Palomar repeats!

This one's for you, Wes!! We wanted to show our support to wes with a thumbs up, Chuck very kindly took the picture, and stopped and took lots of pictures of us on our way up palomar. We were very pleased on the way home to read that wes is starting to improve and to respond a lot more, which is wonderful news!!

We started off very happy with the early start, it was a beautiful morning, and our first time ascending the east of Palomar, we were treated to almost empty roads, and beautiful golden sunshine and fantastic views!





For our final heavy training week we set about doing palomar repeats. You can see from the green line that there was a lot of climbing! I was hoping we'd manage three repeats, but the heat was too much, so we managed one east grade and one south grade including a ride to the observatory, then we managed a few rides down to the dip in the shade on the way to the observatory.

I got in 10, 270 ft of climbing and 70.8 miles, hopefully enough to get those 5 passes done in two weeks!

Our thoughts are with Wes

I'm sure I speak for everyone on the ACE team when I say my thoughts are with Wes for a speedy recovery from the nasty accident he had on Sunday.
Please see Matt's blog for updates and to leave comments

Phew what a scorcher!!

Wow, today was hot! Thanks Phil for changing the location of our ride!

We were suffering with the weather around the 90's on Soledad so I cant even begin to imagine how hot it was up at Rincon and Palomar!

We struggled up Soledad's 5 faces a few times, including the 17% Pacifica then went through La Jolla Shores and up to Del Mar for a very well earned coffee break!

Upon reaching the top of Torrey Pines hill, most of the team decided to wind things up, we split into a group going down Gilman back to the parking lot, and a silly group going up Via Capri. Guess which one I picked!!

I thought I was going to throw up, but I made it to the top and was very pleased to see Rick, Tom, DJ and Coach Phil waiting for me. I threw some water on my head, gathered my thoughts, and decided to try and get a bit more climbing in before calling it a day.


I made it down Nautilus, a detour around Windansea beach, then to Cardeno. Phew. My Garmin still only registered 7800 ft climbing, but I'm hoping it will register as 8k when I download it! I also managed 70 miles.

Solamar again, this time with the observatory!

This week seemed even hotter, we started off from Solana Beach at 7am and it was warm. We made our way to Escondido, the Del dios climb was hard as we knew how far we still had to go. But once we started up Lake Wolford Road, spirits were high, Christine was kind enough to help coach Phil with a push and we were looking forward to our first sag at the lake. We met the wonderful B'ones, who were cheering us on the whole day.


Things were going well although we really suffered on the lower slopes of Palomar. It seemed hot and humid and was really hard to keep sane in the heat. Thankfully the Bones were there every step of the way, at the bottom of Palomar, then twice more to give us water and lots of cheers. Poor Diana was really suffering, but she did really well and we all made it up to the top, rode up to the observatory and stopped for a delicious lunch at Mothers Kitchen. Our spirits were high, and we tackled the miserable Rincon Grade and had more snacks at the school and things were getting better and better.



It was an extremely long day, getting back to the cars at 7pm, but we were all very proud of our achievements, 108 miles and 11,000ft climbing! There were only 5 of us, but Tom was unbelievable, doing a repeat, then coming back for Diana, Christine and Diana did great, finishing with a smile despite trepidation, and coach Phil was as kind and patient as always!

I also saw lots of pretty flowers, the lupins were all out to greet us and there were some other beautiful flowers to catch our eye and take our minds off the climb.

Solanomar finally!

This week we finally managed to take on the challenge of the 'Solanamar' ride, starting in Solana Beach, riding through Rancho Santa Fe and then up through Escondido and then past Lake Wolford and up Mt Palomar.

The flowers had changed again, it was a very warm day by the time we made it up to the mountain and we suffered on the lower slopes.

Our intention was to make it to the observatory, but it was all I could do just to make it to Mothers Kitchen. There's always next week! Tom and DJ made it up there for us!

Unfortunately Dianna was the first to start suffering with a bad knee. I'm hoping she feels better next week. Paul really suffered with the heat but made it to the top of the mountain.

We had a really fun downhill cheering at the Race across America folks going up the mountain, then we started our long slog back to Solana Beach.


Rincon Grade was really stifling and hard work, we struggled up the hill and were really happy to see Rick waiting at the school with snacks.

This rejuvenated us and the heat started to ease off and we got a good clip going past lake wolford. We got to Kit Carson park for more snacks, then could start to 'smell the hay in the barn', which was great. Poor Christine was really suffering by this point and had to call it a day at Del Dios highway.

Wow, what a day!! Congratulations, ACE team!! We were honored to have a new member join us, coach DJ. My totals ended up being 99 miles, 10,000 ft climb.

Tahoe 2008!

Americas most beautiful bike ride really lived up to its name this year. We had a wonderful trip. We had a good practice ride, where we made our way towards the Death Ride passes and stretched out our legs, then had a good pasta dinner.

We were up bright and early with a 5am breakfast, ready to ride at 6am in the parking lot. I had my camelbak all prepared with jim's photo and was all ready on time.





We made our way up the treacherous Emerald Bay switchbacks and were rewarded by a beautiful view and lots of cheering













Here are the cheerful Paul, Fern and Christine

We then made our way down a very fast hill and along to the road to Truckee. The river was more beautiful than ever, so we stopped to admire the view and take a few pictures.

The sag stop at truckee is pretty ugly, but it was nice to see our co-ordinator, heather cheering us on and giving us pretzels!









We also passed by the legendary squaw valley, site of the olympics about a million years ago


















Just as we started to get a little tired and hungry, we realised we'd made it to the beautiful kings beach. We grabbed our sandwiches and rested on some rocks to eat them. Here is the legendary coach phil enjoying his lunch with Dianna.

Paul entertained Christine, Lisa and Fern while they ate!







We also saw a really cute dog all dressed up in a TNT tee shirt, bless.








We continued our journey around the lake and came across a really picturesque spot and stopped to admire the view again, and then took our pictures and tried not to fall down the hill!! Looking over the lake at the other side it was amazing to think that we'd come from there!







When we neared the finish line, we all lined up to wait for the rest of the team and Coach DJ did his best to try and entertain us and keep our mind of beers at the finish line by doing an impromptu cheerleading session and a cartwheel! When the rest of the team arrived all smiles, we made our way in a very impressive double paceline. This is the first year I've done a century where everyone has finished. Not just finished, mind you, finished smiling, then gone to the party after and closed down the dance floor! Tahoe 2008 was really one to remember. It was also wonderful to know that the people that rode that day rasied $8.5 million to fight blood cancers.