April 23 – The real ride begins

Sunday was an organizational day so that our bikes could be checked, and we could meet our fellow riders and learn how the trip would be run. Important but kind of boooring. I also meet Dave Thompson a friend from PA who is doing the ride. I kind of talked him in to it. He told be he would like to do something like this and when I told him what I was doing, he decided to come too. It was nice have a going away dinner with him, his wife Sandy and Karen.

Today we got a wake up call at 5 AM, went to breakfast at Denny’s at 5:30 and had a late departure at 7 AM. Tomorrow we leave at 6:30. Our first stop was the Pacific Ocean where we dipped our rear wheel into the water. Tradition, yes but we had to walk and carry our bikes across 200 yards of sand, the water was cold and then after returning with our bikes we had to remove the sand from our feet before putting our shoes back on. I may be lacking in team spirit but why not just start the ride.

Well after that things started to bet better. The first 35 miles of today’s 135 were on a bike path along a canal that because of Friday’s rain surprisingly had water in it. These miles were flat and easy. We then started to climb on a bad road and I got a flat. I and a few riders with me fixed it in short order and we were off. After 10 miles of up hill we got to lunch. It was not too bad by century ride standards, but certainly less inviting than the Grizzly Peak Century lunch. I ride with the GPC cyclists in Berkeley. After lunch my new tire with 60 miles of use found a razor blade in the road – flat number two and a new tire to boot. I was very fearful and careful for the rest of the ride. We had several miles of road construction and a bigger hill, about 2000 feet to climb. The climb had a nice road surface and shoulder but nothing pleasant about the views and traffic, lots of traffic. When we got to the top we had 50 miles of down hill into Palm Springs. We started to fly at 25 to 30 miles per hour. Some of the ride was on I10, yes it can be legal to ride on interstates, but only if there is no alternative road. We got off I10 on to a frontage road that has not seen any repair since I10 was built 50 years ago. I avoided many pot holes until one caused my third flat. I needed someone to loan me a tube, as I only carry two. (The flat I got on Thursday was my first this year!) The first tube I got had a leak already, so I got to change my tire twice this time. Once I got under way again our group of now ten riders rode the next 25 miles at 30+ mph. There is a wind farm outside Palm Springs and all the wind mills were facing us and turning madly. Translation – tail wind. About one mile from our motel I got a slow leak but rode in on the soft tire, flat number four. The mechanic on the ride looked at my rear wheel, the site of all my flats and pronounced the wheel trashed. He was very right, there were two flat spots and two bent sections of one of the rims. There were two spokes with no tension. The tour had a spare wheel to loan me so I can ride tomorrow, but I had to call Performance Bicycle and order a new rear wheel. I can get one sent to me in three days. So if I don’t ruin the group wheel I should be OK. This also means that the rear wheel I dipped into the Pacific will not make it to the Atlantic. However a world where I can see on line what I am ordering over the phone (using a cell phone and an 800 number) and where products can be shipped by FedEx to the backwaters of Arizona is really quite nice. I guess there have been some improvements in the quality of life since 1972.

For those more interested in me than my bike, as I finish this installment I must say that I feel great. I could start tomorrow’s ride right now. So for the physical part so far so good.