Rebob Sheebop

This upcoming Saturday is the benchmark ride for Tahoe's America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. We'll be doing 80 miles from Petaluma to Jenner, but I'll write about that next week.  Today - I wanna fill you in on the short 40-mile buddy ride we had in Napa this past Saturday.

First of all, there were these strange emails going back and forth about BEWARE THE REBOBS.  We were warned to not fall back on Patrick Road.  And the last email was the best with pictures of bats and a vampire-like creature.  I was all, "Who the heck are the Rebobs?Must be some really mean neighbors along Patrick Road.  Maybe we need to be quiet, so we don't wake them?" More on the *REBOBS later.

Secondly, it's really odd that we now consider 40 miles to be "short."  But lemme tell you, there was nothin' short about it.  We started in Yountville and headed into Napa, a portion of the time trial route we did at the beginning of the season, to which they added "a respectable hill."

I did fairly well, until the mid-point of the ride which was a 4-mile climb up Patrick Road, the "respectable hill."  They said the first 1/2 mile of the ride was the toughest, and boy did I know it ... my lungs and my legs also knew it.  A few of us stopped in some shade a couple times and debated whether to turn around or give the hill another try after our lungs got back in our chests.  At about mile 2.5, we'd had enough.  We waited to see some of the team fly down the mountain before heading back.  The descent was a screamer.

So my ride was cut short by about 4 miles (in the middle), but I made it home, safe, sound, and strong.  But I most definitely did not hydrate enough.  

*THE LEGEND OF THE REBOBS - Every town has their spooky legend.   In Napa, all the locals know of the Rebobs that live up on Patrick Rd. near Browns Valley.  The story is long, long ago, there was a weird scientist who mutated monkeys (or kangaroos) and humans for combat purposes. Apparently, they got loose, killed the scientist, and people who venture up Patrick Road ... a winding hill under big scary trees (where the Rebobs live) that opens up at the top to big fields where people have had all kinds of unexplainable things happen to them.