Tour of the Big Island

I have a few days all by myself this March and I decided I need to bike somewhere. For some reason, I have my mind set on Hawaii's Big Island, probably because it was more do-able than Taiwan (which I hope I could ride around some day) I googled and found (surprise surprise!) Big Island Bike Tours (the first non-ad search result) I like the description of their "Circumnavigate the Big Island" multi-day tour and the tour days look good so I wrote them an email. No reply (found that it went to Spam for no reason) so I called and it was answered by Alex Candelario, the owner. He also sent me more details. I gotta admit I didn't see his bio on their website but instinctively I feel that name seems to be somebody so I googled him and indeed, he has just retired from professional cycling! And I immediately felt more confident about joining their tour. And I was lucky! Alex actually suffered from back injuries for the last few months and wasn't able to ride with the tours until ours. (Side-story: he drove the van on the previous tour and got bitten by a black widow in the middle of the 2nd night and suffered through the next few days of that tour. Poor Alex.) Riding with a former pro was definitely a super-cool thing to do. For one thing, Alex DO knows all these different routes all around the world. He even raced in Hong Kong (and knows the most famous cyclist from Hong Kong) With his experience riding Tour of California (I must have seen him in the peloton from the times I watch the tour in person or on TV), he is familiar with my usual routes like Old La Honda and the most challenging ones like Mt. Hamilton, Mt. Diablo and Tunitas Creek. On the first ride he told me to draft behind him so that we could catch the leaders of the group. During the whole tour he kept urging me to get the basics right: ride with high cadence and smooth strokes, including "pulling up" the pedal, and change the positions (between sit-down and standing) It's also cool to hear his opinions on PED users. (Big dislike!) Finally, he gave me some good tips on controlling my weight: snack with apple or baby carrot instead of junk food. For me, this tour is not cheap (spent a total of ~$5k) but I felt that it's worth every penny. In addition to the invaluable advices, Alex certainly didn't go cheap on the food and lodging (yes, even free beer!) I will break down the tour day-by-day (scroll down for stage 1.)