Solvang Double Century done!!

This is an updated post with pictures to replace the blackberry post I put up right after the event.

On Sat 3/27/2010 Lisa and I tackled the Planet Ultra Solvang Double Century (200 miles)... which took us from Buellton through Solvang, up to Morro Bay and back again. Along the way we climbed beautiful Foxen Canyon (in the early morning) and Drum Canyon (in the early evening).

We took off at 5:10am and rode through the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. Temperature was about 45F to start, so we had cold feet by the time we made it to the first rest stop at mile 41.

Once the sun rose, the temperatures started to climb (into the low 70's eventually) but so so did the wind. The wind started as a bit of a tail wind into Morro Bay, but then became a stronger headwind in to San Luis Obispo - and eventually a tail wind into Los Alamos.

At the final rest stop (177mi) in Los Alamos they served hot cup-a-soup... yum! just what we needed before Drum Canyon.

We were lucky to make it over the 3+ mile Drum Canyon Climb during daylight hours - since the descent is very steep, and twisting with terrible pavement- we only turned the lights on a couple of miles out from the finish line.

So the final numbers:

12hr 20min on the bike.
14hr 27min total time
Average speed 15.6 mph
~7500' climbing
So we bettered the on-bike
time of our first double by
1 hour and 10 min..
We reduced the overall time
by 40 min.

On Sunday we drove back up though Morrow Bay State Park and took a couple of pictures of the flowers - nature in all its glory!

Hope you had a great weekend too!

R & L