Sorry, but I can't razzle dazzle you with power numbers, gps reports, or even hrm graphs to supplement my bragging and gloating. So far this trip is pretty much instrumentation free. No bike computer, not even a watch. I'm not even sure what day it is. Not to fear, as Solobreak won't let you down, even when he's on vacation. Armand Schleck, despite weighing slightly more than his two younger brothers combined, is quite the climbing machine. Just imagine how much power it takes to move this beast up the canyon. We ran some numbers through the Cray, simply as an academic exercise. 120 kg of man, machine, and S&S couplings going up a 6% grade at 20 kph required an astounding 8000 watts of power! No wonder he's so strong in those pesky PCH headwinds.
Today since the A-man had a work date on the base at 0930 hours, he had us out on the road at the ungodly hour of dawn. I was all woolied up for the occasion, as the mercury was barely touching 55F under the clouds. We headed back up Muholland. Unlike yesterday when I made it 11 miles before a car passed, today it was like rush hour and I think there were two before we ran out of time and stopped for a nature call at the 5 mile mark. As luck would have it, no sooner did we pull down the bibs on the deserted roadside does Sharon Stone come along with her Labrador, out on their morning jog . She was cool about it, and I saw Basic Instinct, so I guess now we're even. OK, maybe it wasn't Sharon Stone, but it was a fit blond with a baseball hat and sunglasses even though it was cloudy as hell, and this was Malibu, so I'm going with it.
What goes up must come down, and since we'd just come up and made note of where the rockslide remnants were, we could safely let it rip. 25 minutes up, 10 minutes down, with about 20 switchbacks. Life is good.
Like everyone else, we're struggling to get by in the down economy, but don't you worry about old
Last but not least, here is a cool video from the Millcreek ride, featuring a cameo by yours truly, pretty funny audio track. The rest of the Amgen ATOC pics can be found here. That's it for now, off to Encino, thanks for reading.
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