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Editing Post: 2025-10-13 Cancel

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Supposed to be a "short" lead-in to the last real three days of riding, i.e. 48 miles and less than 1,000 feet climbing, but as the title says, nature has other plans. We didn't have many miles, and didn't have to climb, but the headwind was crazy.

Pam and I rode together, as usual, and it was *hard*. We started out with gorgeous beach for the first 20 miles, stopped at a "Freedom Coffee" on the beach for an orange mocha, and everything was rosy. Then the wind turned and grew in strength, and it was all we could do to survive.

I was operating w/ <6 hours of sleep, but Pam was <4 hours, and laboring, so she drafted off me for the final hour or so. Meanwhile, Tim, who has been on a tear since he had a haircut, flew by us. This kills me, because I know that I could catch him (and I'm a bit competitive), but I'd probably ruin my knees for the final few days and Pam, our cook for the night, would be in camp much later. I chilled out then, but couldn't resist testing the knees by climbing out of the saddle for the final small climb. I'll see if that was an issue tomorrow... If not, I'm pretty happy. I'm definitely stronger than when I started, and I'm readier to push the knees than I was. I might be ready to try crazier shit in the future (i.e. more ambitious tours) if the morning brings happy knees.

Sadly, we haven't actually seen Malibu yet, but some decent shoreline, a naval base that wouldn't let us go through, and some nasty highway.

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