Roadies Vs. Wind

Ming rolling through Alisal Canyon Road outside Solvang last year

Sunday we (by "we" I mean Vegas Bob, Dawn, Ariel, Heidi, Teri, Darter and I) all met for an impromptu road ride along Pacific Coast Highway. The route was to roll due north up PCH to Point Mugu rock and back. That works out to over sixty miles, lightly hilly....and F******G WINDY! With gusts clocked at over sixty miles per hour yesterday, the lighter riders amongst us met an untimely demise on the way north. Just past Sycamore Canyon, Vegas Bob and Heidi both were blown entirely off the road and onto the sand and rocks off the highway.
We fought constant and unpredictable winds all the way up, seemingly into a headwind all the way...but Darter and I knew better. It's always worse going home.
Always. Fighting flat sections that I would normally cruise in the mid-twenties, we were fighting it every inch of the way back (35 miles, and hilly) in our climbing rings. With no money for beer and pizza, I began to feel hopelessly doomed. Telling Bob to carry on without me, save the kids, etc..we hung on to finish over FOUR HOURS LATER. My face was a huge salt-lick, and several horses followed me home and licked my face. If only they were dogs and I had peanut butter....oops, was that out loud?
After four plus hours of leaning into the wind and pedaling, we all split up and went home to watch football and collapse. Bob rode for another hour in the valley, then we ate...twice. Thanks to all who managed the suffer-fest, and by the way, the entire mountain above Pepperdine is all on fire today, right where we rode!

Chris