We met Filipino Filipe riding his Schwinn w Terry Cloth Soft Saddle
Our Route yesterday copied the L.A. Wheelman's Grand Tour Lite, except we started in MOOR PARK instead of PCH Malibu. That means that the monster LATIGO CYN RD 10-mile climb will have to be tackled at Mile # 60 with tired legs, instead of at Mile #4 with fresh legs if we had started from Malibu. 
It's a great route, esp. in the morning with no traffic. We went through a lot of hills at Moorpark, then through Camarillo, then Pleasant Valley Road for 10 miles on the way to Channel Islands and Port Hueneme (mile # 30) where we had a bathroom break and photo-opp. It was 50 degrees at 9:30am. Then to PCH on the way to Latigo Cyn in Malibu. Along the way we stopped as the restaurant Neptune Net to refill on water and eat our sandwiches (I made chicken sandwich for Rosalie and Me, and seafood salad sandwich for Manny since he's a vegetarian.)
We encountered stiff headwinds along PCH. And there were a few rollers. I was already pooped. Rosalie and Manny had to slow down and wait for me. I was thinking "wala pang Latigo Cyn, todas na ako sa PCH".
At mile # 60 we started to climb Latigo Cyn, a 10-mile climb. It was now 62 degrees. That climb has a LOT of 10% and 12% grades. Mostly it's 7-9%, and a few 2-5% here and there. To me it seemed harder than Big GMR or Small GMR. Manny and Rosalie did fine; I got dropped in the beginning and suffered alone (no Victor to ride w/ me).
It's a great route, esp. in the morning with no traffic. We went through a lot of hills at Moorpark, then through Camarillo, then Pleasant Valley Road for 10 miles on the way to Channel Islands and Port Hueneme (mile # 30) where we had a bathroom break and photo-opp. It was 50 degrees at 9:30am. Then to PCH on the way to Latigo Cyn in Malibu. Along the way we stopped as the restaurant Neptune Net to refill on water and eat our sandwiches (I made chicken sandwich for Rosalie and Me, and seafood salad sandwich for Manny since he's a vegetarian.)We encountered stiff headwinds along PCH. And there were a few rollers. I was already pooped. Rosalie and Manny had to slow down and wait for me. I was thinking "wala pang Latigo Cyn, todas na ako sa PCH".At mile # 60 we started to climb Latigo Cyn, a 10-mile climb. It was now 62 degrees. That climb has a LOT of 10% and 12% grades. Mostly it's 7-9%, and a few 2-5% here and there. To me it seemed harder than Big GMR or Small GMR. Manny and Rosalie did fine; I got dropped in the beginning and suffered alone (no Victor to ride w/ me).Finally I got to the bottom of Latigo Mile # 70) where Darna and Manny were waiting for me for 25 mins. It was already 2 PM and we were still in the middle of the Sta Monica mountains, we still had 50 miles to go with lots of climbing !!! We had no lights.
So we had no choice but to shorten the route. We skipped Potrero and Santa Rosa. But there were still a lot of hills along the way: Mullholland, Westlake, and Moorpark Blv. It was survival mode for me, but Darna and Manny were still fresh since they had to slow down to my "Group C" pace.
We got to the parking lot at around 3:30 PM. We did 95 miles, with 5,500 feet of climbing. Darna and Manny were still good to go for another 30 miles, if only it wasn't dark. If they did their own "Group A or B" pace and not have to wait up for me they could have finished the 120 miles in time. But they had a no-drop policy.
It's a great route. Next time we'll skip going to Port Hueneme (roads too dusty and busy), and instead from Pleasant Valley take Las Posas down to PCH.
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