Testing the top end today to see how recovery has gone. Set all time power PR’s for 45s to 4:41. Don’t get to do much for short(sub 20 minute) all out efforts due to the riding/racing I do, so this was fun to go out and drill it up a short climb. Honestly surprised how well I feel a week after my A-race!
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What bike did you ride for the Iowa Windy Rock?
My 2019 Salsa Warbird. Force AXS WIDE(43/30 crankset, 10-36 cassette) Rene Horse 700x44 slicks.
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Out for a local ride on a “basic” (as in, this is a common local route, it’s nothing special) 50-miler that has a hill climb (versus the 40+ miler around the lake). The temperature started cool enough for a light long sleeve and light gilet, but it warmed up to the 70s F. I got a bib short tan and the Garmin 1040 received nearly 30min of solar charge! Woo-hoo!
Basic lakeside ride. The guys in front – I talked to them shortly after this after one of them had a minor crash – are 30min or so into a planned 100k ride to Lichtenstein, though they planned on riding back for a 200k day. I kept my distance off the back, which proved wise, and, honestly, I’m willing to bet they took the train back if they made it to Lichtenstein.
The pic below is near the start of the climb. There are chickens in the near foreground and mules (donkeys?) under the tree to the right.
Ascending…
This is the view during the interruption in the ascent starting about mile 22. Remember, this is just the standard local ride.
There were some young’uns moving a small herd of goats up the road. This was the leading element of the troop.
At the top of the main climb, a pause for the facilities and to refill a bottle. The pole in the distance is part of a ski lift for the bunny run on the hill. No pictures on the way up because it’s just the same ol’ stuff, plus I was talking to a guy. I was wearing bibs from Haute Route and he signed up for HR Dolomites and had questions, so we talked for about 75% of the climb after the easy bit. He then turned back to see what happened to his friend. After this, it was literally all downhill.
After the downhill is some riding around the lake that feeds my local river.
Dragon’s Teeth is in the foreground, and a ski jump is in the background.
A short climb that, in person, had a model train set feel with two trains approaching each other (on sep tracks, of course). In the far distance at the far lake edge is Zurich.
I posted a similar pic a bit ago w/ the gravel bike here, so I posed the new road bike.
Lest anyone get the impression that I went fast, I did not. This was partly because I was trying to keep it easy (relatively) and partly because I am out of shape. For comparison, I used to do this route (when I was 172-175lbs) in 3:08-3:20 on a heavier bike with basic aluminum rims (my 2015 bike). Today, on a “slightly” more advanced bike (and weighing about 202lbs), the moving time was 3:41. Still, it was a good day to be on the bike for a local ride.
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Beautiful scenery and a nice climb! That’s a great looking bike too, Is it an Open? Are they making road bikes now?
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Yes, it is an Open, the MIN.D, as in “minimal design.” BTW, it’s a custom paint job (I had the painter include the standard livery details).
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Not today but last week, I met up with my old club mates in Calpe and after 408miles (10,000m/33,000ft) and under 3hours kip yesterday 
I decided to take today off. It typically looks perfect outside but my body wouldn’t thank me or put up with the 10deg drop in temperature.
I won’t overload you with photos too much ! but here’s some of them and a great vid from my mate.
The routes if you are interested. I am a bit frustrated with the last day, I missed the turning at the top of Cumbre de Sol to its highest point. After which my mate told me he had a gpx course, hence the strava restart 
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On the feel of the OPEN, it feels great! It’s comfy but not disconnected from the road (plush but completely disconnected from the road, like a 1980s Cadillac with velour seats, is how I described the 2020 BMC Roadmachine01 I briefly owned). Interestingly, on the main downhill, despite keeping the speed down on wet corners (it rained hard the night before) and being far from the (relatively) aggressive downhill rider I was in 2017 before crashing Jan 2018 and breaking ribs on an aggressive descent, I set some PRs along the descent. That was the bike, not me.
Today was a brief local run, which my Garmin labeled as a VO2max run (?! I was pushing the hills… >100’/mi). On a downhill that I used to do hill repeats on, and which I was going to do a few today in my limited time, I smelled the local steam engine. It wasn’t strong, but I smelled it. So I continued to the station instead of loitering on my “station” for the repeats. Alas, the smell wasn’t strong because it was still warming up (it’s behind the red little engine that could). The electric carriage on the right was lit up and on for some reason (shuffling machines around?) as caterers were loading up the cars (ahead) the steam engine was going to pull.
Deciding to make a loop of it and get in some flat before ascending again, rather than repeats, I went to the left of the station above and further along the river that runs between the train sheds and the trees on the right. Running on the old valley road, with the new road to the left…
I crossed over the wooden pedestrian bridge to get back to “my” side of the river to run along before ascending up the hill…
…and getting on single track when I can.
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Paella?! Great pics!
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I’ve ridden up Stonehouse onto the gravel of Latrobe, up to Michigan Bar. What’s it like to continue onto S. Shingle Rd all the way to Hwy 50?
windy and not too warm 
I drove over to Folsom and finally rode up Salmon Falls and up/down Rattlesnake Rd:
its a little lumpy:
at mile 20 met a group of riders doing the Folsom Lake Loop and throwing Rattlesnake in just to make it ‘more fun’ for the weaker 2 riders in the group. Friends trying to ‘help’ friends become stronger 
Here is the 2nd of 3 groups coming up the 2nd Rattlesnake climb on the 10% grade:
One of those guys is 73. Had a nice chat with the guys and then started descending and found the 2 stragglers having a #strugglefest with the 9+% grade. And then a problem - the road is really narrow just past that RV, so of course I got stuck sniffing RV fumes and riding my brakes on that steep 1.6mile / 2.6km descent 
The road was actually too narrow to pass the RV 
and I was too nervous to pull over because a truck had appeared behind me.
Here is where it flattened out and widened up a bit, so I pulled over and let the truck takeover the RV fume sniffing duties
Eventually you reach the park’s pay booth - free for cyclists of course - and then the road splits at the Folsom Lake. Left to the campground and right to the boat launch. I went right:
where I refilled my 3 water bottles and checked out the jet skiers:
then back up the road while its still emerald green for another couple weeks:
my goal was an endurance ride with some tempo climbs:
about 90 minutes of zone3 climbing, like doing the Mt Diablo HC climb but chopped up into smaller chunks. Mission accomplished 
And zone3 power at my zone5 torque, always seems to deliver some #gainz for me #empirical-data-trumps-research 
#shoutOut-to-Evoq’s-LandryBobo.
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It rained all night and had only just stopped when I woke up and the carpark which normally drains/dries fast was soaked, and more heavy showers were forecasted. So I hastily refitted the mudguards and changed into a short sleeve Gabba. Turns out I barely needed them as we routed mostly around the one rain cloud. Ive no idea where myWindsock.com gets its stats from.
Whilst the cake and banter were good, and the weather wwasn’t bad, browsing Strava on return has me part wishing I was still there:
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Did my 3x20 Threshold workout outside on a Drag and climb, had to increase rest intervals a bit to get back to the start, felt good, but legs felt it on the somewhat endurance ride on the way back home. Good Session and I actually managed to avoid the Rain, at home it apperantly startet pouring down 30 min after I left, and I wasn’t even that far away, but only had a few drops the whole ride. Can’t wait to finally have weather and temperatures that don’t require me to put on the jacket when going down the hill…
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South Shingle road isn’t usually too bad, Latrobe is a freeway these days so I stay off that road south of Cothrin Ranch. The area just east of El Dorado hills has some great roads, but it is tough to put together good loops without some time on busy roads. The area down around Plymouth is much better in that regard, there is considerably less traffic down there.
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Latrobe and Hwy 49 scare me, even the short section of Latrobe leaving EDH from Royal Oaks to Cathrin Ranch.
So. Much. Wind.
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I got to get out on the mountain bike for the first time in four months, and six months before that, in which time I’ve just been TrainerRoading and cruising around the neighborhood some since we got my wife an e-bike so we can ride together. This was also my longest mountain bike trail ride! I was very thankful to feel so good! This is Chewacla State Park, where the USAC XCM Nationals will be in September!
Sorry for the cheesy captions on the pictures… Those were for Strava…
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Looks chilly, its raining and 54F / 12C here right now. Should clear up for a windy ‘NorCal winter’ ride this afternoon. So much heat last week, and now its back to winter.
Nice pics, except for the one sitting in a line of traffic!
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