Diablo Junction from Work - 31 Miles

Adam and I left from work about 15 minutes after 5 o'clock. Bud got his bicycle stolen from the rack at work yesterday so we were all upset. The thief cut his cable lock which was a pretty good one but not as big in diameter as mine - plus I have a U-lock in conjunction with the big cable so I guess that crook took a look at my bike and decided to steal something easier - too bad for Bud but better him than me! JB was planning on meeting us there but he had already left when we got to the Gate about 5:40. Adam practically sprinted the whole 5 miles from downtown to the mountain so I was already half cooked by the time we got there just from staying close to him. It was warm but pretty windy this afternoon. Last Wednesday my Cytomax got too warm so this time I had refrigerated it almost to freezing before we left and I was really glad that I had.

Just as we were getting to the Gate we passed a small group of women with racing kit - I knew they might pass me back up but I figured I'd ride faster that way. Adam announce his intention of doing a series of 6-minute intervals. At the end of every 6 minute stomp he would mark his location and then ride back to me. (I joked "what if I'm ahead of you?) So it turned out that it pretty much took me 9 minutes to ride what he did in 6 minutes… for every single interval.
At the Upper Washout I was already at 23 minutes. Must be the headwind.

Wildlife Encounter: At Diablo Ranch there was a dead squirrel in the road and on the Diablo Ranch driveway sign there were two turkey vultures with their wings spread out just waiting for me to pass by so they could go snatch it up. The wingspan on those birds is really impressive.

Racer girls never caught up to me. JB was already at the Junction. Mark A was there with his singlespeed QuickBeam and cyclocross tires - he said he did 31m30s and Adam said he did 31m15s so that gave him some motivation. Grant came up a little later with the same setup - except he had slicks. There was a little Junction BSing and then we called an end to another Wednesday night ride. On the way down some guy passed me at Moss Landing (!) but he couldn't hold his speed and I had to slow down or race him so I backed off a little bit.

Can't stop thinking about the bastard that stole Bud's bike.