San Luis Obispo: a rainy 400km brevet

Time for the 400km brevet, third qualifier for Paris-Brest-Paris ! Christophe and I went up to San Luis Obispo for this ride. The brevet route was going from San Luis Obispo to the Pinnacles national monument, taking small roads and highways with absolutely no traffic. The road was great, the food provided was great, so this sounds like a good ride... unfortunately, on the way back the weather changed to heavy rain and strong headwinds. My speed quickly dropped to a turtle's pace, and it took forever to cover the 126 miles of the trip back to San Luis Obispo. Wet, tired, sleepy, I finally arrived at 5am, after 23 hours and 253 miles. The best satisfaction of the day happened at the end of a short but very steep climb: I saw a double finisher of the Furnace Creek 508 ride, walking his bike up the hill, while I was still on my bike ! (Furnace Creek 508 is the most difficult bike event in California, riders are racing on a hilly 508 miles loop)

A picture taken in the restroom at the start !	45 miles, first checkpoint, we have to get a receipt.	A nice handlebar setup on the same Trek 5200 as I have.	Several people had dynamo hubs. Here on a Rivendell.
Meeting again Dennis. We did part of the 200K together.	Drafting behind 2 tandems... I'm in Paradise !	This looks like Provence, but it is not lavender.	A double 508 finisher walking his bike up the hill !
Canyons landscape	Here comes Christophe, already on his way back.	Pinnacles National Monument is the turnaround point.	I bought this postcard at the visitor center.
On a sunny day, Pinnacles NM looks like that.	Cathy offers me lunch while fighting against the wind.	On the way back... here is the dinner, crossing the road !	A cool-looking mailbox. Notice the weather: heavy rain.
I ride with Erik from Russia. We are completely wet...	... but still enjoy a lot food and blankets at mile 165.	At 5am, I'm finally back and my brevet card is full.	This didn't come out well. Basically I'm wet and tired.
At 9am on the way back, I grill sausages and make coffee.