Day Six (Recap): Marina Del Rey to Newport Beach (53 miles)

Today marks our shortest day… finally… only 53 miles to go to Newport Beach. The route was also very familiar since we rode the same route for our back to back centuries.

We left around 930am, which was nice since we were in no rush and it was a short day today. I headed out with Webby and some other folks. It was fun riding with Webby. We started singing some theme songs from video games and also admired the views of the beaches. We were mainly on the bike path going through MDR and the beach cities. Our group of about 8 people were cruising along and having a really good time… we even missed the first SAG. Oh well, it’s only 50 miles.

We hit Palos Verdes and then were rolling through Long Beach. A large group of the G1 riders came through at this point. With them was Floyd Landis and Mari. I jumped in with that group since Brian, Chris, and others were also riding with the group. Alex came by and told me he got a great picture of me riding Floyd’s wheel. I asked him, “Who’s Floyd?”. He said, “Floyd Landis”. I said “Where??” He said, “You’re on his wheel right now”. Oops!! Floyd Landis is a champion cyclist and I didn’t even realize I was on his wheel.

After a quick stop at West Coast Customs, we flew through Long Beach to get out of the ghettoes as fast as we could. We hit the coast line and a great thing happened.

Floyd, with Mari’s cute little doggy in his backpack, jumped a red light. And soon enough, we hear sirens and Floyd was being pulled over. But not by a police car, but an undercover officer driving around in a brown minivan. The cop got out of the car and gave Floyd a piece of his mind. It was hilarious!! It would have been a great chance for Floyd to say, “Do you know who I am?!”. Eventually Floyd got away without a ticket, but the sight of a professional cyclist (Tour de France winner) with a little doggy in his backpack getting yelled at by an off-duty, minivan driving cop. Priceless!

We kept on cruising after we stopped laughing, and we got to our lunch spot of Schooner or Later. Steve Bryant was kind enough to host lunch for all the riders at one of his favorite places, which was extremely generous. I had a great lunch and even better time eating with Cody from CAF. He is a double-leg amputee who swims, bikes, and runs. He was showing me some fun magic tricks with his $5 dollar bills and we also played some rock, paper, scissors (I lost). But in the end, it never crossed my mind that he was a double leg amputee. It never crossed my mind that he couldn’t do anything that we could do. I thought of Cody as a great kid who was a joy to have lunch with… not a challenged individual.

After lunch, Brian, Adam, Mark VD and I booked it to Newport Beach. Unfortunately, Mark VD had a mechanical issue with his bike. His rear derailleur got caught in the spoke of his rear wheel and flipped 180 degrees. Only a picture could really show how messed up his bike was. But the OnSupport people were nearby, and they tried to fix Mark’s bike, but couldn’t, so they just loaned him a new Trek bike to finish the last 9 miles.

We arrived at the Newport Hyatt in no time and then the hilarity ensued. I dropped off my stuff to the wonderful luggage angels, got a massage, showered, and then some of us hung out with Floyd. We were talking about his incident with the cop, and then we went onto a whole diatribe of Eddie Izzard’s “Do you know who I am?” sketch. Check it our here.

Floyd decided we should play some shuffleboard too, and so we did. We started playing but needed to decide who should go first. I suggested the standard, “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, but Floyd didn’t know how to play it. I was in shock. Complete shock. I taught him how to play RPS. Unfortunately, he also beat me in RPS. So we started our shuffle board game, and boy oh boy… did I kick his butt. Throw after throw after throw, I kept racking up the points and knocking Floyd’s discs off the board. Floyd, you can bike!! But I will dominate you in shuffleboard!!!

Dinner was great, and Aniketa, Matt, Priya, and Maulik came to visit which was a lot of fun. During dinner, some of the challenged athletes spoke, and awards were given to various folks. It was a great way to wrap up the week… a very memorable week.  A little bit sad too because it also noted the end of our journey and having to say bye to all these great people.

On a final note, to the left is a picture of Anthony Smith Sr., a challenged athlete. Anthony's story is one of many incredible stories, but I thought I would share it. In Iraq, Anthony was hit by a rocket and surely felt the impact of the blast. When the medics arrived, he was practically dead and flatlined. He was placed into a body bag and zipped up. But miraculously, a doctor heard him breathing (after he had flatlined) and opened up the body bag to see that Anthony was still alive. The doctor revived Anthony, but he did lose an arm and leg. Anthony's sheer determination and courage is a reminder to me at least to never give up and keep pushing!

Day Five (Recap): Santa Barbara to Marina Del Rey (89 miles)

As we enter our fifth day, I’m feeling pretty good. Many alumni had told me before that as the ride progresses, you’ll get stronger. I thought they were crazy because I figured I’d be really tired and in pain by now. But they spoke the truth. I feel really strong today and really good, besides my butt being sore. I guess my body has started adapting to the stress of this ride and is working better now. Amazing thing our bodies are.

So we left our beautiful Santa Barbara hotel and headed south. Our destination, 89 miles from now, is Marina Del Rey. Today is a relatively flat day compared to our previous days, and it’s a day meant for speed. I started jamming along, pulling Christopher Self (a former Seal) and Ted. It was fun flying through the streets of Santa Barbara at 22mph.

We had a little riding time on Highway 1, which was pretty crazy. Jeff C pulled me through this portion and before I knew it, we had hit our first SAG. Unfortunately, Brian S missed the exit we were supposed to take on the freeway and ended up hitting a freeway grate. Freeway grates run parallel with the traffic as opposed to other grates that are perpendicular to traffic. So Brian’s wheel feel into the grate and he flew over his handlebars. He had some major road rash on the face, but is doing fine now.

We hit out first SAG in record time and got some Accel Gels and drinks. The Garmin team blew by us, again, as we were at the SAG. We hopped on our bikes, and kept on going.

The weather was excellent today and the ocean waves breaking against the cliffs were amazing to watch. While going through some city streets, we caught up with Pete Stetina from the Garmin team. We started riding, in a paceline about 16 deep, and it was a lot of fun. We held a nice pace of 22-24mph on the flats and our day flew by. These professional riders are so small, but so muscular. If they weren’t in their cycling kits, you would never expect that they were so good at such an intense sport.

We eventually got to lunch, and for once this week, I had gotten to lunch before lunch was ready. We were jamming!! I really enjoyed the day so far, but was pretty hungry now since we had been booking it. In N’ Out was on its way for lunch, but ended up coming an hour late. Some of us waited, and it was worth it… at least while we were eating the burgers. Afterwards, it felt like a brick in our stomachs.

After lunch, and Brian B’s amazing display of his Rubik’s cube talent, we were back on the road to MDR. I joined Adam B, Mike H, Alex H, Brian B, Lisa J, and Chris B and were cruising along. Well, cruising along until we hit a hill and Alex Clydesdale Hamlow put on the after burners. I tried and tried to keep up with him and some of the others, but the hills were too tough at that pace. Mike, Adam, Chris and I fell back and started our paceline.

This was great because once we got a groove going, we were jamming. Mike was even surprised that I was keeping up. It was nice to see how much I’ve improved since the training started. We blazed our way to the next SAG, keeping a pace of around 23-24mph on the rollers.

The last SAG of the day was a funny one. I had never seen Brian B as exhausted as he was before. He was spent from hanging onto Alex’s wheel, but congrats to him for doing that!! It was impressive.

We left the last SAG and Kevin L pulled us like a bullet train through Malibu. We booked it through the windy streets of Malibu, where the drivers can’t drive. It was awesome! We had a group of 15 people and slowly, one by one, people were dropping off. I hung on for dear life and eventually made it with the remaining 6 riders to the Santa Monica boardwalk.

Hello LA!! It was nice coasting on the boardwalk and seeing all the familiar sights of LA. Cirque Du Soleil was even in town and their bigtop was setup on the beach.

About 30 minutes later, we arrived at our hotel in Marina del Rey. I was quite tired because of the furious pace we kept, but they had my favorite food waiting for me… PIZZA!!! And then, Priya, Reema, Ritesh, and Ajay, along with Priya’s family all came to say hi.

Dinner was on the roof, with a beautiful view of the city. I saw Cody from CAF for the first time also. He is so cute and quite full of energy. Sarah Reinerstein also said a few words along with signing her new book. It was quite a great day and night!!

Day Four (Recap): Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara (119 miles)

Today marks the longest day of riding we have on this trip. 119 miles from Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara. It’s going to be a tough day, especially after yesterday’s brutal climbing and distance. I decided to stay with group 4 today, since I was with them most of yesterday and had a good time.

After a nice, yet quick breakfast, we rolled out around 715am and went through the city of Pismo Beach. We rode at a nice pace of 17mph and then turned Eastward, and that’s when things got tough. Today was going to be a relatively flat day, except with a long climb to get to lunch, but what the route profile didn’t tell us was that there are westbound winds blowing around 8-12mph. So when we turned East, we were smacked in the face with these winds.

Hooter led our pack, and we were pushing pretty hard on these flats, but the headwinds kept us down to around 9mph. It was rough and we had a ways to go. This is when I learned the beauty of drafting. If we individually went through the headwinds, the effort we would output would be 15-30% more and we’d be tired quicker. We all rode in a double paceline to block out the winds.

Every time we turned South, the winds ceased, and then we turned East, and back into the headwinds. It was pretty tough to deal with this, but Hooter and Mark VD were really helping with the pulling. We hit our first SAG, which was a nice relief.

So the question must come up, how do we relieve ourselves? The obvious answer is use a port-a-potty or a restroom. Well, what if there isn’t one around? Well guys have no problem using the bushes, and some girls don’t either. When I got to the SAG van, I heard a sound similar to a water cooler just leaking. I looked over at the van, and the two doors were open, and a stream of liquid was coming straight down. I was confused for a moment, but I figured out what was going on. One of the female riders wasn’t too keen on the bushes, and since the port-a-potty wasn’t nearby, using the van as cover worked out pretty well.

As we were preparing to leave the SAG, the Garmin team bullet train zipped by us. The sound of the bikes cutting through the air as they flew by us at 30+mph was amazing. Their pedal strokes were in sync and it looked effortless. I always missed the moment to snap a picture because they come by without much noise and leave in a flash.

After we left the SAG, we hit some nice downhills and then were met with our climbs for the day. Long, 10-12 miles of climbing, but mostly a 3-5% grade. The last portion was an 11% grade which was not very fun. We did see four tarantulas, and they were all trying to cross the road. Looks like they were trying to find the tarantula bar across the street.

We got to lunch, which was at the Fess Parker Winery. It was a beautiful place and a lot of people were enjoying their day there. Team Garmin was in full effect as well as some of the Challenged Athletes, and it was nice to hang out with everyone at the winery. We had some yummy pita pockets and salads for lunch, and I had a little Riesling, which was really good!!!

After lunch, and after popping some Aleve (thank you Bayer), we were back on the road. We hit a huge hill after some downhill fun. The funny thing is that the Garmin team actually got towed up this hill by their chase car… pansys!! =)

The rest of the ride was pretty fun. We stopped off in Solvang for some ice cream. Rob Millum had some heat exhaustion so he decided to SAG out and take it easy. He’s had a tough week… poor guy.

We kept forging ahead, stopped at SAG 3 for some quick refills, and then hit the freeway. I had forgotten my water bottles at SAG 3, but thanks to the generous folks in Group 4, they gave me some water. We flew down the highway 1 on the freeway for 2.5 miles and then hit the coast.

It was interesting riding on the freeway because every time a huge truck flew by us, we would get a big headwind followed by an even bigger tailwind. We held a nice pace down the coast of around 18mph. We hit a narrow bridge, which was pretty dicey to cross, but had a nice SAG escort blocking traffic for us. Unfortunately, Jim Pansyeres hit one of the poles at this bridge and went down. He suffered a broken rib and shoulder injury, but he’s doing well.

About 20 more miles to go, and we started going through Santa Barbara. We hit every stoplight you could imagine, which kind of ruined our pace. Julie also ran into a cup full of soda and had her chain drop. The mileage may have been getting to her.

At mile 118, the familiar sites of Santa Barbara came back from my college days. We turned left on the main drag and I saw Rusty’s pizza and a lot of the places we used to go when we visited SB in college. We finally made it to the lovely DoubleTree.

Our wonderful luggage angels were there to give us our room keys and the hotel had an awesome spread of eggplant parmigiana heroes!! It was perfect after a long day of riding. The hotel was massive and beautiful at the same time. I had a great room with an ocean view!!

Tonight, we were on our own for dinner, so I thought it would be fun to have dinner with some of the G4 riders. We decided to get Rusty’s pizza delivered and have some beers. Webby, Rob T., David Lee, Ken and Brent joined me for the pizza party and we had a great time.

I survived the day… my personal mileage record! I’m feeling pretty good, a bit tired, but still have a lot left in me. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading into Marina Del Rey, which will be great. I’ll get to see my friends and family!!

Day Three (Recap): Big Sur to Pismo Beach (114 miles)

Day three… the toughest day in terms of an overall route. 114 miles total, with 40 miles of climbing through Big Sur with a 6000 foot elevation gain.

We woke up at the crack of dawn, and hardly being able to see where we were going because it was so dark, we got our bikes and slowly glided down to the lodge for breakfast. After downing a bunch of food (yes, food is a running theme in this journey), we were off to tackling the mountains.

Within 14 feet of leaving the hotel, our first big climb hit us. This was the same hill that they did a King of Mountain prize for the Tour de California. I was in my easiest gear (34/28), but the Garmin guys do these hills in
their biggest chainrings (54/11). Huge difference in talent. It was also a really cold day and the sun was behind the mountains, so we had the arm warmers, base layers, and gloves in full effect.

After this 7 mile or so climb, there were countless others, and I was afraid my knee would start hurting and give out on me. But slowly, I tackled one climb after another after another. The nice part was that with every climb, we would turn the corner and we would see a breathtaking view of the coastline and the waves crashing against it. It was a bit surreal and very different than if you were driving through Big Sur in a car.

After an hour or so of climbing, I heard this whizzing sound coming behind me. I thought it was a car so I pulled off to the side. But then I heard, “CHIN… get on!!!” and it was Brian Brillo yelling for me to jump on to the back of a Garmin-Slipstream paceline. I wasn’t going to really have another chance, so I just jumped on and pedaled as hard as I could. I snapped a pic with the team also.

They were bolting through the mountains… on the downhills we were running between 35-38mph and the uphills they still destroyed them at about 15-18mph. It was tough, and also weird having the Garmin chasecar behind us. I think the driver was terrified we would clip one of the riders’ wheels and take down the team. Yeah… we would feel bad for doing that. Imagine the headline, “A Filipino and Indian cyclist bring down the Garmin-Slipstream Team in Big Sur”.  That would be embarrassing.

I hung on to the line for about 5 minutes and then pulled out. It was tiring. Brian managed to hang on for 20 minutes… amazing!

So the climbs continued, some harder than Palomar with 9-11% grades. We eventually got to our SAG’s and were feeling better. It was going to be a long day. We hadn’t even gone 20 miles at this point, and we were 2 hours into the ride.

The only things that really made the climbs better were the downhills and the views. Anyone who cycles should really take this road for the views! We kept going through Big Sur and stopped for some Banana bread pudding with whiskey sauce at a coffee shop before our descent.  Delicious!!

Once we were out of Big Sur, we hit some flats with a strong headwind. We got into a nice paceline and tried to get to lunch as fast as we could. Lunch was in front of Hearst Castle which was nice and the break was needed.

We hit the roads again and ran into some rain on the way. We kept in our paceline, with Hooter and Rob T pulling most of the way (the two biggest guys). When I started pulling, Hooter and I were talking and he was telling me he didn’t realize how young I was. He saw Priya and figured out I was young because she looked so young. He thought I was 35 or so. I guess from when he first met me and now, I’ve changed.

For 60 or so miles we were in the flats and then we started one of our last climbs. It was a really tough one. I think it hit 12 or 13% and was near the end of the day. I lost a lot of G4 by now and luckily they hit an intersection so I could catch up with them.

At this point, we had one 103 miles, and I was pretty tired, but really just needed to go to the bathroom. The group kept pulling away from me and then they stopped because they couldn’t see me. When I caught up with them again, Hooter suggested I should SAG out (i.e., stop for the day), because I was bonking. I was a bit bummed about this because I was only 8 miles from finishing.

When we got to the next SAG, I told Hooter to let me use empty my bladder and I’ll be good to go. Hooter was doubtful because if I was tired, a bathroom break won’t help. I used the restroom and told Hooter I was good to go. He was skeptical but let me continue. I totally understood why he recommended me to sit out because daylight was fading fast and I shouldn’t hold the group back.

Me, Rob T and Brian booked it to the hotel and we were finally at Pismo Beach. It was a loooooooooong day. Hooter was really glad to see me make it and had never seen anyone recover from a bonk just by going number one in the bathroom. I keep surprising that man!! =)

The hotel was really nice in Pismo. Got some massages, showered and went to dinner. Dinner today was pretty cool because there was a Q&A with the Garmin team. People were asking about some of the politics in the TdF, how they train, and what’s in store for next year. It was pretty entertaining, especially when Christian V was digging a hole with his wife Liam on their anniversary.

Good day today and am glad to have finished. Tomorrow is going to be a tough one with a 119 miles. Today was a new record for me and tomorrow will be another. Yay! =)

Day Seven: Arrived in La Jolla.

The day flew by and we were received in La Jolla with huge fanfare. It was pretty awesome!! My entourage (Priya, Neerav, my Dad and Priya's parents) were in full effect with a huge sign welcoming me. It was a great time and we saw the Challenged Athletes roll in also. This fantastic chapter is almost closed... one last ride on Sunday.

I'm going to sort through photos and update my blog with a recap of each day... so stay tuned.

Day Seven (Recap): Newport Beach to La Jolla (72 miles)

Today is the last day. The nerves and anticipation were high since we'd be returning home to La Jolla and be greeted by everyone, including my family! We headed out of the Newport Beach Marriott, and I had the pleasure of riding with David Lee and Webby today.

We had a nice ride through Newport Beach with its rolling hills. I remember during the first ride from Anaheim to La Jolla in June, the rolling hills obliterated me. I could hardly get up the hills without needing a respirator. But this time around, they were a piece of cake. It was really nice to see the improvement in my riding ability since when I first started training.

We flew through Laguna, San Clemente, and took a quick pit stop near the nuclear dolly parton's (San Onofre). We hit the landing strip and then came an interesting junction in our ride today. Since Camp Pendleton was closed for construction, we had to ride on Interstate 5 for a 7 miles to get to Oceanside. Riding on one of the busiest freeways with a group of 10 riders can be scary. Thankfully we had a hummer escorting us and blocking off the traffic, but nonetheless, it was pretty thrilling. Would I ride on the freeway again? hell no!

At Oceanside we regrouped for a SAG and I had some yummy nutella and jelly sandwiches. Nutella is amazing! After some refills for the water bottle, we headed out for the last leg of the ride. And then the speeds demons came by... Garmin along with the fast rider groupies. I decided to hop on to that train and had a blast.
We were coasting through Oceanside and Carlsbad and it was a blast. There were actually some other riders on the road sporting the Garmin Slipstream team outfit pretending to be part of the team. I would have loved to see their reaction as the real Garmin team flew by along with their chase car. It would have been priceless.

The ride with Garmin was fun. We did some fast climbs too where I scraped wheels with Mari. It sounded like two circular saws touching each other.
I eventually lost team Garmin... I couldn't keep up. It happened when Floyd deciding to put on his racing shoes and bolt after a stop light turned green. I was still clipping into my pedals and Garmin and Floyd were gone. Goodness these guys are fast. Actually, fast is not even the right word. They are lightspeed fast!
After 20 or so more miles, we all met up near Kellogg Park. It was amazing... everyone had made it! We were finished with 620 miles of riding down the coast. We congratulated each other, celebrated, and breathed a sign of relief that everyone was ok.
Shortly after, we saddled up again for a smile journey to Kellogg Park where there were at least 500 people cheering for us as we rolled through the archway. It was pretty awesome. One of the first things I saw was a big sign my family had put together that said, "CHIN". It really stood out and was great!

We received medals from kids who were part of CAF. One of the things that hit me was all these kids were lacking one to two legs, but were still so happy and smiling. These kids are as normal as you and I.
To celebrate the end of wonderful ride down the coast, Priya and Neerav brought me pizza from Luigi's and some chocolate milk!!! Delicious!!!