Steve's Cycling Blog

Double number 130 was a challenging one. The Mulholland Double is one of the toughest, especially on a tandem. We all got together for the staff ride at Nicole Honda's house in Agoura Hills a short distance from the regular ride start and right on the course. We all met at 4  am for a 4:30 am start time. We got out about 4:40 am . The bike is ready to roll Part One:     Mile 0 to mile marker 43....Peter Strauss Ranch The first part of the event is an easy roll to the coast with a few rollers. I was on the tandem this year again with Teresa Beck. We wanted a re-do of last years ride where we had the rear wheel explode on Deer Creek descent. Along with us we had Terri Boykins, Julie Stokes, John Clare, Jeff Dewey and Rob Kelly. Julies husband Colin Stokes was on his own training ride and was riding with us at certain points in the ride. Lit up pretty well while rolling up Malibu Canyon                                                   Photo by John

I have done this event many times on my tandem with my brother in law Vince. Also many times on my single bike over the years. This year I did it for the first time with my good friend Teresa. We have never done this particular one together on the tandem before. Teresa did it the last couple of years on different tandems. Last year with our friend Richard Hoff and before that with our friend Roland Hoffman. This year I was recovering from allergies and an upper repertory bronchial thing that wouldn't go away. Teresa was off her bike for three weeks. She was on an amazing scuba diving trip to Indonesia. The TIGER shark on the reef in Indonesia Long story short.......we just paced ourselves and took it easy. I couldn't push that hard anyway because I couldn't breathe well. We started the ride about 5:45 am in a cold misty fog. It was a damp cold but the damp air helped my lungs to loosen up a bit. (Not sure if it was good for me but it helped) The even