Nova Eroica California - 16 miles of gravel climbing and technical descents especially for those of us on road bikes.
Not sure where to start. 4am call from my sister, my mom couldn’t breath and went to ER. Flu (not COVID). At the same time in Arizona my sister-in-laws mom passed away suddenly from an infection. She had just moved 10 days ago, was sitting in my car two weeks ago. And while I was wide awake instead of sleeping, email blowing up about the passing of one of the nicest guys I’ve ever worked with in my long work career.
Contemplated life. Did the first climb easy. Started passing people between climbs. Missed the rest stop and started getting dehydrated on the second climb. Phil from Pasedena shared a smidge of water, and then he got a sidewall tear from the sharp gravel on his new GP5000 tires. Gave him a tire boot. Saved by the foreman on tree cutting crew - he was holding out water bottles and I grabbed it without missing a pedal stroke. At the top he handed me a frozen bottle 
Nothing like a 12-15% finish on gravel with a road bike 
Met a guy at the top from Specialized. He works on the Roval team. Got the inside story on the Rapide CLX not launching tubeless. He was riding some unannounced tires that looked like my Roubaix Pro tires, but better fit on his SL7 vs my SL7.
Last 12 miles was interesting - 3+ mile steep descent on gravel and really poor roads. Then a long downhill runout on really poor and narrow roads.
Pics in reverse order, from end to beginning.
Epic adventure! Live each day as if it were your last. 
No regrets.
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