple of days. Yea!
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| Bob, Matt and Mike ascending Harris Grade (photo courtesy Garrett Lau) |
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