Went on a little day trip to beautiful Santa Barbara for some road riding: Gibraltar Loop from Mesa Ln. Unlike my last trip to Santa Barbara, I was with others and we all piled in a car and drove up. Finally able to hang out with Alex, Ron and Ilya, who I have only ridden with occasionally or not at all.
After a mechanical and some other delays (if you count coffee as a delay, I count it as a necessity), it was pretty warm for the 9-mile climb. Some sections hit 14 or so percent (or so claim those with the GPS devices rattling off numbers). I was missing having that 27 on my cassette.
This is the view from the hot tub platform!
Watching dogs play on the beach has to be one of the mostsmile-inducing activities in the world.
Nice to get out of my normal routine and do this. Other surprises: opportunity for a post-ride outdoor shower on above mentioned property. Also being the only vegan and saying, ‘Yeah I can eat anywhere don’t worry about it’ and ending up at a brew pub with very few options (the beans had meat in them!?).
Thanks Alex for planning the route, Ron for driving/taking photos/drinking excessive amounts of coffee and Ilya for keeping us entertained.
Great pictures, Matt! Thanks so much for all your support on Sunday on the New Moon Century, and yes thanks so much for the vegan food — delicious!!! It's good to finally meet you after seeing your blog.
Nice to see you in our neck of the woods! Bummer about the lunch as there are so many vegan/veggie friendly restaurants in Santa Barbara. Glad you enjoyed your ride 🙂
Cool road. Love SB.