6.17.2010We arrived in Santa Barbara after riding about 70 miles today. As we discovered, Santa Barbara is surrounded on every side by mountains. I picked this route because I thought it would be flat… The road had some pretty cool stuff along the way. I saw some oil derricks for the first time, some cows, some cactuses, and there were a bunch of road kill snakes, which is something I‘ve never seen before. Maybe that last thing about the snakes isn’t necessarily great sightseeing.
Over lunch I was talking with some more of the guys on the team. They all seem really cool, and I’m enjoying getting to know the other cyclists and the crew. Tonight we all get to stay in a hotel, and tomorrow we have the day off before we go riding again on Saturday. The break came just in time. Hopefully I’ll have some fresh legs for when we get on the road again.
I had to rack for a few miles today because I got a piece of glass in my tire and kept getting flats. I put my bike on the van until we got to the next crew stop where I was able to get the glass out. Unfortunately I forgot my patch kit in one of the other vans, so I used a trick that I saw one of my buddies from Psi chapter used during one of our training rides. I got a piece of tape out of the first aid kit and a dollar bill out of my wallet. I folded up the dollar and taped it on the inside of the tire over the hole that the glass had made. Then I inflated the tube and got back on the road. That set up held up for the rest of the ride. Unfortunately when I was racked, the van carried me up the biggest climb of the day. I didn’t get to push it out with the rest of the team, which was a real bummer. We do have a friendship visit later tonight though, so hopefully that will cheer me up.
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