Day 5 Synopsis and Day 6 Dedication

Santa Maria to Santa Barbara – 92 miles

This morning was tough to get started as I did not get a good night of rest and the weather outside was foggy with a slight chill to the air. I started feeling more awake and capable of riding once we started the day, but I was a little worried until I started spinning. We made a stop at a winery about 15 miles from our hotel which was called the Cambria Winery. The owners of the winery were related to a KPMG employee that worked at one of our Bay Area offices and therefore we made an effort to stop there. I was really glad we went through this region because the sun was shining and the valley was beautiful. It really started to heat up from here with the temperature getting into the upper 80s. After the wine tasting adventure was over, the next stop was Solvang where we had lunch setup for us by our tour volunteers. It was a great town and the weather was still beautiful. From here we had some more climbing to do in order to get out of the valley and back out to the coast. Once we made it to the top of the valley, we had an interesting route which took us on the state route 101 which is supposed to be biker friendly, but is truly a highway. I don’t think anyone preferred being on the highway with trucks and cars passing us at 60 M.P.H., but unfortunately there was not another route that would have helped us get to Santa Barbara efficiently. The weather turned foggy and chilly back out on the coast and we tried not to stop much until we made it into Santa Barbara. During the day, the group I was riding with had a total of 7 flat tires that we had to deal with between multiple riders. Luckily I did not experience any, but it was not a good day for us overall because a fellow rider also took a fall while climbing a hill. He ended up being okay, but he did have a pretty nasty wound on his upper thigh, marks on his elbow and shoulder where he tried to cushion the fall and a mark on his helmet where his head hit the pavement. Luckily he was going uphill and therefore he was not going too fast which lessened the impact of the fall. He was able to hop back on his bike and finish the rest of the day. We later found out that he cracked the frame of his bike and we will have to determine what to do with that in the morning since he did not discover that until late in the evening. It was a longer than expected day due to these mishaps, but we did make it safely to the hotel and we will start back up in the morning for our adventure to Santa Monica.

I would like to dedicate my day 6 of riding to my top contributor who supported me this year by making a significant donation to LIVESTRONG. Thank you to John McPhee for your support of LIVESTRONG and the Chasing Daylight Tour. Not only am I dedicating the day to John, but I am also dedicating it to the cancer survivors and victims who have impacted his life which include Kathleen McPhee.