Day 2: Santa Maria to Paso Robles... the transition stage and a preview of Day 3

Today I had company. Mark Fillebrown joined me after Cody had food poisoning mid stage on day one. It wasn't pretty, but luckily Cody's Australian constitution is tough, so he's up for tomorrow's queen stage... but we'll get to that in a second.

Mark was my wingman on day 2. Pulled into the wind most of the day!

Day One... Santa Barbara to Santa Maria.

Fabulous weather greeted us for the first pedal strokes of our northbound journey. The views from Painted Cave were stunning as we threaded our way over the top of Santa Barbara and down toward the Figueroa Mountain climb. That climb was the real deal. Like really tough, long and did I mention long. Then after a incredibly beautiful but bumpy descent, we hit the wind we've been warned about. It was blowing down Foxen road, which brought us all the way to Santa Maria. But nothing that a little mexican food couldn't cure. We'll hit it again tomorrow. 90 miles, and 7,000 feet on tap. Hopefully if we get an early start, we can avoid some of the afternoon wind. We'll see. 

Cody Stevenson

One More Big Ride

With tomorrow's ride from Rob Panzera calling for 3hrs and 3,000 feet, today was the main attraction on the training schedule. I headed east and started the ride in Pine Valley. It was in the high 40's this morning, so luckily I learned my lesson to always have arm warmers and a light wind vest in the car for east county starts. The weather on the coast is almost never the same weather as in the mountains.

Great training week done! Time to taper...

Had a great training week this week. Did a bunch of miles, along with some hills along the way. I think I'm physically ready for the northbound leg of my adventure. Next week is still riding every day, but reduced mileage. I do get to climb a bunch however, so you might see me on Mt. Soledad doing some repeats to get ready for the steep stuff out of Santa Barbara....

Cruising through Elfin Forest

Talked with Rob Maslach today. Endurobites is going to sponsor us for our ride. This is awesome news since this is without doubt the best food I've ever used while training/racing. It tastes great, and is not made up of a bunch of filler, processed carbs and maltodextrin. It's easy on the stomach!

Rode my Holland Jet today to make sure everything is good to go. It sure felt awesome after riding my 30lb steel Holland from 1987 around last week. If you've never seen the Holland video of how the Exogrid is made, it's worth a look.


beSPOKE from Jeff Katz on Vimeo.

Northward Journey Starts Oct 6

Last year after one of the harder days of the Million Dollar Challenge, I was joking around at dinner I asked, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we rode up from San Diego to the San Francisco start next year?' In retrospect, I might come to dread that thought. Rob Panzera and I concocted a plan that took out the most dangerous component, riding through LA, and added some mountain passes to make the ride an epic challenge. So with a course set, my financial fundraising goal set, I started to look for someone who could spend this much time away from home and work. Not so fast. Not everyone is as bike crazy as I am it appears. However, one person has raised their hand to join me. Cody Stevenson from Holland Cycles will be my co-conspirator for this big ride!