The Solvang Century Rides Again

This century ride is one of my favorites; the countryside is green rolling hills and canyons - coastal California at its best. My good friend Dave Wyman from LA makes it an annual tradition as well, and as he's an awesome photographer, I can always count on some great pix to remember the day. My own pocket camera has failed to respond to repeated attempts at resucitation and is being read its last rites now. So all photos on my page are Dave's. I felt great, did the 101 miles and 5,000 ft of climbing in 7hr 15min of riding. A great weekend getaway and adventure - see it here.

Mt. Hamilton Classic

The oldest permanently occupied mountain top observatory in the United States is Lick Observatory - a place of many fond memories during my grad school and early years as an astronomer. This past Saturday, our intrepid cyclers determined it was THE day for riding up this Bay Area classic - Dave and Diane are training for the Death Ride, and I have the Solvang Century the following weekend. Dino is, of course, ALWAYS up for a mega-ride, and the rest of our gang as well. All went well, and me and my little bottle of "5hr Energy" felt great, despite being at the 36hr point from a rather tough 10 mile hilly run. Enjoy the commentary and a few pix here http://www.cabrillo.edu/~rnolthenius/OtherAdv/MtHam-Mar12/index.html