Another beautiful day and the longest ride yet - at least 6 1/2 hours. Don’t ask me where, we went south and ended up on 101 - headed over a closed section of highway, over Santa Rosa Road and back to Solvang. About 3 hours and I was thinking, “Is this all there is?” when Johan turned left and we headed for Figuroa.

The guys were in two groups again, and I ended up following both groups at different times. Pretty early on in the ride, there was an accident, and Paolo Savoldelli broke his collarbone. Seems that they were riding past someone on a horse, and it spooked and reared. The guys moved away and somehow Paolo touched a wheel or something and down he went. I was following the other group, so didn’t know it had happened.

Next thing I knew, a car with reporters from CycleSport Mag zoomed up beside me, and Vince, the mechanic, yelled that he was going with me. He jumped in with wheels, and bottles, etc and we followed Dirk and Laurenzo’s Classics group while they took Paolo for treatment.

Quite a long time later, Dirk came back and Vince got back in that team car, so I switched and followed with Johan. So that is where I was when we headed up Figuroa. It was open almost to the top, and I followed way back behind a couple of the guys who got dropped. They shall remain nameless...

Both groups climbed, and the Classic guys came thundering back down while we were going up. We turned around at the roadblock, grabbed some body fuel and headed back, gingerly picking our way thru the potholes. We got to the bottom, crossed the cattle guard onto good pavement, and what did we see but the Classics guys coming back!

Yes, that brilliant, fiendish Johan, genius of the cycling world, sent those guys back up that mountain for a second time! After they had been riding hard for over four hours - this is why we have winning teams, my dears!

The Classics guys were hammering, hauling A, and flying low - they thundered toward us, and as they flashed by, I saw Eki with the biggest grin on his face, like somebody had just given him a present. That guy is something else - he just loves to ride hard - I love that guy!

So our group rode another couple of miles, and you guessed it - Johan sent us back up for a second climb, too. It seemed like no time at all until the Classics guys swept back down around us on that tiny road. Tony stopped and got water from me and took off, heading for home camp. Our group sweated it to the top, and we headed back down and headed home. Most of the pics in the smugmug gallery were taken after we got back today.

I have to tell you that our route went by NeverLand, but I could tell that Michael Jackson wasn’t there because there were no tricycles parked in the driveway... I know, it’s an old one...