Central Coast Classic - Day 2: Lunch on high

This was the view from our lunch roost at about mile 50 on the day. By this point we'd climbed almost 4000' feet and had about 100 miles left to go! Everyone said to eat whatever, and as much as you could, so I powered down a full cheeseburger and macaroni salad, jumped back on the bike and felt just fine. Of course this is in direct contrast to my feelings on Friday evening...during dinner my hamstrings locked up and the 2nd beer caught up with me AT THE SAME TIME! I felt pretty bad for about 15 mintues, but recovered, worried, and spent a large portion of Friday night's sleep time stressing about my hydration level and wether or not my legs were gonna be cramping all day on Saturday. It was not to be however - I rode cautiously for most of the day and focused on a nice pedal stroke and consistent efforts. Of course I threw caution to the wind a few times - like when the slacker 'supported riders' tagged onto the back of our fast moving group (there were 9 of us) and took the easy ride right to the base of the days biggest climb - then promptly sprinted by carrying only their superiority complexes and little else. AAARRRGGHHHH - I hate that...take a pull or at the very least say thanks for the free ride! Alan, Bill and I were so mad we chased them for probably 20 minutes up and down the hills of Hwy 1. We finally caught them, and their slacker sag-wagon at a rest-aurant...they looked 'tired' from the big effort, but we had miles to go and jumped right back onto the road and fired off a solid hour at 22-28mph+. Whatever, fully supported! Lame.