Day 2, Santa Cruz to King City, 110 miles

Day 2 is Safety Orange Day. Costumes as well as orange vests, t-shirts and jackets fill the day.
This is Jan at Rest Stop 1 with 2 Roadies who dressed up.

Day 2 is filled with beautiful agriculture, but along with that comes some very poorly maintained truck roads, that bump us all over. The day is mostly flat, but because of wind and bumps is for most the hardest day.

This is one of a couple of safety vehicles that gives tickets to riders for safety infractions. If you get a ticket, they pull your bike off the rack at night and you have to chat with staff before you get it back to ride out. Usually don't find out until the morning after the ticket, that you had an infraction.
Photo by professional photographer, on the ride, Georg Lester

The un-official rest stop for artichokes, fried, steamed, breaded, all sorts of ways, is a highlight for any riders who want to take the time to enjoy. And Roadies too. 

This is Taylor, enjoying some. He and his dad, Larry, worked Sweep in the Teddy Bear van.

It is amazing to see all the agriculture of California, close up.

This is Ike and Sally, sporting their orange. 

Sally did local training rides with the team, and is unofficially on our team.

The tri-tip sandwiches were in the food trucks, also at the artichoke stop. A nice variation from the food provided at camp. Not that the food in camp isn't great, it is, but a change is nice.

The Otter Pop/Cookie Lady water stop is probably THE favorite rest stop of the entire week.
Cookie lady makes dough all year and freezes it, then bakes up a storm with about 3000 cookies for the ride. Even vegan and gluten free. The "Bears" hand out frozen Otter Pops, twirl flags and cheer riders on. At mile 83 of a 110 day ride this is a happy place to get to stop and rest.
The stop is at Mission Muestra Señora.

Sweeps, David & Emilia took these photos in the mission.





Cookie Lady's whole family come and help, parents, daughter, nieces, all of them. 

A common comment in bike parking, at all the rest stops is, remember where you parked. By Day 7, it may be over 40 times.

The long and bumpy roads and often relentless winds, of day 2 are what makes it a hard day. Not much change in elevation, even though the snap shot looks like there is.
Finishing 110 miles is an accomplishment to be proud of.

Day 1, SF to Santa Cruz, 82 miles

Day 1 has the most climbing of any day, but we have fresh legs, and lots of excitement to motivate us. This is our smiling faces at 5am at the Cow Palace. We have just dropped off our luggage to our truck "B" for the week.

Front: Jan, Emilia, Jamie. Back row: David, Ike, Mike. It was dark out still.

Then, right before we rode out of the Cow Palace

 

Opening Ceremonies at 6am announced record funds raised, over:

16.7 MILLION
After that announcement, we went to retrieve our bikes and prepare to ride out.

It was beautiful and sunny as we rode out. Which is rare in Daly City at 6:30 am.

This is Rick in blue, looking a Jan in orange.
The riders go out in a huge mass, with a police escort, the 1st 5 miles or so.
At which point we eventually ride single file, unless passing.

These are both rest stops, there are about 4 a day and on long days a couple more water stops, in addition to the lunch stop. There are all kinds of snacks at each stop. Pop tarts are a favorite.

After the stop on our ascent up CA-1 to Devils slide the weather turned cold. Climbing in cool weather isn't bad. Riding down in wet weather is not as comfortable.

Later riders had a drier time of Devil's slide. This is the top, before a long descent.
The bike/pedestrian path has no motorized vehicles, lovely.

Luckily it was very windy. Those of us who were wet dried out quickly.

Most of the climbing is before lunch. Lunch is at San Gregorio State Beach.

Snap shot of the top of our route sheet.
That is the down before 1. The numbers represent rest stops, L is lunch stop.
They aren't exactly placed.

Weather cleared by lunch and the beach was beautiful.

Shot of a few of, approximately 1000 riders, at the time we were at lunch.

After Lunch there is a Lighthouse where we found Training Ride Leaders, who we regularly train with, who weren't doing the week long ride this year, there to cheer us on, in costumes.

Bike Parking in Santa Cruz with Tents in the background. There is a Camp Lounge where folks can just hang out and visit.

There is a Camp Lounge where folks can just hang out and visit.

Food is always amazing and you can eat as much as you like, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

These are shots of the scenery as we rode down the coast.
It is a very different experience to ride a bike down the coast, than a car.

Still having difficulty with the app on my phone

will publish bits and photos out of chronological order and edit upon return.
Jamie was taking time for lots of photos, more details to come,