Hats off to Duval and Bernard, who endured this major ride in absolutely horrible climatic conditions. 

Bernard and I rode the the muholland challenge on Saturday. 70% of the day the weather was cool and perfect riding weather. We started out at 7am with 40 other riders. We decided to pace ourselves since it was a long hard ride. We all had a nice pace down Muholland but we couldn’t go too fast down the hills since the ground was really wet. BZ got a flat on topanga and sag was there quick to support us. Next stop they gave BZ a newer used tire. Nice. While he was changing tire I wanted to get a jump on stunt and soon as I turned left it began to rain and then pour. It was raining so hard I had to laugh that I was doing this. I got to the top and Bz showed up 7 min later. 

Then we began the descent down Piuma and with rain and fog we could barely see 10 feet in front of us. We decended slow which killed both of us. 

The rain stopped and then we kept a good pace all the to head down Muholland heading down to PCH and it started to rain so hard that it hurt. It was a down pour and a very slow descent. When we got to the beach it was dry then I got a flat. Front tire. Changed tube and started up Yerba Buena. 

By this time we were physically and mentally getting tired and psyched out. Came down deercreek slow and i started falling back on PCH. Then we started to climb dekker at 87 miles. It was a different experience and a very hard climb. BZ beat me to the top and we were both dead tire. Last rest stop we started heading up upper encinal. I got a second win and took off. I think Decker caught up with BZ and he was dragging. 

At the top, I was going to pull over and text my wife back and I couldn’t get my foot out of the pedal and fell over. Scraped my knee. More embarrassed.

At this point the weather was dry and it was a pleasant ride back to the hotel.

Overall it was a great experience and riding together the whole way helped us both finish well. The support was great. 
Now we have bragging rights that we not only completed Mulholland Challenge but we did it in the rain.

Duval