Windmill Century 2010

Ride: Windmill Century - 4th century of the year!!
Distance: 102 miles
 Ride time: 7:35
Avg. Speed: 13.6
2010 Miles to date: 2821
Weekly miles: 102

The Windmill century was out of Santa Maria and started in Pioneer Park. I checked in at 6:00 am and was on the road by 6:15.  The start of the ride was cool with overcast sky and misty.  It was a lot cooler than I expected and I didn't wear any leg warmers. My knee got cold and started to hurt early on and hurt all day, sometimes it was very painful.  I had to keep my cadence down otherwise I would get a sharp pain in my knee.  There wasn't too much climbing and most of the hills were long and not very steep, 4 to 5% (some 7 to 8% short sections) except the last hill 85 miles into the ride, a few miles at 6 to 8%.  There was a 7 mile flat open section were there was a nasty head wind -it felt like 25 to 30 mph.  I had to struggle keeping 8 to 10 mph.  But on the return side of the loop it turned into a 25 to 30 mph tail wind and I was hitting 25 to 35 mph on the flats!!  It warmed up into the 80's in the afternoon and I forgot to put sun-block on my arms and I got a light sun burn.

The rest stops were well stocked, the lunch was good, and the after ride BBQ was great.