2017 Here we come...
Once again, August is getting ready for TdCA month and things are looking good. As you might have heard, California has some new beach front property right along highway 1 near Big Sur. The problem is that Highway 1 is still under all that debris and Cal Trans is still scratching it's collective head on how to deal with it. Bottom line, we are going to Re-route.
Plus, this is the year we revisit the original route that started the madness in 2013. We go North from Santa Barbara to San Francisco by way of the western hills and mountains that keep the fog along the coast, and the heat in the central valley. We traverse, ride up and over, and ride along the tops of these oak covered hills and enjoy the wide open spaces that California rarely shows to people who live, work and die in the city.
Our ride this year is once again supported by Rich, and our on the road celebrations will keep the spice in the Carne Asada. Once again, our chef prepares our breakfasts and lunch roadside, and we gather at a local restaurant in the evenings. We also will be doing a limited edition kit through our new clothing supplier Cuore designed by Adam.
We are limited to 20 riders this year, and several criteria are required to participate. Alumni of TdCA are welcome to come back and ride at any time. They have already shown bad judgement in the past, and will probably do so again in the future. Current Million Dollar Challenge riders are eligible as well, since they are contributors. Riders who want to ride TdCA are not covered by the above, can give or get $2,500 payable to CAF to be eligible to join the awesome.
We handle the cost of this event very simply. We take the total cost to produce, and divide by the number of riders. Staff, hotel, food, logistics are all covered and we share in the expenses. We are each motivated to get the number of riders up, as the cost per rider will drop as we scale up to 15-20 riders. In theory, we haven't done that yet, but hope to this year. In the past we've ranged around $3,500 - 4,000 per person in years past. This year, we see some cheap hotels in our future, as Santa Maria and Hollister are not budding tourist destinations, but we'll see if we can bump up our incredible and make it fun.
Rough Itinerary:
Sat, Oct 7 - travel to Santa Barbara via Train from SD, check in to hotel, final check on bikes
Sunday, Oct 8 - Santa Barbara to Santa Maria
Mon, Oct 9 - Santa Maria to Paso Robles
Tues, Oct 10 - Paso Robles to Hollister
Wed, Oct 11 - Hollister to Mountain View
Thur, Oct 12 - Mountain View to San Francisco
Fri, Oct 13 - Day off in San Francisco or Café and sightseeing ride, we say goodbye to those not doing MDC
Sat, Oct 14 - MDC Begins
