Diablo Junction plus South Gate Kiosk, 22 miles

We had a big group from work today. It hasn’t been as hot the last couple evenings and the weather was very nice tonight. JB was late getting back from a meeting but the rest of us all started up pretty much together including Adam (first time since before his wedding) and Leif. We splintered up a little bit and I was riding next to Cindy when the first couple of Diablo Cyclists came by and I joined them: Cadex guy and Dave with the Paramount. Cadex guy had his Trek carbon bike back now though so he was faster than usual, but I’ll still call him Cadex guy because it’s easy to remember.

Adam and Leif took off about this time and pulled well clear but my little group was riding a pretty good tempo. As we got to the Upper Ranch we caught up to Adam and he rode with Cadex guy while I fell back a bit and Dave dropped a little bit more. It was like that for the rest of the ride but Adam shed Cadex guy before the Junction. Leif finished much earlier but Adam has lost some speed over the last couple months because of all the wedding planning: he promises a strong come-back though. So we finished in this order: Adam, Cadex guy, me, Dave. I crossed the line at 39m51s making this the fourth Wednesday in a row that I’ve broken 40! Since this is only my second ride in fourteen days I was happy with that time.

At the Junction, Adam, Leif, and I decided to go down South Gate for extra riding. They went all the way down to the bottom, but I turned around at the Kiosk.

Wildlife Encounter A coyote on the road, hiding in the shadow of a large tree as I was returning to Junction from South Gate. A car was passing me from behind and also saw it and pulled over to observe but they didn’t see the other coyote in the ditch right next to where they stopped until they started to get out of the car. That surprised them!

Back at the Junction everyone was gone except for Jeff and Amanda. They said JB and most of the others had gone up to Juniper just a few minutes before I got there. I declined to chase them but Jeff and Amanda decided to go up Summit road a ways too. I hung around for a few minutes and then went back down North Gate.