Pasadena to the Brentwood via Mulholland

I finally convinced alan to come out and re-do our Mulholland ride from last summer. here is a rough approximation of the route (stolen from last summer, because I'm too lazy to re-map it properly):

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Its a nice ride on a sunday morning, mainly because we get to ride through all the richie-rich neighborhoods without having to worry about being run over by some idiot in a Porsche or Escalade. Last year, the trip back through East LA was killer - we were coming through around noon, and the huge expanses of concrete that define East LA had heated up and turned into tire-melting lava flows. Today, however, the cooler weather meant that the ride stayed pleasant all the way back to Pasadena.

The Lesson of the weekend? Cycling Nirvana is a place where the temp stays between 40 and 80 degrees year round, with big mountains and lots of green. If you know of such a place, tell me, and i'll move there tommorrow.

Saturday: Ojai's Never-Ending Climb

Yesterday Bob, Gloria, Leslie, Peter and I decided to do a 'century prep' ride to help everyone make sure that they were ready for the Mulholland Century next weekend. The prep ride was simple- ride 40 miles up highway 33 from Ojai, and then turn around and come home. It was a spectacular ride, and as we climbed and got away from the ocean we watched the ecosystem change from coastal, to high mountain, and finally to semi-arid valley. It was the perfect time of year to do the ride; my bike computer registered low 50's near the summit, and mid 60's down in Ojai proper. if it was warmer we'd have burned up in the sun, and in the winter we'd have been fighting snow at elevation.

One thing to note: As we were coming down in the afternoon, the wind shifted, and we had a pretty severe headwind through all but the last 20 miles (when it was so steep that we didn't notice). As always, never forget: A headwind now doesn't guarantee a tailwind later!

Due to some confusion about eating after the ride, Gloria and I rode an extra few miles around Ojai, leading us to end the day with 90 miles and ~8,000 feet of climbing. It was a good ride, I look forward to doing it again, maybe in the fall.


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