NGR - SGR - 31 miles

Almost an exact copy of last Saturday's ride, but the weather was a little better. Got going a little late - usually I try to sneak out of the house without waking anybody up but this morning my wonderful daughter caught me and insisted I make her a bowl of grits before I went so I had to comply. Same trouble shifting the rear derailleur (I got some new stuff to spray in there but I didn't do it yet). I've also been noticing that my chainring has a sort of wobble (my newish FSA Gossamer Compact) - I don't know if it's slightly bent or if it's flexing as I pedal… I'm going to have to check that out. I didn't know if JB would wait or not because it was 8:05 when I got to the traffic circle but then I saw him coming toward me; he had turned around at the Gate. He said he had encountered Mark A on the way out and was glad he had an excuse not to try and stay with him - he had to turn around and find me.

The road was oddly wet even though it hadn't been raining and the trees weren't dripping. There was a lot of water in the lower creeks though. And that old barbed wire fence on the uphill side of the road is almost horizontal now from ground movement - I predict a Great Cow Escape one day soon. At the Bump JB opened a big gap on me and I thought I must be riding rotten but I caught him back and he said he was just doing a maximum heart rate experiment. A little further up we saw Mark coming down so he must have done a pretty fast ride. Then we held it together until near the Junction where JB didn't have any trouble opening another gap - even though he was riding his Trek with panniers and full fenders.

Again I had entertained thoughts of doing the Summit during the early part of the ride, but by the time I got to Junction it seemed like a better idea to go down to Danville. Not much change in the road conditions from last week - still lots of wet slippery spots, and still big piles of mud and rock at some of the turnouts. There were a lot more people this week though and that makes it more fun.

We took Diablo Road into Danville because I wanted to check out the Pedaler since I haven't been there in a while. JB went back to Walnut Creek but I stopped at Peet's for a coffee and looked in the window of Pegasus Bicycle Works but they weren't open yet - maybe I'll bring my daughter down to shop for kiddie shorts or something as an excuse to browse.

On the way back I saw maybe 50 women riders headed south and I thought they might be the Cinderella training group from my health club. Didn't get passed by anybody on Danville Boulevard and made it home in time to get a lot of work done.