Saturday August 30 Diablo Juniper 28 miles

JB and Nicole couldn't come today, so I called Will we arranged to get an early start so Rick would catch us. He agreed but Rick showed up early too so we all rode very slowly to the Junction. It's nice to see Will get enthused about riding again but he's got a lot of fitness to regain. Peter came up around us with about a half mile to go and I hopped on his wheel - Rick either didn't try or couldn't hold it. Wasn't much of a sprint but I did just barely manage to cross the line in front of him (Peter). Time to Junction isn't worth reporting since it's meaningless anyway… very slow.

At the Junction there was this old guy on a fairly modern Trek road bike with a triple crank. A couple of other guys in their 60's were talking to him and he told them to guess his age. He looked about 80 but a very healthy 80 and the two guys were making him feel good by guessing he was late 60's early 70's. Then he said "I'm 82, and I've been riding since I was a teenager." I asked him if he was famous and he got a laugh out of that. Anyway, he didn't look young but he did look like he was still enjoying life and bike riding and I suppose that's all a guy can ask.

We talked Will into going up to Juniper but it was painfully slow. Rick went up with Peter and got way ahead of us very quickly. Will and I paused at Juniper long enough to soak in the smoggy view and then we both went home. On the road below the Gate I saw a guy packing up his Klein and I talked to him a bit - he said he'd had it about 3 years, it was a Quantum Race with the Icon Air Rail parts and a cool blue/purple paint job. He must have ridden part way up and turned around while we were still up on Summit Road because otherwise I would have seen him earlier.