Solvang Biking - Day 2

Today’s riding was beautiful but very hot with temperatures in the 90s. The view above is typical of the 59 miles I rode today.

We started the day heading out of town for about 10 miles on a major road. However, there was relatively little traffic and a very wide shoulder, so the biking was fine.

We then turned onto a back road which wandered through farmland.

Shortly, the road turned up with our first climb of the day.

About halfway up the climb, the road quality deteriorated significantly. Unfortunately, the descent was also full of large cracks and potholes. I usually love descending, but here I had to limit myself to about 15 mph and needed to stand on my pedals to absorb the shocks and rattling from the terrible road.

There were three main climbs today. There was an option to add a fourth, but with the heat, adding 20 miles and almost 2000’ of additional climbing was a non-starter for me.

As you can see from these photographs, there was essentially no shade. There is a heat warning for this area for the entire week with expected daily highs in the 90s. As a result, I will be drinking copious amounts of electrolyte drinks, constantly applying sunscreen, and cycling much slower than normal.

If the temperatures were 20 degrees cooler, this would have been an incredible ride given the quiet roads and lovely scenery.

One final photo for today’s post. Tomorrow is a 76 mile ride down to the coast. However, between here and the Pacific is a mountain range, so the route has about 5500’ of climbing. Hopefully the temperatures will be cooler on the Pacific side of the range.