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Part 3 - Hwy 1

Back on HWY1 we regrouped in a small market whose door opened literally onto the freeway. Cokes and chips were eaten in the parking lot wedged between Tomales Bay and the road. The distance and the climbing were starting to show with everybody visibly looking for a second wind, rubbing hamstrings and trying to keep the conversation away from the eighteen miles left before Coleman Valley Road, the KOM of Stage One and the ten mile climb to Occidental. At about this point, we realized that Luke, Aaron and two others were missing. We decided they must have turned around and ridden back to SF.

Half-way through the next hour-and-a-half on a fast and not very private stretch of HWY 1, featuring miles of cresting rollers, spectacular coastal views, blooming hillsides, and a constant stream of large trucks and loaded station wagons, the cracks began to show.

Further up the road, ninety miles in, the group, down to five now, Ira, Slate, Jeremy, Aaron Hulme and Lander Bravo, made a right onto Bay Hill Road, “the four mile short-cut.” The sun’s low and everybody’s crusty and faded. It starts with a steep mile long section through a weeping tree tunnel and lots of conversation. Nobody wants silence nor the climb to really begin, but eventually there’s nothing left to say. The road continues…broken, steep and quietly emerges out of the trees and into an open misty valley; Ira once again moves off the front with Jeremy close behind. The top is nothing but rolling hills, the odd farmhouse and another flat for Ira. Aaron, Slate and Lander clear the top just as Ira is slamming his wheel into place.

After a beautiful, twisty old-world decent on chip seal, with wooden fence posts and monolithic rock mounds blurring by, the ride regrouped back on HWY1 for the two mile approach to Coleman Valley Road.

“I was cramping so badly, I just didn’t have anything left, when you guys pulled up and handed me that salt tablet out of the window I knew I was done. Once you start hitting and pounding your legs, it’s just a matter of time.”
– Cole Maness, Continental Rider

“You’ve got to know your limitations and mine was apparently 65 miles.”
– Michael Robertson

“Is a shortcut a shortcut when it adds 900 feet of climbing?”
– Ira Ryan, Continental Rider

“That was the fastest tire change I’ve ever witnessed, ever. I think he knew that nobody was gonna wait for him and it was starting to get cold. I would have waited, probably.”
– Jeremy Dunn, Continental Rider

“The right off the One was drive-way steep and I could tell there was nothing coy or misleading about this climb. It was a bitch from the start and we were already ninety-five miles in to the day.”
– Ira Ryan, Continental Rider