Diablo Summit - 33 miles
Once again it was a cool, breezy morning on Devil’s Mountain. Nicole had told us she wouldn’t be coming but that Rick would be and that usually meant some extra mileage somewhere so I fueled up with a Powerbar and a bowl of leftover pasta with butter.
I got to the Gate right at 8 and JB soon came down the hill – he had ridden part way up to get an extra couple of miles making his total for the week an even 100 (his week starts at 8 am on Saturday I guess, so if he rides some miles before then they count as last week’s.
Rick hadn’t shown up by 8:10 and I was feeling a little stiff and sore from a minor crash on the way to work yesterday (pulled a cleat while out of the saddle), so we decided to start up and take it slowly figuring Rick would catch us. JB recently bought a new cassette with a lower gear (13-26 I think, to replace his 12-23) but he hadn’t installed it yet. He was in his 23t pretty early in the ride and having a tough time already when he realized he was still in the big ring! Around about Moss landing JB spotted Rick in his helmet mirror and we didn’t let on that we knew he was coming. Rick was going fast trying to catch us but we kept our slow pace until he got about 10 meters back and then JB said “now!” and we both sprinted for about 30 seconds just to make Rick crazy. Turns out he had met up with Joe (a work buddy of Rick’s who did the Tierra Bella Century with us in April) and Joe was right behind him. So we all rode up pretty much together although things started to split up after the bump. I did a 45m30s and that was fine given the wind, cold, and soreness. Rick had lost his cycle computer sometime after last week’s ride but when he pulled out his cleat covers from his jersey it fell out! The computer must have been nested inside the covers because he was wearing a different jersey.
It was foggy and damp at the Junction so we all decided to climb Summit Road. We popped out of the fog layer at about 2500 feet and the rest of the ride was very pleasant. We all stayed together until after Juniper when Rick and Joe dropped off a little bit. I was keeping it pretty slow, saving myself for the wall and JB seemed content to ride at my pace. When we got to the bottom of the wall I rode a couple loops around the lower parking lot to prepare myself and put some distance between JB and me. He was about 50 meters up when I started but he clearly was having trouble and I wound up PASSING JB ON THE WALL!!!!!!! First time THAT’S ever happened. I’ll bet he has his 26t on before next time.
At the Summit we met one of the Rivendell Romulus guys who was at the Junction on Wednesday – we talked bike fit for a while (he also has a carbon/Ti Colnago) and told us that he was preparing for Paris-Brest-Paris! A super comfortable well-fitting bike would certainly help when you’re riding 1200km through the north of France. He said he was hoping to complete it in 80 hours.
On the way back home I drafted a city bus for almost 2 miles at 35 mph! I kept humming that Italian symphony from Breaking Away... didididiDA didididiDA didididiDA DA DA!
Send me an e-mail!
diabloscott@terra.es
