Tandem Time Ride- Hammerfest

Hats off to Henry and Kathy Pilcher of the Orange County Wheelmen for organizing a great ride. So much for the "moderate" pace as explained in the invitation. This group should be called "Hammer Time" as the pace was just short of RACE! Good fun though and great training.


We added an additional 20 miles to take the total for the day to just shy of 60 with 1100 feet of climbing (ah, an easy weekend for once, HA). There were some beautiful bikes and one could of concluded the ride was sponsored by CoMotion. We ambled along on the "stock" Trek but managed to barely hang on with the lead group.

Only a week and half from departure, can't wait!

Malibu Climb Training Ride

After trying to torture good friends Brad and Michael last weekend down the Orange County Coast with 3,500 feet of climing and 60 miles Maria and I decided to give Brad's Malibu mountains a shot (picutre above is the top of Saddle Peak overlooking the beautiful Pacfic ocean). Brad and Michael insisted we would have no problem and that they would not let us down.

Needless to say it was a rugged 70 miles with almost 4,ooo feet of climbing. We suffered: Mark with three bee stings on the first 45 mph descent and Maria's legs broke out with somekind of hives, we think related to the "latex" grippers on the shorts. But, hats off to Brad and Michael; you tortured us, but we didn't go down. Check out those thighs on Brad (click on picture below)---do you think he can climb????

French Apls Route and Mileage Chart

For those who were wondering (and I know that is many) I've included a chart with our daily route, mileage and the most important statistic, feet that will be climbed. If you add up the total feet that will be climbed in the yellow shaded area you get close to 30,000. Isn't that about like climbing Mt. Everest??? As you will see we do have options but don't expect the far right column each day. We'll just have to take it as it comes. To get a bigger view of the chart, just click on it.