Cool Breeze Century 8/21/10

Our first century of the year proved to be one of our best in this year's Cool Breeze, Ventura to Santa Barbara and back.  We had a great meal the night  before at Capprico's in Ventura with our good friends Patrick and Adrian Henry.  Nice thin crust pizza and a magnificent shrimp pasta, not to mention the two bottles of Laetitia Pinot Noir.


We were welcomed at 7:45am with a nice tailwind as we headed up up 101 towards our first climb just outside of Carpenteria.  We climbed steadily into the Montecito foothills and followed a sweet road along the mountain ridge for miles, reminding us a lot of our Provence trip, before dropping back down into N. Santa Barbara.  The lunch stop was out in Goleta near UCSB.  A quick buffet sandwich lunch and we were back on the road heading west of the freeway into Hope Ranch and Cabrillo Drive down to the Harbor.  This was a gorgeous section of riding.  We flew all the way home down 101 dragging almost every able single bike rider that could sustain a 25-30 mph pace.  All in all one of our better efforts; 104 miles, 16.7 mph average and 4,300 feet of climbing.

Lunch stop, sporting the Surf City Cycle jerseys, hellva couple

Hope Ranch and a sweet golf course

Looking back to the mtns above Santa Barbara

                                    

Cabrillo Dr. heading to the harbor and looking to Ventura