In hindsight, I count 3 bad ideas here.

Yesterday was a groundbreaking day - I got my first club kit (Pasadena Athletic Association, one of the largest teams in the area), and had an adventurous afternoon riding.

See, I was so excited to get out and show off the new kit (Bad Idea - Murphy's Law) that i jumped on the bike first thing, and ended up at the rose bowl an hour early. I gave Alan a call (because, like me, he works a 7-3 schedule and might be around.) He said I should go do our usual hill ride as a warm up "except for Emerald Isle." He cautioned me to take it easy, and I said OK, and immediately forgot the advice, blowing through the warm up in a half-hour. (Bad Idea)

When the bowl did start, it was back to being the hairy-scary ride that I have nightmares about. I saw two near misses in the first lap, and I was jumpy for the whole rest of the ride - as was the pack. Rules of etiquette and safety seemed to have gone out the window, and I was *sure* there would be a nasty crash. I spent a good bit of the ride in the wind where it was safer, and found myself in no-mans-land between a breakaway and the peloton. (Bad Idea) Twice. That never happened before.

Anyway, back to the point: we did 9? laps, and I fell off at the beginning of the final uphill / start of the sprint. The sprint is the scariest part of the entire ride, and I was thoroughly worn down both from the 'warm up' and from being out in the wind so much. Nobody crashed, to my surprise, and we all headed home in safety.

I blame Murphy and his law for the drop- If I hadn't been wearing a new kit, I wouldn't have done the hills for a warm up, or spent so much time in the wind, and I'd have got through OK. However, I built up a nice little chunk of character today.

Belated: Solvang Century

This year I did the Solvang Century for the first time. I think it was my first time going to Solvang and it was an absolutely gorgeous area. With beautiful green rolling hills and valleys, it can only be described as a bucolic paradise.

I gather that the movie 'Sideways' was filmed in the area, because all the places that we visited that weekend said something to the effect of "as seen in Sideways." I don't really recall much of the film, but I guess I'll have to watch it again for the scenery!

The day of the century was very windy, with strong winds (20 mph) from the Northwest. Around the time we got to Santa Maria and were thinking that the wind should start working for us, it shifted to coming from due NNE, so we didn't get any meaningful help until the very last let of the ride.

Peter was kind enough to post his garmin track so that I could figure out where we went, and Alan took the photos, so that we had something to remember the ride by.