18 november 2006 * tucson, arizona * 109 miles

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

just like in the movie

There's a scene in "Sideways" where Paul Giamatti's character, having just received some bad news while at a wine tasting, drains the contents of the spit bucket at least partially down his gullet. We were about 85 miles into our ride, and about a mile and a half into a long glorious downhill that was the payoff after a 20 mile very gradual uphill slog that got really really painful over the last three-fourths of a mile, when we passed the Fess Parker Winery. I didn't recognize the name when I looked to my left, but even at roughly 35 miles an hour I recalled the expansive veranda with the tapering stone columns. "Isn't that --," I shouted to Matt. He looked back at me and we laughed: "Just like in the movie!"

That particular phrase - "just like in the movie" - was our mantra this past weekend; something always seemed to spark a memory, whether we were hoofing it past the Chevy dealership to the Hitching Post or riding past the Windmill Inn (in reality, a Days Inn) or an ostrich farm. But then, it's not often one has an opportunity to do a bicycle tour of an Academy Award winning film. It wasn't supposed to be that way, of course. The Solvang Century has been raising money for heart disease since 1983, and we signed on for the ride way back in August - long before we knew two middle-aged juveniles would be indulging their bad behavior in the area on the silver screen. The recent success of "Sideways" has apparently been pretty darn good for the Santa Ynez (pronounced by a few of us as 'yinz,' naturally) Valley. It was only two weeks before our trip that the Post's travel section featured that part of California.

Solvang is an odd little town. It promotes itself as the Danish (as in the nationality, not the pastry) capital of America, as if that's a claim any other city would want to make. Everything reeks of Olde Time Charme and there are more windmills than any one town of 5,000 people should have. After our warm up ride Friday morning we spent the afternoon in Solvang, tasting wines and eating lunch. I had the 'Danish Combo,' of course, and there's a reason you don't know any authentic Danish foods. It was a plate of warm brown served with cabbage - not bad, really, but nothing you'd want day after day. Even the presumed treat - abelskivers (pancake balls served with jam) - was underwhelming. Later, in one of the shops, I was leafing through a Danish cookbook (though, "book" is stretching it a bit; it was little more than a pamphlet) contemplating a purchase. When I came across the recipe for jellied veal, it went right back on the shelf.

I barely know what to say about the ride itself: it's just a long long long day of pedaling. At least most of the course was really beautiful; I can't recall when I've seen grass so green. Maybe it's just because I'm ready for winter to be over on the East Coast. The first twenty miles were pretty much all downhill, and they may have been the easiest twenty miles I've ever done. The course had several really great long downhills, but obviously that meant we had to go up first. We rode through Santa Maria - home of the Michael Jackson trial - but we didn't really get to see anything. And yes, we rode through Lompoc, but again we didn't get to see anything. Thinking back now, it seems a crazy undertaking, but then nothing quite matches the exhilaration of having completed an endurance event like that.

One of the reasons that the Team in Training program appeals to me so much is that it's really friggin hard. Anybody can write a check and donate money to a cause, but it takes real commitment and sacrifice to sweat and suffer and sometimes freeze for months on end AND raise money too. Twelve of us spent some long uncomfortable Saturdays spinning to workout tapes and musicals in a cold garage in Falls Church. And when we did get out on the road, we were usually welcomed by temperatures barely above freezing and strong winds, but it was worth it. The 230 TNT riders last Saturday raised $700,000 for cancer research. Our small group alone raised close to $50,000. And we all finished easily. I'm proud to have been a part of it.

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