After a quick shower, change of shorts and frozen strawberries on my knee, I was off solo through Santa Cruz. It wouldn't be until Aptos that I saw some other riders stopping off to change as well. Rode solo until the farm fields just before Moss Landing. From here I would ride with two other folks as we make our way to Gonzeles and back to Santa Cruz.
These two helped me get back to Santa Cruz as my knee was wrecked at this point. I was in pain, but going to complete my first 400k!
We ended up finishing in 21hours. Not bad considering I was limping along for the last 50 or so miles.
After a week of taking it easy, I was ready for a cool down ride. The SFR Davis 230k night ride. The ride starts at 8pm. About 30 or so riders were in attendance. Full-ish moon and great temps.
My first streak of bad luck was only 20 miles in when my chain decided to break in half in the middle of nowhere. Luckily a rider passed by and helped me get it back together in a quick time! Randonneurs are the best.
After this we would play catch up until the first control about 10 miles later. My knee is starting to feel sore again... I make it to the second control and know I can't make it to Davis let alone the whole night. I call in the DNF and slowly ride back 40 miles to the car. I encounter headwinds what felt like most of the ride back to the start. Every hill felt a million times harder than it was.
Time to get my knee checked out and take a big rest. I really want to attempt the SCR 600k at the end of September, but we'll see.
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