Ride Report – Sierra Madre to Cogswell Dam

56.3 miles, 3:51 time, 3,360 ft elevation

Oh, boy. The cool rainy weather of Tuesday and Wednesday is well behind us. And, the summer heat is with us now. The ride started at Sierra Madre on a sunny and warm morning. By the time we descending from Azusa Canyon, my Garmin was reading mid 90s! We had a good size crew at Sierra Madre and picked up more along the way and at Encanto Park in Duarte. We congratulated Rob for finishing his 1st full Ironman at Texas last weekend. He proudly wore the finishers kit! We rode up the bike path on the San Gabriel River Trail to the end and merged onto Hwy 39, up Azusa Canyon. I was sweating buckets. I went through 4 bottle total today. At west fork, we re-grouped for a snack and potty stop. The last 7 miles through the closed road of West Fork is my favorite gem. Shaded by lovely trees, the road winds along a babbling stream. Really nice. The last 1/4 mile is straight up (13-14%), which we call a ‘noticeable incline’. At the middle of the dam, we laughed around and took a picture. We rolled back down through the trees. QR tri bikes have an issue with their rear box. Both Steve and Danny broke their QR box on one of the water crossing ditches in the tree-lined section. The descent down Hwy 39 was hot. The climb back from Encanto to Sierra Madre was hot hot hot. But, we cooled off with iced coffees and cold fruity smoothies. Yum. Emilio finished just behind us, as he was chasing us all day. He started a few minutes behind us from the start (maybe set the watch a few minutes ahead next week 🙂

Bjoern, Ryan, David, Bill, Larry, Peter, Tiffany, Gregg, Lynda, Leanne, Steve, Kirk, Grazi. George rolled up 2 seconds later.