Prepping in San Diego

Will, John and Rob at Dog Beach, San Diego

We're ready to go.  Everyone has arrived at the hotel, put their bikes together and gone out for an easy spin.  Yesterday a few of us cruised the harbor to see some classic sailing vessels, checked out the SD Convention Center, hit a bike shop and found a yogurt place, all in under 11 miles.  Early this morning we headed to the beach for the ceremonial pictures and a humongous breakfast at the Mission Café.  The weather is absolutely perfect, mid 70s, a little breeze.  It will be hard to leave San Diego, but at 6:00a tomorrow morning we head out, up and over the coastal mountains towards El Centro in the furnace of the Central Valley.

There are a lot of familiar faces from past PACTour rides, along with many new riders.  About 40% of the riders are on their first PACTour event.  Some of them have strong resumes for long distance riding, several others have not done this kind of event before.  Lon and Sue did a nice job of explaining the rules, what to expect and how they will be supporting us at the rider briefing meeting this afternoon.  You are definitely expected to look after yourself, this is not a concierge kind of ride, but they will be there to support you and get you through each day.

It's a little hard to tell how the group will do when we start riding but there are clearly some faster guys (or they look like they are fast) and some riders that will likely need some help along the way.  Most of the rest of us will fit somewhere in the middle.  Lon and Susan have emphasized several times to take it easy for the first several days.  Given the tough winter many of us have gone through, this should work very well.  Some of the toughest days are the early ones so a more moderate distance (120-150 miles/day) will be appreciated.  The longer days will come soon enough. 

On Monday we ride 122 miles to El Centro.  In the first 50 miles we will climb to about 4,000' feet, then bounce along in the hills for another 30 miles before dropping back to sea level into the steamy Central Valley.  The temperature will rise 20-30 degrees in 10 miles to over 100, then it's another 30 miles across the valley to the hotel.  Ice socks (around your neck) are recommended.  No problem!

Here are a few pictures of some of the riders on the 2013 ET roster.

Susan Notorangelo and Lon Haldeman - PACTour

 

Clay (my roomie), Steve, Scott at the beach ride breakfast

 Jeremiah, Mike, Tony at the beach early in the morning

 Nico, Andrew at breakfast

 Steve, Doug, Tony cruising to breakfast

 

Alan, Nico, Doug getting ready for the official pictures