With the Tour de Palm Springs in the history book, I'm looking forward to upcoming two rides. The Reedley Blossom Bike Ride is scheduled for Saturday, March 5. The long ride is a metric, and I understand that it has a couple short but challenging climbs. I've not ridden this one before, and I'm looking forward to a good training ride on a new route that's only a bit up the road.
The other ride I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks is the Solvang Century. I've signed up for the metric, and they've got two versions of that ride available this year: an "easier" and a "harder" version. I'm thinking that the harder metric is probably the ride I'll attempt, since it's got a stated 2,566' of climbing, which has been about how much my old knees can handle. The century is temptting, though, with a stated 3,400' total climb. MapMyRide typically underreports climbing, relative to my VDO odometer/altimeter (or maybe my VDO overreports--whichever you prefer), probably to the tune of 3-400' or so for a ride of this length, so it would be a personal best for climbing if I completed it. There are two other concerns, and the first is the wind: I rode the Solvang metric last year, and the headwind on the outbound leg was really hard on my knees. The second concern is that all of the significant climbing happens at the end of the ride. As far as I can figure, though, the harder metric and the century share the same route for the first twenty miles or so, so I see how the day unfolds before making a final decision. Mrs. SockMonkey will be making cookies with my sister in Santa Barbara on the day of the Solvang ride, so another reason to make it to the finish in good form and good time...
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