Day 3 is a wrap (48 miles + 5K climb)

Here's the route

Today was supposed to be an easy day with 48 miles and 5000 ft if climbing.  There were some steep sections where the gradients were 16-18% (only for some short sections).  The second climb today was the hardest since it averaged 6-8% for about 8.5 miles.  Time to rest our legs in preparation for the big ride tomorrow.

The guy in the yellow jacket in the picture above is Stewart. He is in his late 60's and just recovered from a serious cycling accident while in Italy. He broke several ribs, his clavical, a bone in his arm and another in his hips. That was just 4 months ago!

The next two pictures show the view of the Pacific ocean from half-way up and the top of the Latigo road climb. You can see a substantial portion of the road we climbed. We started at ocean level. It is about an 8 mile climb.

The three pictures below are the SAG stop at the top of the Latigo climb. Just before leaving here for about a 14 mile ride back to the hotel, we learned that one of the riders in the other group that joined us yesterday and today had an accident. It was serious enough to call fire and ambulance because we past both in the way home heading up this road. I hope that rider is ok!!! I assume we'll learn more tomorrow.

In the last half mile to the hotel, one of the women we were riding with took a fairly large lead and Steve flew by me on his way to catching her. He was obviously feeling good! I took it very easy on the Latigo climb, climbing with Diane most of the way up. I learned she is not only a mother of 5 but also a grandmother of 6. She has another grandchild due next week. Her Iron-Man time is 11:39. Thats 11 hours and 39 minutes to finish a 2.5 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride and finally a marathon run!