Cycling this week - 05-19-2012

This Saturday was the Heartbreak 100 ride.  I'm happy to report that I made through without my heart exploding, although I thought it just might do so about mile 75, just before the top of the "heartbreak" climb.  I did the ride in a 6:38 ride time, and 7:19 overall time.  Not bad for my first century of the year.  My buddy Nabeel (pictured below) has now ridden 15 centuries in 15 weeks, just amazing.  Both he and Mike (also pictured below) completed the "king of the mountains" series, which comprises the Mullholland Challenge, the Breathless agony, and this Heartbreak 100 ride.  I think they are done for awhile, at least their knees are.  Here is a link to the ride map and profile:  http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1009334  Here is a link to the finishing stats for the ride:  http://racedaytiming.com/r_results.php?event=58   All in all I think this was one of the most beautiful bike rides, almost entirely out in the country.  From pine forest to high desert and agricultural valleys and back again.  I also commuted to work two days last week for another 30 miles (big deal right?).

Here is the start/finish line - it was a timed event, we all had little RFID tag stickers on our helmets.

Here we had just started and are in good spirits.

Myself and Mike before the first rest stop.

Nabeel before the first rest stop.

Top speed for the day was 47 miles an hour, but I managed to get a picture of 31.7 while holding on with only one hand, a little faster than last time.

Here is Mike at the 2nd rest stop - about 53 miles in to it - trying to look bad-ass - like the "Fonz" in spandex.

Nabeel at the 2nd rest stop.

Nabeel between the 2nd and 3rd rest stops.  He is happy because he finally got the package open after fighting with it for 10 minutes.

Here is a look down the "Heartbreak" climb, those are other riders coming up the road - it was about 90 degrees with a headwind, and an 11.2% grade.

Somewhere out on the road about mile 80, still hanging in there.

We all made it to the end, here we are after sitting around for an hour, myself, Mike an Nabeel.