Independence Day Ride Around the Bay!

With legs strong&fresh off bike tour, I circumnavigated the San Francisco Bay on the Fourth of July! The group rode a goofy collection of rigs, including a singlespeeding Hooligan,  Blacksheep beach cruiser (fixed), a Soma with track drops (also fixed), a 14 speed Rohloffed Sycip cross bike, and me on the aluminum lugged carbon Allez, sporting a borrowed pair of tri bars.

Our circumnavigation was chosen to minimize elevation gain and clocked out  somewhere between 170 mi (Google Maps) and 180 mi (Katie’s GPS from last year). Route here. At Novato, we were on track to beat last year’s 13 hr record with help of a strong tail wind surging inland from the Bay. Once turning east, this became a bike spanking crosswind. Rounding the North Bay onto Mare Island, we were hit by double-whammies of a gusting headwind and one of the riders half-wrecking himself on the railroad tracks.

The two fixed gear riders turned off there for home pastures in Concord — which was still a 30 mile ride across the Benicia Bridge. Vajda, Jesse, and I soldiered on to the East Bay, finishing just before sunset and heralded by fireworks. BOOM!

1 bowl of oatmeal with raisins

1.5 Mojo/Odwalla bars

3 homemade date+oat bars

2 bananas

1 huge bacon mushroom breakfast scramble on muffin + potatoes

several bites of burrito

8 oz egg white salad

1 coconut water

1 pack of Shot Blocks

1 multigrain pancake

handful of cherries

1 almond croissant

1 Ritter sport bar

1 Gatorade

1 Powerade

1 iced tea

2 pieces Korean dried fish

1 huge Ethiopian dinner at Cafe Colucci

+ 1 bite of blackberry cobbler before showering and going to bed.

 

❤ The Flaming Bike