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Rosarito to
Ensenada Bicycle Ride
April 2005
Wanna go for an incredible
bicycle ride? Ever
try the Rosarito Beach to Ensenada 50-mile Fun Ride? It's a real
blast and a great ride, followed by a fantastic party in Ensenada. We
did it for the third time in April 2005, and we set a new record for
ourselves in the process! |
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We came down on a Friday
night and checked into the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
This is probably the nicest
hotel in Rosarito. You gotta make reservations early for this event,
though! |
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Some of the flowers in front of
the Rosarito Beach Hotel. |
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More flowers. |
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This is a fabulous place to
camp. We stayed for two nights. We used to go home the same
day as the ride, but we decided to stay over Saturday night and it made
for a much more pleasant weekend. |
| The corridor
outside our room. |
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Kevin squared. The first
Kevin (the guy on the right) sold us a ticket for the shuttle ride back
from Ensenada. His buddy's name is Kevin, too. |
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Check out this guy's tattoo.
The excitement in the air before the ride
begins is almost tangible. |
| Smart and Final
were giving away water bottles. The bottles make a colorful photo. |
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Costumes are always present on
this run. This is one of the simpler ones. |
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Shimano Dura-Ace.
One of these days....
Look how clean this guy's spocket is! |
| Restaurants lined
the street in Rosarito Beach. These riders are fueling up before the
ride. |
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Check out this guy's helmet. |
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Another colorful rider before
the ride started. |
| And another.
Check his topo shirt. |
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Our bikes.
Sue and I both ride Giants. I think these
bikes are great, as is the shop (Coates
Cyclery) that sold them to us.
Coates is in
Pomona, California.
Ask for Corey and he'll take care of you. |
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Some of the colorful riders at
the start. |
| This is what it
looked like behind us before the ride began.
There were about as many riders in front of
us, too. |
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On the road, finally, at about
10:00 that morning. |
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The ride started with about
10,000 riders. It thinned out after a few miles. |
| Sue, stopping to
let me take her picture.
The weather was perfect. |
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Chasing after Sue. |
| The ride follows
the Pacific Coast for the first 22 miles.
After that, it turns
inland and the real climbing begins.
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Believe it or not, there were
guys who were actually doing this on roller skates.
Last year I saw a guy jogging for the
entire 50 miles. |
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More riders. |
| The runaway bride.
I can't imagine riding in a costume, as a
few of the riders did. It must have been really hot for them.
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After lightly-rolling hills
along the Pacific Ocean, the ride
turned inland, charging through the wine country and up El Tigre.
Quite a few riders weren't up for this and
resorted to walking. It must have been a long walk for them.
I am sure glad my bike has a triple chain
ring. |
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A young lady who let me take
her photo. |
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| Sue checking out
the riders slugging it out with El Tigre. |
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After making the distance, all
50 miles of it. |
| Our time was 3
hours and 37 minutes, which is a personal best for Sue and me.
How
we did it is kind of funny.
After making it up El Tigre, we stopped
to slug down some Gator Ade. Sue started before I did, and it was a
couple of minutes before I could get back into the pack (there were a lot
of bikes whizzing by).
I was pedaling like mad trying to catch up to
Sue, without realizing I had already passed her.
She was
pedaling like mad trying to keep up with me.
Oila, 3 hours and
37 minutes later, we figured out.
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Our average speed for the 50
miles was 13.8 mph. That may not sound like much, but the climb up
El Tigre was tough. A lot of it was in my lowest gear, chugging along at
about 6 mph. |
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Once we arrived in Ensenada, the
party started. |
| There was live
entertainment sponsored by Dos Equis and Powerade. |
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You can imagine the beer being
consumed by 10,000 riders after a 50 mile bicycle ride. |
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The Powerade girls. |
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A colorful shirt worn by a
member of Cal Poly SLO's cycling team. |
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The food was great, but I
wasn't brave enough to try the barbequed goat. |
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Fish tacos were more my speed. |
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Deep fried, high fat content,
but very good. |
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A couple of the Dos Equis girls. |
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They were more than willing
to pose. |
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Sue told me I had to ask about
this shirt. This young rider is from Colorado. We thought it
might have referred to cardiac surgery, but it was instead a 120-mile ride
through three mountain passes in Colorado.
One of these days I'll get around to
posting my bypass story....it's one of the main reasons I took up cycling. |
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Cycling events are rich in
colors. |
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Enjoying a Tecate with Sue.
One of my friends saw this picture and told
me it looked like I could have gone another 50 miles.
Trust me, I could not. Like
those shirts? We sure do. And yep, we use a lot of Colavita
olive oil. |
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The Powerade girls on stage
with the band. |
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Sue and our friend Judy, who
met us at the Ensenada party.
Sue and Judy work together. We've
been friends for years.
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And finally, the shuttle ride
back to Ensenada.
The folks who run this event
have organized it well. After the ride, you hop a shuttle and they
take you and your bike back to Rosarito Beach. That ride takes a
good hour on the Expressway, and it reinforces the length of the ride
everyone on the bus just completed.
All in all, it was a fabulous
day.
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