Diablo Junction - 17 miles

Lois asked all us Tour de Cure riders to show up in our team jerseys so she could take photos. There were forecasts of thundershowers and it turned out most people couldn't come anyway, just Nicole and I at 5:30 so Lois had lots of time to get us in several different poses (race face, smiley face, sprint, etc). JB was coming but got held up at work (and he wasn't wearing his team jersey anyway) so I noodled along with Nicole until the bottom of the Bump.

Wildlife Encounter: A beautiful red-tailed hawk flew right over my head, only about 10 feet off the ground. I'm not much of a bird watcher but that was pretty cool.

Passed up a couple of other women riders who knew Lois from somewhere else and Lois drove up in her truck taking photos of all of us at different points along the way. The sun was pretty low and there were some dark clouds to make for dramatic pictures, watch my Tour de Cure page for them - I'll try to rotate one per day after Lois gets them to me, and post one or two here also.

I did the last three miles in 20 minutes so I got some good training in there. I put on my arm warmers at the Junction and turned around to ride back up with Nicole (and maybe get my picture taken some more too!). JB had caught up to Nicole and was riding his fully fendered touring bike with panniers and everything (because of the weather forecast). He had a built in excuse for when he lost the sprint but he made a good go of it anyway; I stayed right behind him until there was only enough room to win by a wheel so it was very easy and looked cool with me throwing my bike at the line… too bad Lois didn't get that one on film.

Next ride: Primavera Century on Sunday!


Please sponsor me in the Tour de Cure charity ride for diabetes.