Diablo plus South Gate, 33 miles

It wasn’t raining, but the roads were wet this morning, so I took the Merckx off the hooks in the garage and prepared myself to get a little sloppy. I made the green lights at both Treat and Ygnacio so I thought it might be a good day. Rick was waiting for me at the Gate, he just got back from a skiing trip, and JB rolled in a few minutes later. One guy on a black Trek started up just before us so we figured he’d be our rabbit.

When we got to the Bump I went out for a long interval and powered up the hill in my 21, so I had a big gap but when I sat back down the other guys caught me up pretty quickly. The rabbit wasn’t having much difficulty staying ahead of us but we finally caught him near the Lower Ranch. Just as we were getting ready to pass him though, he does a U-turn and heads back down. I don’t know what he was doing but it sure seemed like he just didn’t want to get passed. Then I started to fade a little and wound up getting to Junction about a minute after JB and Rick.

Shortly after we got there, Grant Peterson arrived with his Rivendell Saluki.

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The Saluki is an interesting blend of road bike and mountain bike design concepts and componentry. Looked to me like something you’d get if you wanted the absolute most versatile, go anywhere bike you could get – maybe for a trans-Siberian bike tour, or something for the survivalist after they drop the big one. I don’t know how many people will want a bike like this, but I’m pretty sure nobody else is selling anything similar. It was certainly the focus of much curiosity at the Junction ranger office. There was another guy there who recognized Grant and thanked him for writing his “Roads to Ride” books and being a general inspiration to Bay Area cyclists for the last 20 years or so.

So when it’s time to leave, I suggest going south down to the Boundary Gate and then back up, but Rick and JB decided Hole In The Fence was a better option so I agreed to the “miles vs. climbing” training plan. Then I did little sprints up every single roller all the way home, just to get even. Somewhere along the ride today I lost my Accelerade water bottle; I either left it at the Junction or it fell out of the cage while I was riding. Not a big loss, but odd that I didn’t notice until we got to Danville.