Tour de Palm Springs, Feb 2005

The Tour de Palm Springs is a very crowded event. With 7000 entrants, you're never riding alone, and don't even need to look at the route sheet. This year I went with Eric. We didn't want to drive on saturday morning, so we camped near Palm Springs, above snow line at 4500ft. The ride went fine. Although I was a bit sick and had no training, I finished in 6:45 hours, within 5 minutes of last year's time.

5am, Eric packs his sleeping gear	There's frost on my tent.	6am, we're not the only ones at the start	Getting ready
Start at the Palm Springs high school	After long talks from the officials, off we go	Windmill fields - and for sure, headwind is there	I ride in big packs
Igor from Caltech passes me on the hills	Waiting line for the restrooms	Snow on the mountains - San Bernardinos ?	A Seven tandem ? They paid 9-10K$ for it.
At rest stops, young girls hold riders' bikes	A bike for the whole family	Here come the tricycles	This tandem uses both Dura-Ace and disc brakes
4th rest stop, 75 miles - hanami for Chihiro	A band's playing	85 miles, going through sand dunes	At the finish
I did it in 6:45	Eric finished much earlier, in 5:40	This was my first ride on this bike	A great deal from Brian at Shoreline cycles in Ventura
Nice engravings on the lugs	First ride on 10spd stuff, I don't like the shifters' shape	But I must say, shifting is fantastic.	The double crankset will go, it needs a triple !
I already replaced the thin seat by a large one !	Ksyrium SL wheels are very good, but overpriced