After 14 hours on 2 planes I eventually hit the ground on Thursday evening at SFO to be met by me hombres Christina, Sara and Simon.
Straight into the van and away to Santa Cruz, the tag team heckling begins !
Meet up with Mike and Kelly, catch up, eat and drink and even get to pay the bill eventually, more chat and wine, tired now, its been 28 hours of awakeness before turning into bed staying overnight at Kelly’s house.
Friday, bike fettling (09 69ers courtesy of the nice people at Trek) and out onto the trails straight from the door, a bit of climbing before the swoopy good stuff, 2 and half hours later and we’re sat in a Taqueira eating Burritos and drinking beer.
Leave Santa Cruz and drive down the Pacific Ocean highway passing all the surf spots and craning my neck to see the pelicans, through San Fran passing other folks obviously going our way “You suck” coming from their van gives it away as well as the Blue Collar singlespeeds hanging off the back.
Get blown across the Golden Gate bridge and all the way to Napa where most of the usual suspects are already hanging and drinking beer, get room sorted and ride into town. Napa is a very different place, seemed to be quite straight laced, lots of Chinos and button down collars, lots of cops, lots of funny looks, drink beer and wine, eat a nice meal in an Italian, drink more beer looking for some life….
Back at the hotel, there’s a group gathered together chatting and drinking, the wine is flowing nicely now..... 3am….
Saturday, hangover, splitting headache, 4 litres of water before anything came out the other end :-0
Ride to the race course, sit and drink more water, then beer, meet other people, decide to have a barbecue back at the hotel, lend camera to small Bacon boy who takes lots of photo’s and earns himself ten bucks.
Hotel again, swimming in the pool, food, beer, wine, bullshit, dancing, carrying on, laughing, getting hosed by Phil (the maniacal laugh should have given the game away), no durby…..
Apparently Durango have the event next year..
Sunday, up early to get to the race on time, there’s a few spare places going and lots of folk looking for an entry, don’t even consider it for a minute, just happy to be there.
Take photo’s, laugh a lot, heckle (much to Lilias surprise “he’s not going to get off and fight me is he ?”) hang out, relax, beer, wine etc etc etc …
Sunday night ride into town, meet up with Troy and Dane, learn two new jokes (Juno and Dr Dre), eat fantastic cheeseburger, head back to hotel, some debauchery, skinny dipping, quiet chat, things starting to slow down now, tiredness catching up………
Monday, drive out to the best diner in the world ever, get intimidated when choosing a sandwhich, then riding on the road to the first vineyard….
And finish at the forth vineyard, not a huge ride in miles but huge in fun, another sandwhich conundrum and then packing the van for San Fran, via the Golden gate which is showing itself off so well that two dodgy looking cops are photographing each other against the backdrop ???
Through the streets of San Fran to Chris’s restaurant where we eat the most amazing food I’ve ever had, then to a motel for the night before flying back to the UK.
All in all a fun packed flying visit that was well worth the effort to get there, next year I’ll be fitter and ready to race, honest
Ace.
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