I've been busy training for the Tour de Palm Springs. This is a relatively easy century with only about 2500ft of climbing. A few years ago (2007) this was my first century. Ever. After completing it in 06:30:00 I gradually improved until last year I completed the ride in 05:55:15 for an average speed of about 17.2mph.
Since I've managed to do better every year, I'm going to try once again to best last year's time. I'm past my "mourning" period of my crash in August, I'm past the vacation, holidays and anything else I could find as a convenient obstacle. I've lost all the weight I gained and I'm almost back to a fighting 180lb as I weighed in this morning at 184.6. That's 14lb that I gained and lost over a three month period. Ouch!
But wait there's more... I've been so busy I haven't even had time to think about this blog. So somehow this posting is going to segue from the preparation to the result.
I was about as ready as I could be for the Tour De Palm Springs. I got down to 184lb although I would have preferred 179lb. The ride began promptly at 7:00AM and within minutes all hell broke loose. Massive winds out of the Northeast made for one of the most treacherous rides I've ever been on. Imagine a 25-30mph wind hitting you almost sideways. Dozens upon dozens of riders simply abandoned the ride with less than 5 miles under their belt. I saw a few people get knocked right off their bikes as they couldn't react quickly enough to sudden wind changes. The SAG support vehicles were completely overwhelmed.
The winds hammered down from the start to the first rest stop. Since I'm quite a bit slower than my fellow OC Velo riders, I simply skipped the first two stops (total mayhem anyways) and stopped for the first time at 50 miles. The few miles before the half way point were a downhill with a tailwind, but it didn't nearly make up for the massive headwind at the start.
A few minutes after I arrived at the lunch stop most of the club members showed up. It really was good timing. From there I headed out with the group as we meandered through Coachella, La Quinta, Palm Desert and a few other towns. This might have been one of the tougher parts of the ride with all the lefts and rights. You would be into the hard wind, then protected for a little while, then full on into the winds again. Eventually I got dropped by the OC Velo "A" train but I motored on.
Skipping the fourth stop, I got "ahead" of the club members once again and we all met up at the last rest stop. From there it was a slog to the finish still dealing with winds that would not let up. My ride time was 11 minutes slower than in 2011 so I'm not at all disappointed.
Now I have to think about Breathless Agony. Where do they come up with these names anyways?
