by Deborah Hoag

I went into Central Coast Double relaxed and not focus on the ride. I took Friday off and spent the morning replanting my baby heirloom tomatoes plants. My bike (Blue Gardena) turned 10 years old this month and weight 21 pounds when I bought it. Unlikely a baby, it has lost weigh over the years. Thanks to a new set of custom rims.

The morning starting temperature was about 45 degrees, but my understanding the temperature was going to feel like 30 degrees. I dressed warmer than on Mulholland. I rolled at 5:40A with about 160 other riders, the 200 milers: David Hoag, Clyde Butt, Paul Duren, Ken Holloway, Rick McCaw, Lyresa Pleskovitch, Craig Robertson, Cindi Staiger, Ehud Yuhjtman, and Paul Vlasveld, and the 100+ milers: Laura Hipp, Cheryl and Steven Prothero. The joke was why are you and David not on your honeymoon? I grabbed on to Ken Holloway’s wheel, however, I backed off because the riders seemed to be all over the place. We rolled at a very fast pace. For the first 20 miles, my heart rate went between 163 to 176. I questioned the price I was going to paid for doing this. I had to force myself to focus and ride hard. When I finished Mulholland, I still had a lot of energy left. I was able to big ring it over the last rollers, and David had told me he crawled over the rollers in 2007.

Our first major climb was Santa Rosa Creek, which I had done on Great Western Bike Rally, when I was first starting to ride. It sure seemed easy this time. Edud rode with me for awhile, until I told him he 17 hours to complete the ride. And yes, Kitty was behind me talking to Anthony on the climb. Hearing them talk was very relaxing, because I knew she was going to finish and I was right there with her. Kitty had taken first place last year in the stage race. When I reached the top, Kitty rolled up for a short stop and rolled off. I was never to see her again even with a hurt knee, until the end of the ride. No more hello Kitty.

We dropped down Santa Rosa Creek and headed north for 42 miles on the coast with a tailwind. David and I rode with Edut and Paul V off and on along the coast. The ride was rider’s dream, tailwinds, which ever way a rider turned there was tailwind. After the coast, our next turn was up Ferguson Nacimento for 7.4 miles. What a view and a great climb! At mile 110, David, Steven, Cheryl, Laura, and I reached the lunch stop at 2P. David and I left at 2:20, when Paul V was coming in.

The ride was a very uneventful ride. After mile 145, we hit 25 MPH. We were flying and laughing about what a dream ride this was. We pretty much had tailwinds to mile 180, which we reached at 6:30P. At mile 180, we turned in to headwinds, now I was paying the price for going out hard and keeping the pace up. For about 8 miles, I was riding in the headwinds, however after the headwinds I was still was able to big ring it up the small rollers and stay in my double climbing the hills. We rolled in at 9:30P. Two down and one more to go. It crossed my mind if I DNF on CC, then no Terrible Two. What a bummer more pain!

The food and support were excellent on this ride. There were several rest stops with everything a rider needed. The Quacks were out in fill force to help to support this ride. And of course the Sag driver with the blasting radio. Every turn was marked. This ride was fresh change from the lacking services we received at Mulholland