Day 2- Manhattan Beach to Riverside
78 miles
5:14 minutes
2164 feet of climbing
average heart rate-135 bpm, 4,000 calories burned
Today was a tale of two days. Misty and cool by the ocean in the morning turning to hot Southern California by the afternoon. We dipped our bikes in the Pacific Ocean at 7:30 a.m.. Hopefully the hypercharged testosterone jockeying for the position as the Alpha male will end tomorrow as we have a few moderately serious climbs and we head to Palm Springs and the desert. Tomorrow is a warm-up for two very difficult desert days . I am already starting to get into a rhythm. Get up early, bike, shower, laundry, eat then ck email and collapse from the rigors of the long day. The scenery was nice today, nothing spectacular and only one motorist yelled at us. Not a bad day. The pace was pretty fast when we didn't hit one of the 300 stop signs or stop lights. Now that we are heading into the dessert, that will not be a problem. So far, everyone is hanging in there (it is only day one). The people are all nice and everyone seems to get along pretty well. Hope you like the pics.
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wheel dip in the Pacific ocean, filled with optimism.
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The first known flat of the tour. Fortunately it happened right at the rest stop. Note Jim was eating the cheeseburger watching while watching him change the flat. .
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While most of us eat power bars and snack on oranges (we only stop 10 minutes twice today, Jim finds the time to wrestle up a cheeseburger. Don't be fooled-this was not a gourmet burber reststop..
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.Me in a pose that is in no danger of making GQ |
These were oranges and NO! we were not stopping to pick any up. We could smell the hotel by this time.
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The last 8 miles or so were lined with palm trees as we passed orange grove after orange grove. The temperature was starting to get hot by this time.
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