Another beautiful day on the Central Coast. It was truly cold in the morning - the first really cold morning on the ride. I had to dig out my full-fingered gloves and long cycling pants. The sun broke, but it never got hot.
Day five is Red Dress Day. Most of the riders wear the most flamboyant get-up they can put together. It's drag queens on wheels.
We rolled out of Santa Maria thru, you guessed it, more vineyards and farmland. Not only were we sharing the road with cars, we were sharing the road with tractors and other various farm equipment.
The first 30 miles were rolling winding hills with a gradual climb. The big climb didn't have a cute nickname like the others. I thought of a few. It was about miles at 12%. It was hard. Very hard.
All of the rest stops were at various wineries. Lunch was in Solvang. It was so delightful to see a long line of riders in red cruising thru the little Danish town in the hills.
After lunch, the ride was mostly downhill. And the winds kicked up
again. Nasty headwinds for the next 30 miles. You really shouldn't have to work so hard to go downhill. It was crazy difficult.
About 15 minutes after lunch I started to feel a little queasy and nauseous. I rode on for about an hour. When I reached the final rest stop of the day I put my bike on the SAG rack and went straight to the med tent. And then I got sick. Very sick. Repeatedly. They kept me there for a couple hours and gave me a saline IV to keep me hydrated. I couldn't even keep water down.
I was taken back to camp in the medical transport van and taken directly to med. This place is amazing. They essentially set up a MASH unit each camp. Anti-nausea medication, another IV and another dose of meds. I was eventually discharged back to my tent at 9pm with orders NOT to ride Day 6. Viral gastro-enteritis. Yuck. I went straight to bed. Thank goodness Kristen had brought my sweats to me at med and I wasn't still in my cycling clothes because I didn't even have the energy to change in to my jammies.
My goal is to ride in to LA with the group on Day 7.
More later from Ventura.
Ami
No comments:
Post a Comment