Day 4 is done!!! (93 miles + 11K)

Here's the route.

We actually finished around 5:15.  Today was the big Kahuna ride at 94 miles with 11,000 ft of climbing.  We did 4 major climbs with all 4 climbs starting at the Pacific Coast Highway and angling up To the top of the Santa Monica mountains:  Yuerba Buena, Mullholland Drive, Encinal Canyon, and Latigo.

After going yesterday without a flat for either Mark or I,  the flat gods were against as Mark got not one but two flats :(

Yeah, I rode over a rock on the descent down Mullholland and got a "pinch flat". Instead of being punctured by something going through the tire, a "pinch flat" is caused by some hard hitting debri (rock, pothole, curb, etc.) causing a complete compression of the tire against the wheel and the tube gets caught in the middle and gets "pinched" tearing a hole in the tube. After I "fixed" the first flat, I had to use tire irons to get the tire to re-seat onto the rim and I think I may have caught the new tube I had just put in under the tip of the tire iron ("pinching" the new tube) and caused a slow leak. So, I had to put yet another tube in and then use my fingers to re-seat the tire back onto the rim. That takes some finger strength.

You can't see my whole bike in these pictures but I am riding my Trek Pilot 2.1. The night before we did this ride, I took off the aero-bars, the under-seat bottle holders, my handlebar mounted flashlight and my helmet mounted light. I put the lights in the SAG van in the morning in case I needed them to complete the ride in the dark. But, we finished well before the sun went down. The bike was lighter by probably 5-7 pounds with all that extra stuff off of it and believe it or not, that can make a difference in a day with a lot of climbing like this one.

Here is picture on Mullholand drive

At the beginning of Yueba Buena you got a nice view if the ocean.

The weather could not have been nicer. Light winds and low 70's. But, the flats put Steve and me well behind the rest of the field. We slowly made time back up throughout the day.

Near the top Yuerba Buena we turned left onto Cotharin.  After a steep ascent with a short wall of 18-20%, the road clings along the ridge and provides a breath taking view of the ocean 2000 ft below you.  The road is very steep which made our hands very tired as we descended.

Here is a video of the top of Latigo with Kathy, Diane and Steve summitting.