Diablo North Side up to Toyon, Down South to Hole in the Fence - 40 miles

A coolish morning, but I wore shorts and my Shower’s Pass jersey. Rick and Nicole were planning to be at the Gate at 8:30 so JB and I rode to the top of the Bump and then back down to meet them.

Rick said Foxy’s Fall Century went well – the roads were in better condition and there wasn’t as much wind as when we rode it together. This time he rode with Joe and the total ride time was 7-1/2 hours! I’m glad I didn’t go.

We stayed together until Moss Landing and then we left Nicole to ride at her slower pace. I got stung by a bee yesterday morning and my left hand was painful all day but this morning it was just a little annoying.

JB started panting pretty hard going up the Bump for the second time and I secretly enjoyed putting the hurt to him, so Rick and I kept just ahead of him forcing him to dig a little. The Mountain isn’t very green yet despite some recent rains; I do have my yellow lenses in the Bolles though so the colors were interesting.

JB was breathing really hard near Chainbuster so Rick and I pulled away from him. We rode side by side rather than drafting which meant that we would have a fair challenge to each other and also that we were both riding away from JB individually. Rick tried his sprint a little too early and he opened up a gap but then I countered and beat him by a couple bike lengths at the line.

There were a few guys hanging around the Junction station. One guy came down from the Summit and locked up his rear wheel and skidded, nearly running into another guy – the ranger saw this and told him to slow down and ride in control.

I wanted to go down to the Tire Poppers and then come back up to the Junction, but JB wanted to go up first, then down South Gate and around so he said we should all go up first and then Rick and I could still turn around at the Tire Poppers. So we all went up to Toyon (bottom of the Speed Trap – neat view from up there) and then zipped up for the descent.

Nicole had been to the Junction and turned back down by then, so we just kept on going down South Gate. When we got past the Kiosk Rick said, “So Scott – Hole in the fence?” and that made me mildly pissed off because they knew I wanted to go back up but I figured what the hell and went along with them. Somewhere near a golf course I saw a rider stopped on the other side of the road and he was wearing a Shower’s Pass jersey also so I acknowledged his excellent choice of clothing with some chest pointing and he reciprocated with a thumbs up. We three took the backroads through Danville and Alamo to the south side of Walnut Creek and then split up and I went home.