First day is done! (60 miles + 8K)

Here's the route

Mark here…well, there was a serious injury in today's ride. I am not sure my ego will recover. Upon riding the first 10 miles drafting off of the 8 lead women, we started the first climb of the day. And, not to much longer after that, we didn't see any of the women until the SAG stop. Boy are they all strong riders! I made the mistake of leaving lunch SAG ahead of them and so Steve and I had the opportunity to watch their climbing technique as they blew past us going up Decker.

Steve had yet another flat. Lets see, I think that is 5 flats he has had riding with me to my zero. He is getting very fast at changing tubes. Next time I have a flat, I'll just have to ask Steve to fix it.

Score: Steve 0, tubes 5. Thats how many flats Steve has had riding with me over the past few months ;)
He had this flat just before second climb of the day. Got it fixed quickly though.

The morning was a bit on the cool side, probably low 50s but temps climbed to maybe 80. We did do a a couple very short stints on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). For most of the day, we had the company of Adam, a 26 year old former semi-pro racer who told us at the begining of the day, his job is to hang back and stay with the last rider. I have a feeling we will get to know Adam very well by the end of the week.

Steve on last climb of day at bottom of Decker (just past very steep section!)

The weather and scenery were great. The last climb was a bit challenging and the middle climb had a terrible road surface. But, that meant we didn't see many cars either.

I made the mistake of leaving second SAG stop without refilling my water bottles. Doh! So, I had to take a bottle from Adam.

The new Soma San Marcos frame and gearing (50/39/30 - 11/32) climbs great and descends even better. I thought I could do the whole day in my middle chainring but after the steep part of Decker, I went into my triple until I was over it. We hit a big descent the last 10 miles of the ride and we descending with Adam in the lead. When we got to the bottom, Adam remarked that he thought we did a great job descending and were able to keep up with him. And, I did feel like the Soma because it is a larger frame than my Trek, descended much more sure-footedly. I can break hard and it its very stable. So, I am liking the Soma a lot.

Here is a link to some videos from today too.

Boy., it was harder than I thought. 2nd climb was around 8 miles with gradient if 8-10%. I did get my first flat at the bottom of the second climb. After lunch we started with a great 3.5 mile descent to the Pacific Coast Highway. The ocean looked great today. After that great descent I did realize that we were going to have to go back up.

Our third climb was going up Decker Canyon. This windy steep road is only 3.5 miles long but has gradients averaging between 8-15%. In other words, it was nasty and kicked my @#!@! .