The day before Mother's Day, some of my biker chicks (picture taken with an iPhone) and I rode a century in Santa Rosa. This century didn't have as much climbing as the one I did three weeks ago, but had a respectable 5,000 ft of climbing. We were still able to average about 16 mph and we did it in style! We had ordered some matching cycling jerseys from our new favorite company and we were surprised at the amount of attention we garnered. At every rest stop other cyclists would ask us if we were a team or a cycling club (uh, no, we're just friends who like to ride together) and how cool our unusual jerseys were. One guy said he assumed we were a team because of our skill in drafting. Even the volunteers at the rest stops would ask about our jerseys and where we got them. At the beginning of the ride, we'd pick out a fairly strong/fast group of men and draft them, which conserves about 30% of your energy, or draft each other, taking turns at pulling the others. After the lunch stop, we noticed that we had men drafting us!
On Mother's Day while Jeff and Jess made a delicious dinner for me, Mark and I went out for a drive to take pictures near the Calaveras Reservoir, another of our favorite riding spots. The lush green hills have begun to go "golden" in a few patches and I wanted to capture the beauty of the area before all the green was gone.
Then, last weekend, Mark and I went to Lake Tahoe to see the beginning of the Tour of California (cycling race.) The first stage was going to be a once and a half trip around the lake, which meant the riders would go past our family's condo twice. We went up a couple of days early and got in a couple of rides. In the afternoon on Saturday we went to the falls near Emerald Bay. There was still snow melting from the long winter which made the falls even more beautiful.
But Sunday morning, we woke up to this:
The first words out of my mouth were, "Are you KIDDING me?!?" This is the middle of MAY!"
The first stage of the Tour of California was cancelled and we headed for home. Bummer. I sure hope that in two weeks when our kids and grandkids join us up there for a reunion, we'll finally get some summer. Actually, I'd settle for some spring!
4 comments:
Your pictures of Calaveras Reservoir are stunning! Wow--you should blow them up and hang them.
You guys look very professional in your matching jerseys. I'm sure it is unusual to see such an accomplished (and babelicious) group of cyclers. Perhaps you ought to enter some sort of team race.
As we were hiking up Sierra Rd. on Wednesday, I kept watching to see you and Mark wizz by on your bikes. Too bad about the snow.
I agree with Morrie, those pictures are gorgeous!
Beautiful pictures. I hope the snow melts and it warms up soon. We have girls camp in Sierraville area in 3 weeks and I do NOT want to be camping with snow around us. I'm not a fan of cold!
Post a Comment