West Maui Loop Ride

I got wind of the ride around the West Maui Mountains yesterday... my phone call from home @ 545 AM woke me up as planned... sorry.. I need to get woken up to be up before 7AM lately if Im actually going to wake up.. anyways, a quick 17km ride down to Maalea harbor and I met up with 20 or so more riders...
The ride started out good.... one guy flatted (his first of 3 on the ride) Unlike at home.. everyone just kept on going.. I was in a group that decided to soft pedal and hopefully wait for the guy...
At Kapalua it started to rain and I decided to put in a 400+ watt effort up what they call Pineapple Hill.. I pulled one guy along with me, and caught and passed everyone who was the group ahead that didn't wait.. a note about the road that comes ahead.. its CRAZY to say the least.. wet red slippery mud in almost all the corners.. and we're not talking gradual corners.. these are vicious sweeping switchbacks... I slacked off on all the downhills for the simple reasons
a) I dont know this road at all
b) In places its single lane and you cant see around the corner
c) I still have 9 more days of vacation left... I dont want to be eating asphalt (keep reading)
Well up comes what they call Mr Steepy... for good reasons.. 1/4 mile long and 18% grade.. 39X25 400+ watts... 10kmh... hit the top of Mr Steepy and my rear wheel hit the white painted line on the downstroke which promptly kicked my bike about 45 degrees to the outside... no big deal keep on going.. then the wind hit.. You have to see this road to beleive it.. you are against a mountain on one side, and the wind is blowing full boar off the Pacific Ocean.. its WINDY.. deep dish carbon wheels and this road.. not a good idea.. a little unnerving back there I must say....
Anyways, after that it was mostly a battle between the wind, muddy road, and my front wheel not like crosswinds.. The entire 130km ride condo-condo took a little over 4.5 hours... just about 5000 vertical climbing in the end...
Eating Asphalt... I feel really bad for this guy.. he had a BRAND NEW Cervelo P3 TT frame he was riding (why on this road, I dont know... anyways, not my problem) anyways, he lent his buddy his road bike to ride... he hit some loose gravel on a downhill and hot hard from what I hear... He was apparently out of it for a few minutes... nothing broken thankfully but the poor guys pupils were totally dilated... luckily the guy has insurance and hes going to get checked out.. buddy on the new P3 flipped over top of him and looked like he more or less eroded off 2 fingertips... Apparently as well a few guys that were coming the other way against the way we were going, one guy missed a switchback corner and basically ate the face of the mountain... not to sure of the outcome on that one....
Over all an awesome ride.. tomorrow there is a planned ride around the east side... Ill pass up on that one.. I was specifically told on todays ride if I take my wheels back there on those roads... there not coming home in one piece... Ill pass and do some more climbing tomorrow up Haleakala.. Ill get up to the 3500 foot area and the temperatures will be a nice cool pleasant 15 degrees or so...

Hawaii Training

Guess Ive neglected my blog while over here.. anyways, the weather has been a rollercoaster event. One day its blistering hot (literally... my arms are killing me from the blistering... kinda gross actually) and the next day its pouring rain and windy like crazy. Today was my 10th ride and I just surpassed 1000km total.. My goal was to do 100km + a day.. For here with the heat beleive me... thats plenty.. especially for this early in the season... I am going to be home with 2000km outdoor kms in the legs already.. hopefully the weather cooperates when I get home at the end of the month.
I did the Haleakala crater climb yesterday, sea level to 10,023 feet 57.2km of nothing but climbing. I took 25 minutes off my personal best, and did the climb in just over 3hrs 20 mins.. the weather from 7000 feet up (12 miles) was pure hell... it poured, I was in cloud, couldnt see more than 50 meters ahead of me at times... and the temperature at the top... +3 windchill -1... yes -1 in Hawaii... I was wearing jersey and shorts.. and frozen solid.. a family from Florida gave me a ride down... probably saved my life actually..
Todays ride was windiest is been... I headed north to Haiku to Maui Cyclery to get my powertap wheel looked at.. riding the Mokulele Highway.. wide open.. 30mph wind.. you know its windy when.... you are doing 260+ watts and only going 24kmh MAX... yeah... coming back I hit hit 60kmh on the flats... most of time was spent in 53X12 at 250 watts just over 51kmh for 8km.. gotta love a tailwind!!
Caught on that theres 2 group rides this weekend.. one around the whole west side of Maui.. about 120km ride, and the other one Sunday all the way around the East side... the east side is crazy...but I think theres a support vehicle coming..