Day Seventy-Four - Penultimacy.

After yesterday, I was very much hoping for an easy, stress free day. No such luck.

After going out to eat breakfast around 9, I was ready to go about half an hour later. I rolled out of the car park, over to the other side of the road, and got a flat. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't just a puncture either, the whole valve had sheered completely leaving a gaping hole. I had no choice to change it. Some time later, and I was on my way.

No more than 200m further up the line, I felt the rumbling of metal on concrete, to find it had punctured AGAIN. It was a 'normal' puncture this time, fixable with a repair kit. Because of all this, I was running low on spare tubes, so I had to pedal back uphill to the placerville bike shop. It was around 11 before I left Placerville.

The first part of the ride was down quiet backroads through lots of winery's and grape fields. I arrived at Folsom 20 miles later, where I was to pick up a bike trail. Not before another puncture though, with the valve sheering off again. I'm not really sure how it happened, I was stationary when I heard it fall on the floor next to me. Yesterday was only the second time that I'd put a presta valve tube on, and thought O might have been doing something fundamentally wrong. The tube has a little nut that comes screwed on, which I put between the inner tube and the rim rather than on the outside. Shout if you have no idea what I'm talking about. With the benefit of hindsight, this seemed to have done the trick. I didn't know this at the time though, and spent the rest of the day being overcautious to the extent of paranoia that I'd get another one.

After picking up the bike trail, I rode for about 30 miles, mostly along a river. It took me 'through' Sacremento, but it seemed as though I was in wilderness most of the time. The path was well used though, so I couldn't be too far from anywhere. Not a whole lot to report, except that I chatted to a guy wearing the Team GB Jersey/Short combo (I'm assuming he bought it rather than earnt it, but I could be wrong), on a very serious looking bike. By serious, I mean that the handlebars were so low that they bent over the front wheel, meaning the rider needs to duck down to hold this / aero bars, or ride with no hands the whole time like he did.

At around 55 miles, I stopped for a break after leaving the trail. I wasn't feeling great, the trail wasn't how I imagined at all, and there wasn't much oppertunity to buy anything. Before stopping, I went down a road that I later decided was the wrong way, and so after resting set off in the other direction. I later found this to be the complete wrong direction, and I was right the first time. I'm sorry, but it's near impossible to navigate somewhere like Sacremento with some roads and all road names left off. I resorted to turning on Google Maps and got that to take me.

I found my way a good while later, and went through Old Sacrememto to Davis. Old Sac. isn't as nice as you might assume, it was just a street full of motel after motel. I was glad I wasn't staying there, as it'd have been a nightmare to compare prices. I took another cycle path parallel to a freeway to Davis, this one being nowhere near as well maintained as the other. I was glad to just make it through without getting a flat or catching anything.

And so I arrived in Davis. It is a very green place I've found, meaning there is no room / need for big tall signs in the air. I didn't realise how much I relied upon these, but after finding that there was less a 'main street' and more a 'downtown', I had no idea where I was going. It was probably by chance that I found the Best Western there, and decided that I'd pay the price for a bit of luxury. To be honest, it's not a huge amount better than yesterday, but at 6:40pm I was in no mood to continue looking.

Tonight I ate at a little Chinese restaurant, which was just okay. I was the only person in there for a while, something I didn't realise from outside, meaning it was hugely lacking in atmosphere. That, and my food came in about 4 minutes flat, which I hate. At least pretend like you didn't have it ready... The reason I didn't go to somewhere in the heart of downtown was because there was a bike race on, a circular track round about 3 blocks up and one block wide, meaning the bordering restaurants were rammed. They had lots of races on, I saw some singlespeeds bombing round on the walk to, and racing bikes on the way back. Seeing how fast they can go so effortlessly makes me want one a lot.

There isn't really much point in saying where I'm heading to tomorrow, I've been counting down to it for weeks. It's not a short ride though, probably into the 60 mile mark by the time I arrive. I therefore expect to be there mid afternoon, but from today I'm sure you can see how that can all change. Fingers and toes crossed it all goes smoothly, literally.