After the Gran Fondo our next ride was north along the coast from Goat Rock to Fort Ross, then up the crazy steep and narrow Fort Ross Road to the ridge and back down the other side of the Fort Ross Road to Cazadero, and back to the Russian River Valley back down to the coast and the car.
Visibility was limited but we dressed so well that we could be seen.
Visibility was limited but we dressed so well that we could be seen.
Even though temps in Santa Rosa were in the 90’s we arrived to find Goat Rock was about 50 degrees and shrouded in fog. It made for some dramatic riding on California Route 1 along the coast in and out of the fog to arrive at the historic Fort Ross. The Russian River is named for the Russian explorers who were the early settlers of the area and lived at Fort Ross.
On the descent from the ridge Lenny took off ahead of us, planning to ride down and back up Meyers Grade and then down to Cazadero and back up – he is a monster. Chris and I headed down towards Cazadero. At one point I stopped to change clothes and wait for Chris. He didn’t appear so I went back to look for him. Eventually he showed up having had to stop to fix a flat. He had had a couple of flats on the Gran Fondo, too. We headed on down together since we knew something was wrong causing him to get so many flats. His tube blew up again and we stopped to fix it, and it immediately flatted again despite our very thorough efforts to find the source of the punctures. At that point we stopped wasting tubes and he started walking down. At least it was good weather and downhill. I rode ahead to get the car to come back to pick him up.
When I got to Cazadero I stopped for food and drink before heading down the road to to the car. I knew it was another 17 miles, mostly flat to mild downhill except the last mile was uphill to Goat Rock. Chris showed up in a few minutes in a pickup truck being driven by some Hispanic workers. They had a grand time speaking Spanish with the huge gringo. Chris said that lots of white people passed him by, but these guys were nice enough to give him a lift. I hopped back on the bike, and headed down to get the car, hoping to find Lenny who is a much faster rider. I did see Lenny, but he wanted to go back to Cazadero and ride more, so I went and got the car by myself.
Alls well that ends well, and this one was good. Chris had a leisurely time hanging out at the Cazadero store, enjoyed a sandwich and the WiFi and waited patiently for me to return with the car.
The next morning we went to the Norcal bike shop in Santa Rosa where we found out that the problem was the rim tape had shifted and allowed the spokes to puncture the tubes. From there we headed to Angel Camp in the Sierras for some high mountain riding.