Steve's Cycling Blog

This years Borrego Double Century was as epic as epic gets and I don't use that word lightly. It lived up to its name....Borrego Double Ordeal. The weather played a part on many of the events this year. It was really hit or miss whether we would have a good weather day or not. The weather was forecast as rain on Friday and for plentiful sun on the day of the event and then another storm to come in on Sunday morning. The forecast was spot on. I knew, having done this event in the past, that it can generally be pretty cold after the climb from Borrego on Montezuma Grade. It was real cold in 2009 when I did it last. That year it warmed up nicely and was warm, sometimes hot, the rest of the day. I drove up on Friday afternoon and had spotty rain on the way until I reached Temecula. Then it was steady rain and very windy all the way to the summit of Montezuma Grade. The wind was really howling at the top but the view and rainbows were spectacular. Looking down on Borreg...

I was invited to do a real nice and challenging ride in the Santa Monica Mountains by my friend Karen. The ride is called the Deer Creek Challenge, ( Deer Creek Death Ride). It is such a challenging course that I had to share it with a bunch of my "All Day Ordeal" friends on Facebook. Many of them showed up. Left to right: Shaun, Nicole, Me and Vic....freezing! The ride starts in Westlake Village just west of the San Fernando Valley and at the foot of the coastal mountains. The ride was scheduled to start at Wins Wheels on Agoura Road in Westlake so I left plenty early to arrive in time for the 7am start. The ride was pushed to start a little later, at 7:30 so I just hung out, got ready and talked to friends at the start. I saw a bunch of my friends. Karen, Vic, Nicole, Shaun, Colin and his wife Julie, and Ron who came from up north in the bay area. Shaun and Nicole just completed the "Furnace Creek 508" bike race just a few weeks prior. Shaun d...