Headed up to Solvang to ride the Prelude with my big sis, who just got into cycling. The 25 mile route was the first organized ride I ever did way back when and it about killed me!

Turns out my sister is a bit slow, other than the climbs, and it was cold, so I took off a bit on my own after riding as slow as I could, just to generate some heat. Met up at the first aid station, then took off with a friend of hers who was slightly faster, then left him behind as I wanted a solid ride.

Did the Foxen cyn climb and stopped at the aid station, where I found a friend from home. rode up the climb again with him, then we decided to drop back down the back side and climb it again from the north. This was the "big hill" for the Solvang Century, that was very hard a few years back. Was hard this time, only cuz I was chasing a 140# guy up the hill.

Climbed The Wall with them, then dropped off to find my sister.

Again, pulled off ahead of her. Went north on 246 as the maps had shown a turnaround there, but now it was hot, and a nice headwind, I was alone... hit about 73 miles and said screw it, turned around and went for the Firestone 805 beer! delicious

about 4100 feet of climbing.