Waves to Wine Kickoff Ride, 6/27/2009

And now for something completely different!

Today marked the start of the training for the MS Waves to Wine ride. A bunch of the Sun team from last year, most of whom are returning riders this year, got together for a kickoff/reunion ride.

We had originally planned an afternoon ride followed by an evening BBQ, but the weather forecast of temps in the mid-90s persuaded us to ride in the morning and BBQ at lunch. Good call,the ride was pleasant but by lunch it was hot enough that we chose to eat indoors even with backyard shade. I was sooo happy that the Terrible Two wasn't this weekend.

We started at our house in Palo Alto and headed up Page Mill Road to do the Portola Valley loop with Woodside as the turnaround point. For Jenny and I, this was the start of the tandem season. It felt a bit strange after my single road bike but we settled in pretty well considering the long layoff. The change from Shimano to Campy shifters always tricks me as the lever shift has the opposite effect. Plus you can't easily see which gear you are in on a tandem from the front.

I was happy to be starting late, after three consecutive weekends of double century rides starting at the crack of dawn. As we got onto Alpine Road we ran into people coming the other way on the Giro de Peninsula ride. The police were out in force and, unfortunately, were taking the opportunity to do a bit of fund raising by ticketing bikes for not following the letter of the law at stop signs. One member of our group got hit up at the right turn into Portola Valley Road, which has got to be one of the most ridiculous places to ticket a bike. It's obviously a fund-raising exercise not a safety issue. So that was a bit of a downer. We cruised down to Woodside, being very careful at all the stop signs, spotting another rider getting a ticket at the Mountain Home junction.

Iced latte at the Woodside Bakery and then back to Palo Alto via Sand Hill and Stanford. 21 miles, 1:30 on bike time, average speed 13.9. Not bad for a first outing. 10% of a double!