19th September - Fort Bragg to Guerneville

We left Fort Bragg at about 8.15am - the plan was a relatively short 115km ride to Stewarts Point. Little did we know how the day would unfold. We followed Highway 1 for most of the day apart from an alternative scenic route around the coast and through the quaint town of Mendocino. Sensible cycling pace so we could amire the views.

We had coffee at the tiny town of Elk in a general stores.  The coffee was strong and the cakes very tasty. We returned to Highway 1 and met up with Scott, our driver, who had some good and bad news for us. Our hotel was not in Stewarts Point (we were referring to out of date information about hotel bookings) but much further on in Guerneville. Good news is that Scott thought location and lodgings were 'cool', bad news was that they were another 70kms further South and 20kms off course!! The plan was further complicated in that Maurice was required to sign important business contracts in San Diego and therefore needed to be in San Francisco to get a flight by 8pm. So we now had a much longer ride for the day and had to really push hard to get 'Maurice to the church on time'!! A plan was hatched for Scott to take all our luggage to the hotel, come back and pick up Maurice from the ride and drive him to San Francisco airport. And that was exactly what happened - so Vancomex is a rider down for the ride tomorrow with Maurice hopefully rejoining us in San Francisco.

Despite the long ride we were again rewarded with excellent weather, fantastic North California coastline and great road surfaces. We worked well together, the the kms passed by quickly. As we approached our lodging for the night several Vancomex tour records tumbled - for example: we reached our highest total climbing of 7,000ft for one day; the biggest calorie burn of 2,697; longest daily ride of 182 kms (114 miles); steepest slope at 16%, and fastest speed of 45mph. When we reached our lodgings (Cottages on the River) in Guerneville we had 1 more record for the tour - total ride time for a single day of 9hrs 8mins. We deserved our beer tonight !! 

Tomorrow we have another 160km day planned  - ouch! The good news is that we reach San Francisco and a REST DAY - hurrah!! We then meet up with another rider, Simon from the UK, who will be riding with us to the Mexican border. We are all looking forward to meeting up with him.

A few pictures below - balance from yesterday plus a selection from today.

Meet Jim and Jill travelling from Vancouver

 to San Francisco as part of a small group like ours

Keep pumping those legs Tom

Keep pumping those legs Tom



Climbing a hill and still puff to talk – fit boys!





Don’t throw the bikes over the cliff – there's

 still a long way to go




The coastal route we followed for 30k – magnificent cycling in great weather




The coastal route we followed for 30k – magnificent cycling in great weather



The coastal route we followed for 30k –

 magnificent cycling in great weather

The coastal route we followed for 30k – magnificent cycling in great weather

Lunch stop – don’t be fooled by appearances – the Pizzas we had were great



Was it the cycling, was it lunch, was

 it the weather – all three!



Worryingly, this was before any beer



Good peleton boys




Surelt those buns are not all for you Maurice




View from a loo in Elk where we had coffee



Brain waving to the crowds that had lined
our route



I'd hate to see Tim angry!




Guys we have a problem - you have to ride
another 70kms today !!



We saw these consistently along our route
today but have no idea what flower they
 are. Can anyone help?



Have you got everything on the
 shopping list Tim?



Posing at the top of a long climb - superb views

Posing at the top of a long climb - superb views



Views at the top of one of our climbs before
 Jenner




Views at the top of one of our climbs before Jenner



Seals near Jenner