Amelia Island
AMELIA ISLAND, FLORIDA This was an accidental stay. I intended to stay around St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. When snow hit yesterday morning, I jumped in the car and drove. On my way, I was looking for hotels near St. Simon’s and found this – which must have been close only in air miles. So I […]
Sugar Cookie
CAMARILLO, CALIFORNIA If I wanted breakfast at the hotel, and that is my favorite part of staying at a Hilton Garden Inn, I would be unable to make the earlier routes. And I already skipped breakfast once on this trip; that was before the World Hillclimb Championships. I wanted breakfast today. After a great breakfast […]
Chocolate Chip Cookie
AGOURA HILLS, CALIFORNIA This is Phil’s Cookie Fondo. As I write this I have a fresh huge chocolate chip cookie on my hotel’s nightstand that I will never eat. But this was a bike ride with the Chocolate Chip and Sugar Cookie routes today. Tomorrow is the main event and will have the Double Fudge […]
Hillclimb World Championships
SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA Sometime this week I had a dumb idea. Or three. Ride Palomar. Ride Baldy. Ride the Hillclimb World Championships. On three consecutive days. If I was serious about putting up a good time I would not have ridden Palomar Mountain and Mount Baldy the day before the championships. Those climbs take everything […]
Mount Baldy
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA I was warned. In reading John Summerson’s book, The Complete Guide to Climbing (by bike), he wrote that this was the toughest climb in southern California (not sure what is tougher up north). At 13 miles it was the equivalent of the Col du Tourmalet (France). I read a little about the profile […]
Palomar Mountain
PAUMA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA So much of this ride did not go to plan. I began yesterday afternoon at Jax Bicycles in Murrieta. They were very helpful while letting me pump up my deflated tires from the flight. I got a suggestion to bike from there to Palomar but didn’t really like the way it looked […]
Alpine Loop Gran Fondo
The 2018 version of the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo featured plenty of cramping
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