Day 2: Santa Cruz to King City, 107 miles

All things considered (crashing hard yesterday, riding 70 miles, and sleeping on the ground), I felt fantastic this morning. At 4:30 AM.

There are two breakfast lines at ALC. The full-service line is really long. But if you need pancakes and breakfast burritos before you ride, than that’s what you do. I typically take the Express route and have the bowl of oatmeal, granola, and fruit on offer. And there’s no waiting, either.

I visited the medical tent first thing for a new dressing on the big road rash (there are several smaller ones not pictured in yesterday’s post). Then Jess and I got on the road. Even with the extra stuff, the general confusion of the first morning in camp, and overcoming lingering fatigue of yesterday’s effort, we got through Santa Cruz before the Monday morning commute was in full swing.

The first highlight is on the far edge of town: The Ugly Mug coffee shop, featuring disco music (at 7 AM), and free drinks for all riders. I also ordered up a ham and cheese croissant. Perhaps I’ll get two bowls of oatmeal in camp tomorrow morning.

Also, free smoothies.

Jackie celebrates every single mile she rides. Some celebrations are more dramatic than others. Here she is at Rest Stop 1.

These kids live at the top of one of the days few hills. High fives and waves for everybody. Kids get so excited for passing cyclists. I must have given out 25 high-fives, and accepted 2 red vines. I tried for a third using my teeth. Didn’t work. I’ll have to come back next year to try again.

Chavon rode with Jess and me for most of the day. She was a regular on the training rides I did Sundays in the East Bay.

The sea otters at the mouth of Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. They smell and sound like a bunch of un-showered cyclists waking up. Note: there are hot showers available every night in camp. And they’re super-awesome, unless you have massive road rash. It really says something about how lucky I was with that crash, that the thing I'm most unhappy about is showering now being the worst part of my day, instead of the best.

The highlight of Moss Landing is artichokes. There are a couple places to stop. I go for the first one. It’s delicious, it’s first, why keep riding?

Jess and Chavon emerge with deep friend artichoke hearts. Holy cow. I’m going to start bringing these with to work for my morning snack.

Jane Wong poses with the signage at Rest Stop 2. The theme was Girl Scouts. Merit badges for chamois lube (aka butt butter), among other things, were available for cyclists to earn.

These guys posed behind us for a photo at lunchtime. Jessica likes this angle better anyway.

Jess and me in our matching $5K incentive jerseys. ALC offers all kinds of prizes to spur on the fundraising. Raise $1000 in the first 45 days and win something. For every $1000 raised in a week in May they entered your name in a drawing an iPad. At $5000 you earn a special jersey.

Yoga at lunch. Very relaxing.

Riding through the long valley, somewhere south of Salinas.

Jess enjoys an Otter Pop at the Mission Soledad rest stop. Hey! That rhymed! The metre is off. What are you? Some kind of English teacher?

There’s a saying in cycling that tailwinds do not exist. There are only headwinds and good days. Today was an extraordinarily good day, with steady 15 mph breezes pushing us south towards King City. The 50 miles after lunch took about as long as the first 20 through Santa Cruz and Aptos.

After dinner I visited the Sports Med tent to get some advice on my hip. Not surprisingly, it’s been sore since the crash. I also favored it a lot today, and strained a muscle dismounting my bike. The guy on the left, Silverton, spent a solid 30 minutes massaging and stretching me. He also added a stretch to my routine so the joint will stay mobile. No charge, no tips allowed. All part of the package. Awesome.

Part of the community of ALC is helping total strangers. Jan and Dave are helping a rider get her tent erected as the sunsets over San Lorezno Park in King City.

And with that, it’s already time for bed again. Until tomorrow, good readers, farewell!