AdoboVelo had a fundraising event for the SIPA, Search to Involve Pilipino American, this ride will start at Angel’s Stadium, Anaheim to Fiesta Island, San Diego.
We were broken up to 6 groups, each group have 10-12 riders with caption to pull and co-captain to sweep. This is a no-drop zone. This is why this group is amazing, no matter how slow you are or noticed that you are struggling, there are riders that will encourage and help you go through. Also, we have a sweeper and support vehicle. The sweeper car just make sure that no one is left behind, while the support vehicle helps troubled bike.
From Angel’s stadium, we hit the SART to PCH. On PCH, we did a quick bathroom break right after the bridge, then we went to Crystal Cove for our first SAG stop after 20 miles of riding. After Crystal Cove, we then continued on to different cities till San Clemente for our 2nd SAG stop. From San Clemente, we readied our ID for Camp Pendleton’s entry. After different city, we had our lunch stop at Carlsbad. We try to limit our lunch break quick so we don’t have to warm-up once again, we want our legs to keep moving. After the lunch break, we headed towards Torrey Pines State beach where we stopped for bathroom break. Before climbing the hill, we took pictures with everyone and off we go. After the climb, we had a quick SAG stop and we were only 12 miles away from Fiesta Island so we didn’t bother taking long. We headed towards Fiesta Island.
I got dropped by Camp Pendleton because I felt some tightening on my left calf, I just stretched it out and kept going. Another factor is the head wind. Luckily, I was able to catch up with those guys and soon got left behind because of stop lights. I didn’t know that I can still keep up with those guys after 80, hitting 22-26mph even on uphill. I had this energy when I knew that there is only couple miles left, I had this sudden burst of energy to keep going. By arriving at Fiesta Island, I was short 3 miles for a century so I kept going till I hit 100 miles.
Overall, this ride was fun and enjoying. Scenic ride along the coast with perfect weather, not too hot nor too cold. Great century ride experience. Will I do it again? Yes.
To my surprise, I can still ‘hammer’ even after 50 miles, with uphill and downhill. With some strong group, they helped me climb some hill by pushing me but then this is just to keep everyone go fast. They gave me few tips on climbing: relax, keep pedaling, relax, and relax.
SAG stop means refueling, eating, hydrating, etc. Hydrating is very important, even though it was not hot during the ride it is still important to drink fluids.
Below is my Strava details about the ride. We were hitting 18mph all the way till we get to Torrey Pines climb, which dropped my average down to 16mph. I’m not a strong climber, I take my time to climb.