Comments about Cycling | Steve Tilford

I post this once again, modern travel is awesome. How easy it is to be one place and then just a few hours later a completely different. Automobiles are great, but the difference in air travel makes the difference seem much more extreme. Anyway, I talked my friend Sue into playing hooky and we drove over to Ojai. I wanted to look up my friends Robert Kobel and Ron Lathrop from Lawrence. They run the Bicycles of Ojai and I hadn’t seen them in a while. Plus, I heard there is good riding there.

So we went by the shop and caught up abit. And then headed up 33 to ride up to Pine Mountain. It’s 30 or 40 miles up and then you just do a U-turn and head back down. It was a great ride. 6000 feet of climbing in a little under 70 miles. It got pretty hot and the wind was gusting. It was just the ride I needed. Long, slow distance, even though the distance was only 70 miles, it was over 4 hours in the heat.

This morning I have an interview in Santa Barbara about the first MTB Nationals I won. We’re meeting at the Handlebar Coffeeshop. Trudi went by there during the Tour of California and told me that Aron Olson owes it. I had wondered whatever happened to him. Pretty cool starting a coffeeshop in Santa Barbara.

Then we’re going to ride up Gibralter. It’s only 40 mile ride, but there it is pretty much straight up and then down. Good views of Santa Barbara.

Okay, the internet here is super slow and frustrating. I am going to have to try to post this from my phone. I need to head over to the Handlebar anyway.

Robert at Bikes of Ojai.

The views are great from Hwy 33.

I saw this in a store in Ojai. I kind of thought of buying him since I have such a relationship with Bluejays.

This guy was in a bar/restaurant in Ojai, Dreek Creek. It was a cool place, kind of a weird, cool ambiance.

Yesterday was a busy day. For some reason it seems like there is never enough time to do everything in one day out here. I’m not sure why that is. I really didn’t have that much to do and the time disappeared.

I met Jen See, who is doing some free-lance work on the first MTB Nationals, at Aron Olson’s coffee shop, The Handlebar. It is funny I’ve never run into her before. She is an avid surfer, has a doctorate, and write articles about bike racing. Super interesting and really fun to talk to.

Aaron was there. I really never spent much time with him racing. He was super busy, says the shop is going great. He came over and sat for a bit and we talked a little about bike racing. He rode two years in Europe, did the Giro, so he has his credentials. It was a good experience all around.

After, Sue and I just got dressed and rode Gilbralter. It was already afternoon and the marine layer had sort of left, so it was hot. Gilbralter is only a 10 mile climb, but pretty steep the whole way. Most the time between 7 and 15%. There are hardly any houses on it and the road is questionable at best. But, the views are unreal. I like climbs where you can actually see where you came from. Gilbralter is like that. You can pretty much see Santa Barbara nearly all the time you’re riding. We just went over the top and down Painted Cave. It’s only 30 something miles, but slow miles. Up and down. Painted Cave is super steep and doesn’t flow well. It is cool though. After finishing Painted Cave, you cross a highway and there is Old San Marcos. That descent flows much better and takes you all the way down. I was passed by two guys riding super tricked out street motorcycles and I ended up descending a couples miles with them. It was pretty hard keeping up, which kind of surprised me. Normally a bicycle can descent with a motorcycle one on one, but these guys were pretty good.

Anyway, I have to decide whether I want to go do a criterium tomorrow inland from Laguna Beach, in Ladera Ranch. I’d have to tone down the riding today, which I’m not sure I want to do. Two good days of training, might be better than racing right now. I’m not feeling all that great on my bike, so maybe going around in circles fast isn’t what the doctor ordered. I might feel better today though, I never know nowadays.

This is Jen See. Very fun girl and nice person to know.

And Aaron Olson. He owns the Handlebar Coffeeshop.

The Mission in Santa Barbara.

Which bike do you think is more expensive?

At the base of Gilbralter.

This guy was going pretty good up the climb. It took a while to pass him. He said he was 72 years old. Seems like he ride the climb, shirtless, pretty much everyday.