Ridin' 'round the city

Big plans to ride 60+ miles around L.A. Original plan was to take Metrolinke out and meet up at the Metro station at Wilshire/Vermont. Well, laziness prevailed so I drove and picked up Andy. Made it out lickety-split and found great parking - always the key to any adventure in L.A. Headed out from Koreatown, where the signs are all in Korean but the pedestrians are all Mexican.


Down Vermont through the not so nice parts of town. Amazing was having all the kids out waving and cheering for you as you ride the street. Kids and the crazies talking to themselves at the bus stops. They cheered also.

So 20 or so miles into I get that not so fresh feeling in my left knee. Damn, IT band pain. Week before was 40 miles no problem-o, but now, maybe not stretching enough pre-ride, faster pace, not resting during the ride causes it to REALLY start hurting.

Head to Lynwood and the LA River Trail, which we hop on for another 10 miles or so. BRUTAL headwind the whole way. Great to see a lot of folks using the trail on bikes, on foot and surprisingly on horse!


Make a right and head into Wilmington, the industrial underbelly of the Southland. Nice neighborhood right in the middle of it.




Left that area and headed to the wooded glens of Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Estates. I was surprised as it was definitely an older money/smaller house sort of place than I was expecting. Nice ride through there, although going up Palos Verdes Drive North about did me in with my stupid knee :-(


Dropped down to Redondo Beach then on to Hermosa for a lunch break. Good snack stop there (pretty good beach pizza) and split the group as I just couldn't pedal any more. Sucked as I knew I didn't have that far to go to get back. Oh well. Rode over to the Redondo metro stop, then trained back to downtown.


And what do you know, my car was still there!

Thanks to Seth, Rick, Ron for putting it together. John, James and Andy for coming out and going for a ride!


More pics!


Ricks' take on the day.

Basic map of my portion.

1962 Le Tour

This is a really well put together period piece from the '62 TdF. Forwarded to my by all-around great guy Aaron. Seems like doping was a big deal, just as today. But then they didn't pee-test you, you simply died from it. Maybe that's a way to fix doping!

I really like watching them search out water and beer. Still carried their own tires for roadside repair as well. Yeah, that was a bit of a different age...

Here's part one:


and part deux: