Diablo Summit 32 miles

Got to the Gate a little early this morning. Peter was there and we discussed hurricanes and blood doping until JB and Rick rode up a little while later. This is Rick’s last Saturday ride before the Diablo Challenge. He’s trying to peak for next Sunday and he took some vacation time to do some extra hard rides but today he was kind of tired. We decided to do a no-stop-‘til-the-top ride again, but not at race pace. JB said “Hey, this is like the old days when no one got dropped until after The Bump”.

Wildlife Encounter: Lots of little snakes warming up on the road, and lots of tarantulas as well.

After The Bump, Peter and I found ourselves riding in front with a gap and I rode at his pace all the way to the Junction. No sprint and our time was 39m38s; not bad for what felt like a pretty easy ride. I stopped my stopwatch function for a few minutes while we circled the parking lot waiting for JB and Rick got there and then we headed up Summit Road.

This time JB fell off the pace first, then Rick, and then Peter rode away from me too at the steep bit just past Juniper. At first I thought if I let him get a little gap he’d slow down a bit but instead he speeded up and the gap got bigger. I don’t usually track my Summit time to the second, but today’s was 71m50s so I’m pretty sure that’s a PB and good enough that I would have beaten 70 minutes on the Challenge if I were so inclined.

There was some kind of foot race up Mitchell Canyon and the runners had to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the Visitor’s Center and go back down, and there was also some kind of school event at the Summit so there were lots of cars in the parking lot. We decided to get out of there before it got crazy.

Rick bought Jamba Juice for me and Peter to celebrate his PB on Wednesday.