2001 Solvang Half-Century Ride Report
(Saturday, March 10 in Solvang, CA.)
(This is a short report written waaaay after the
fact...)
This was my first organized ride of 2001, and I did it with my father, Barry,
my sister, Emily, and my brother, Corey. I drove down and picked up my
sister, Emily, at her place in San Luis Obispo, and we headed south towards
Solvang. Since our folks were coming down from Auburn, CA (a 5+ hr drive), we
were a long ways ahead of them. We didn't really want to wait in front
of our hotel for hours, so we continued south past Solvang to Santa Barbara and
had a really good lunch at an Italian/Spanish place.
We checked in for the hotel and the ride after everybody had arrived. Solvang
is a really trippy town, in a scandanavian style with (mostly faux) windmills
everywhere. We woke up on Saturday morning and promptly hit the road. The
course was overall pretty good, though the 50mi route was an out-and-back -
not my favorite style of route at all! Nonetheless, it was very green and
pretty. The support was fine (how much support does one need on a 50mi ride
anyways? ;-), and the weather cooperated nicely. While we were riding, my
mother went shopping in Solvang. After the ride, we had the post-ride meal
and went back to the hotel. Overall it was a fun ride, mainly since I'd never
ridden with so much of my family at once. If I do this ride next year, it'll
be the full century option for sure, as I was barely warmed up when we
finished!
Ride Stats:
| Distance: |
47.5mi |
| Total Time: |
4h 39m |
| On-bike Time: |
3h 27m |
| Average Speed: |
13.7mph |
| Total Climbing: |
~2,000 ft |
Ride Rating:
| Difficulty: |
1 |
| Support: |
4 |
| Food: |
3 |
| Route: |
2 - pretty, but entirely out 'n back :( |
| Overall: |
2.5 |
|