Despite the fact that I had no TV to distract me, a phonecall to home and slow service in the only place open for breakfast (it was full of cyclists from the day before. It was probably closer to 10 by the time I eventually left. I didn't mind too much though, as my map told me that I was defending from 8000ft to almost sea level.
I started out with an uphill, which I knew about, which lasted about 15 miles or so before I came down. I had some support from passing cars with racing bikes on roof racks in the form of waves, honks and the ocasional 'woop!'. Soon enough, I was on the far side of this, and began the downwards run. The downhill wasn't as I expected. Instead of being one long road that was continually downwards to the bottom, it was downwards for a bit, then had a steep uphill for about a quarter/half mile. This wasn't so bad to begin with, but it got a bit of a drag after a while. After 30 miles, I decided it was time for a rest.
After about an hour, I headed back out and onto the back roads down to Placerville. I knew they were the back roads because there was a big sign telling me how snow ploughs didn't go down there, and it could be icy. I decided to take my chances, and headed off. This was quite uncomfortable down here, as the road was very bumpy.
Not a lot else happened until I reached somewhere called 'Fair Play'. This was where the mostly downhill turned to mostly uphill in the foothills. They weren't particularly long, but were nearly vertical in incline. I've also discovered how it being so much lower has made a significant difference to how hot it is.
About 3 miles outside of Placerville, disaster struck, and I got a flat. I couldn't believe my luck. I wasn't sure how close Placerville was from my current location, so I was forced to stop and fix it. After this, I had a small roll down thehbill into town and got a room for $48, less than half price to what I had yesterday, and the TV works. shocking.
Tomorrow is my penultimate ride, and so it would seem fitting that I go to somewhere called Davis, the so called bicycle capital of the world. I'm not quite sure how this is the case, but I know they have roundabouts just for bikes. I also go through Sacremento, the hometown of a whole load of massive computer organisations amongst other things that I'm not too sure of.
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