I was out of town all week. I had brand new wheels on my bike that were supposed to be awesome. I thought that would mean my legs would be fresh and I would stomp the ride this afternoon. Instead, I had a terrible ride. I was overheating and had to stop so many times for several minutes to catch my breath and cool down. It was pretty pathetic. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was because I didn’t sleep very much this week. Maybe I can come up with another excuse. But the bottom line is that I had one of my worst rides in a long time.

We originally planned to revisit the Great Western Loop. It was a beautiful ride with a lot of climbing. But we ended up getting a later start than we wanted, so we decided to cut out most of the flat sections and just do the big hills. We parked at the Middle School on Olive Vista Drive in Jamul and headed up Lyon’s Valley Road. We stayed left onto the Skyline Truck Trail, since we had never climbed it before. About half way up, we turned in on Lawson Valley Road to connect up to Lyon’s Valley Road again.

The descent southeast into Lyon’s Valley was really fun, but I knew we would have to pay for it. And we did. We were basically going the opposite way through Lyon’s Valley than we went the last time we rode here. There’s a very good reason why bikers ride this the other direction. The climb is brutal with no bike lane and usually no shoulder. We got buzzed by a few trucks and even a very loud dune buggy. I was still having a very rough time climbing. It was almost 90 degrees on the road and I’m not used to that kind of heat.

When we got to the top, we turned left and took the Skyline Truck Trail back to Lawson Valley Road where we cut in to Lyon’s Valley Road again and took it back down to where we started, making our ride into a figure-8. The climb up the Skyline Truck Trail went well. We were out of the direct sun and there was a slight breeze that was nice and cool. I felt good and cruised to the top with no trouble.

The descent from the top of the Skyline Truck Trail and down through the bottom section of Lyon’s Valley Road was great. We were feeling so good that Ryan and I sprinted up the big hills on Olive Vista to get back to the school.

I’m not sure I really noticed any difference with my new Fulcrum wheels. They made some noises a few times as I was climbing that made me wonder if they were holding up to my weight or not. I think it will take a few more (and longer) rides to figure out if they are really any different from my old Mavic wheels.