Bonny Doon and Alba... Done and done! It was really really nice out there today.
Joan and I went for a swim at Cowells Beach with some of the people from our tri club. We did about 1.2 miles. I went without the wetsuit of course, just to slow myself down... ; ) Actually, there were some fast swimmers there!
After the swim, we went for a ride with the same people. They were just doing the Santa Cruz Triathlon course to get ready for that race in two weeks. Joan did that as well, plus a little easy cruising after that. I turned off on Bonny Doon Road and did my heinous 43 mile ride.
Boon Doon time was 27:50 to end of the harder climbing (about 3.5 miles) and 52:25 (7.4 miles with 2110 feet of climbing) to the intersection of Empire Grade and Ice Cream Grade. I then cruised down Felton-Empire Road and then up highway 9 to Brookdale; where Alba Road comes in.
Alba looks rather daunting when you first turn onto it! I was wondering if I was going to be able to make it. The first .75 miles is about like riding up the On Orbit portion of BOOB. Steep! But there's a "flat spot" not too far up there. It's probably 7 or 8 % but it feels so easy after the start! It's like that the whole way up. It'll be really steep for a bit and then level off a little. But it never goes too close to flat. The easiest part might be 5% for 10 yards!
All in all, I have to say that Alba is indeed slightly harder than BOOB, but only because it doesn't have any real rest in it. On Orbit at least has that short downhill...
My time for the 3.8 mile climb was 39:55; which should tell you a little... It's .4 miles shorter than BOOB and goes up 20 feet more...