A long day in the saddle with a good bit of climbing. We said goodbye to John and Barb Soley at the hotel this morning and will miss them this coming week. Both were fun to ride with the last two weeks and it was good to see them again.
It was a cold and overcast start leaving San Francisco and the climbing started at mile 3 when we reached the coast near the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
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| A cold and overcast start as we head towards the Golden Gate Bridge |
Though we never exceeded 1000 feet in total elevation today, the ups and downs added up to a lot of climbing over the first 30 miles to the first SAG stop and it showed with a whopping 12.7mph average for that section. After the first SAG, we had another steep climb to get back to the coast at Half Moon Bay.
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| Pigeon Point Light Station |
Finally, the sun came out as we headed south down the coast. At mile 61, I stopped at Pigeon Point Light Station, a 115 foot lighthouse on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1872 after several shipwrecks off Pigeon's Point (then named Whale Point) and was in use until 1976 when it was replaced by a more modern navigation aid.
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| Pigeon Point and the lighthouse from our second SAG stop |
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| This was our scenery the last 50 miles to Santa Cruz. For a coastal road, CA Route 1 undulated a bit. |
Thereafter, we were able to pick up speed with a tailwind as we headed south along the coast on Route 1. The remaining miles were not flat, but the climbs over the last 30 miles were much smaller than previous.
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| Our speed picked up with the tailwind |
We finished in Santa Cruz along a beach where folks were playing beach volleyball. Jeff, Mark, and I stopped and had lunch on a bench overlooking the beach. Then, it was past the amusement park and casino one final mile to the hotel. We didn't get in until after 4PM, which made for a long but enjoyable and satisfying day.
Today's ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223679230
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