You’re never as ready as you’d like to be. Last night after a busy day at work I got started getting all the gear together, prepping the bike and figure out the details.
Finished by 11.30pm with a 26lb bike fully loaded.
Minimal gear:
- flip flops
- Tshirt
- Merino wool jersey
- Shorts
- Beanie
- USB chargers
- Lights
And then a seatbag with tubes and tools.
Set the alarm for 4am and went to bed. No sleep at all, till 1am, woke up before the alarm and after a quick breakfast I rolled in the dark to the CalTrain station headed to SF.
On the menu for today 129mi with 7k from San Francisco to Monterey, starting from the Mojo Bike Cafe.
Out of the Caltrain station found my rear tire to be flat, seemed like the result of a slow leak. Pumped it up and limped to the Mojo cafe where Murphy was waiting. Dustin rolled in few minutes later. Checked my tire and couldn’t find the leak, so I kept it as it was.
We rolled at 8.09 from the cafe, heading South. Got to Pacifica relatively quickly, and then proceeded to Devils slide where we got close and personal with busses and trucks. Stopped in HMB for coffee as Dustin got a flat, that tubeless sealed quickly. Everything was ok until few miles before Pigeon point when the rear tire decided to give up and a tube was in order.
Took 3 attempts to get a tube inside of the snug tubeless tire, with about 45min lost. As we rolled at Pigeon point the 3rd tube gave up and so we decided that the best thing was Dustin to hitch a ride to Santa Cruz while we do there. Meanwhile my rear tire kept leaking at a rate of 20psi/hr.
Full tire drama.
After a quick stop at Gazos creek we pushed to Santa Cruz, helped by the tailwinds. There both I and Dustin got new rear tires.
Left Santa Cruz around 3 with about 50mi to go and less tha 3 hours light. The route zigzags around CA-1 and then you need to get on it around Moss Landing
Rolled in Monterey in the dark around 6.30 where amazing food and beer and hot tub was awaiting.
Tomorrow heading to Cambria via Big Sur: “THAT is a day of m-f’n cycling” according to Murphy…
Thanks for blogging the trip – this is on my list!