imperial weekend

(san gabriel "river" bike path)

spent another saturday on the bike. we started out at the bike kitchen with 13 people - gary, liz, johanna, lance, steph, san diego drew, no-helmet drew, john, craig, jared, richard, derek, and me.



we met up at 9:30am under a grey sky, and the imperial century rolled out a little before 10.

cruised through downtown, then past some spread out factories & a giant produce market housed in a run down outdoor plaza. on the way down to long beach via the bike path, i tried riding in a pace line for the first time - stay 6 inches behind and 6 inches to the left or right of the rear wheel of the bike in front of you. looks rather impressive when your team swoops around curves and dips under highway overpasses (despite the fact that we won't be allowed to pace line on the ALC). =D

stopped @ bixby carpet in long beach for our first pit stop.


(craig sitting and drew splayed)

emptied our bladders then refilled our water bottles. danny had fresh peanut butter + jelly + banana sandwiches prepped for us as well as whole bananas and orange slices. while we restocked on carbs, danny let us try on some sample jerseys (hooray women-specific sizing!)...as well as the dead sexy official ALC jersey for team MR:




(derek & danny)

refreshed, we hopped back on the bikes and headed north on the san gabriel river (concrete basin) bike path. there were stables lining the path, some gated with intricate equine metalwork and others with plain oversized horseshoes. modern day cowboys cantered past us every so often; the dichotomy of our iron (and steel and aluminum and carbon) horses mingling with the real thing put a grin on my face.

after about 8 miles along the "river", jared started having pedal issues due to a pre-ride cross-threading, so he had to bail and we were down to 12 riders. we turned right on whittier blvd and coasted through a bit of suburbia. at one intersection, a car honked and lunged at a cyclist that didn't see the light change, but nobody was hurt. we turned left onto colima road and started up the 1st of its 3 massive climbs. it took us a good two hours to get past colima's hills and finally we were at the halfway point - schabarum park.

it was around 4pm when we sprawled out on the park's open grass and ravaged meghan's delicious dill potato salad, pb&j sandwiches, almonds, bananas, and oranges.


(foreground: lance's mohawk + no-helmet drew's non-helmeted head)
(background: liz catches up on her potassium intake + rich loves food + john digs in for more + derek is happy)

she also distributed gary's beautiful spoke cards (a colorful composite image printed on transparency and then laminated - brilliant!).


(a fabulous spoke card created by gary7)

we chilled for about half an hour, then got moving after spotting a menacing cloud to the north - exactly where we were headed. gary caught a ride home with meghan since he had a 100 degree fever and a severely upset stomach, both of which he was dealing with from the very start.

with no route slip to warn me of what was to come, i had no clue that the next 10 miles would loop through a mountain range. after that, we went west on colima (the climbs were just as painful in reverse) and back into whittier. sweat, sweat, and more sweat. watching the sun set, we continued on whittier until we hit east LA. it was dark by the time we arrived back in the flatlands and before turning right on eastern ave, we had a delay of about half an hour while we waited for a few riders to catch up. a bossy bus had squeezed no-helmet drew to the curb and the driver got off to drop a few choice words.

the sun had barely come out all day, and the high topped out around 60 degrees, so the last few miles through downtown to the bike kitchen was a chilly full-out sprint. and unexpectedly hilly. i was trying to decide whether to pass out or vomit, but there was no time for either. it wasn't for lack of food. i was sick of eating, chewing had become a chore - i had consumed 3 bottles of gatorade, 4 bananas, 3 clif bars, 3 gu shots, and one candy bar over the course of the day. my body was just ready to put a halt to the maniacal pedaling.

we whipped up cesar chavez ave to sunset blvd, past the hubbub of blek le rat's gallery opening at shephard fairey's brand spanking new subliminal projects, and suddenly, sublimely, finally, we were there, back on heliotrope street and slowing down into the hungry saturday night crowd waiting to eat at (http://www.yelp.com/biz_link?biz_id=RgxinOHQdwcN3tM27lMg9Q">pure luck. it was 8pm.

10 hours out. about 8 hours actually spent on the bike. 101.98 miles conquered. i've never been so tired in my life.


(dusk @ whittier & eastern aves)

http://tinyurl.com/5m275n - gary's route slip - 101.98 miles

+my flickr set for the imperial century

..................

and then i did a few more miles on sunday in the name of shopping & 75% off sales:

http://tinyurl.com/57n2cf - sunday's ride to melrose with feaver - 17.77 miles


on melrose - c + f (via feaverish)