Going Long and Hard.

I'm not sure how many bivy and pad setups I own, but I may have GAS. (Gear Aquisition Syndrome)

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When in Cali...

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Been taking the day to watch all the Star Wars on TBS for May The 4th, hydrate, and finalize my gear (again). Packet pick up, bike bag drop, and rider Meet and Greet is 6-8 about a mile away. Gonna also meet up with Matt, doubt we'll ride much together because of all the climbing that I'm not good at.

Brushed up on my Rattlesnake safety because they're supposed to be everywhere out here and I ain't got a tent.
 
Back at the hotel. Dropped off my bike box and picked up my Spot Tracker. Ran into Matt on the way so I didn't have to stick around and make small talk with Rapha people 🤣

I am definitely way out of place here, not sure how they pulled me out the 1,000's of Applications? Either way, I'm gonna have a great time getting dropped on the 1st climb and riding alone 🥰
 
In Solvang for the night. Came off course in 33rd overall. Absolutely brutal 1st day. Rain in the morning, 1st climb is 5,000ft right from the gun. 2nd climb was a muddy mess. Downhill was completely washed away so you had to walk almost all of it. Then made a quick stop in Santa Ynez before doing the Fig from the backside. Monster climb. Hit 13,000 feet of ascent in 62 miles...Made the call to get a proper night's rest and calorie load before we hitting the 100% no support gravel section that starts off with a 6,500 foot climb. Hopefully everyone wakes up cold and hungry so I'll get back to where I was.

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Holy hell, what a day.

Got a flat yesterday but it sealed so didn't think anything of it. Woke up this morning to a flat. Filled it with Co2 and thought that was that, no, tire exploded off the rim like 10 pedal strokes away from the hotel.

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Put in a tube and again, on my way. Made it back into Santa Ynez before that tube went bad. Split seam. Expensive Tubalito tube too.

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Now I have 0 spare tubes and 0 Co2s so I ride back into Solvang for a resupply because there's no bike shop in Santa Ynez. And then, that Tubalito tube splits. I have no spare and no way to get enough air to ride so I had to walk back to Solvang. That took some time.

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I buy normal ass tubes and a bunch of Co2s. At this point I've wasted so much time there's no way I can make it through Sierra Madre before I have to fly home. I decided to ride back into Santa Barbara and jump back on route for the last 150 mile section. But...I got a flat!! I was seriously .5 mile from getting back on course.

I put some Co2 in it a rode to a Trek shop a few miles away. At this point I decided to swap the tire for something beefy so I can actually ride. They didn't have anything Gravel sized so I got a 32c Commuter tire and called it a day. Gonna cut my losses and ride the coast down to LA.

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Hopefully I've paid whatever debts to the flat gods over the past few rides because this shit is getting silly. Like the Universe is trying to tell me something...

And then I got this email so my head is all over the place today.

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