It Was So Great Until It Wasn’t

“That Looks Like A Friendly Hill”

My Happy Place

Rak Bros™️ Local’s Loop

Afternoon Swim

Literally a whole day, and it was quite the adventure. The first century was the easiest of the three but certainly the least engaging. It was mostly just traveling to the interesting bits of this ride. I had only one mechanical - a self-sealing puncture around mile 80, and there was a nice bike shop right around the corner so I could top off the psi. I am very lucky that I didn’t have any other issues with the bike, except for that godforsaken creak.

The second century was both the most difficult and the most interesting. Hwy 25 south of Hollister is cemented as one of my favorite roads to ride on; I highly recommend it if you have the chance. Super smooth and super empty, all the way to my turn onto La Gloria Road. This was the first of the two difficult climbs in the middle 100 miles. It wasn’t too steep but the dirt had some severe washboards and deep pockets of sand that made for slow going, even more so on the wicked downhill towards Gonzales. Yet, the Aeroad handled the dirt like a champ. The other hard climb was a brutal slog over a ridge that got progressively steeper all the way until the end. The descent helped a little but I was in rough mental shape going into the final third of the ride. Another Chevron mini mart stop and a Dr. Pepper helped a lot.

The third century was rather unique in that 90+ miles were in the dark. It was really cool riding along the coast at night, and navigating the bike paths north out of Monterey was surprisingly enjoyable. And then the climb up Hwy 9 from Santa Cruz at 1 am was spectacular. No traffic on the road and the stars were crazy. I did have two small issues. First, I learned the hard way that my front light won’t work while it’s charging, so I had to spend an hour in a Taco Bell in Soquel waiting for the juice since it was the only place still open. And I underestimated how difficult it would be to push any sort of power 18 hours into a ride, so the climb up 9 too much longer than I thought it would. Then rest of the ride home was chill, although the novelty of riding familiar roads at a crazy new hour was quite cool.

I think I’m done with endurance cycling, or at least solo endurance cycling, but that’s what I said last September so I guess we’ll see. My main takeaways are to invest in a better light for long night rides, or at least have another one I can swap it with, and even at 3:45 am on a Sunday a car will kill your PR attempt down 84. Otherwise, it couldn’t have gone better. I am pleased with how well my legs, arms, and ass felt when I got home. Similarly, my nutrition strategy of eat something every 20 mins and always have a bottle of soda in my pocket for the 2nd half of the ride went really well. But I think I probably have diabetes now after eating that much sugar.

Thanks to Andy Lieberman for the inspiration to ride ridiculous distances and Alex Anaya for keeping me company, even if it was only for 45 minutes.

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Matt Muscat

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It Was So Great Until It Wasn’t

“That Looks Like A Friendly Hill”

My Happy Place

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Afternoon Swim

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