Diablo Junction – 23 miles

Another Saturday morning. JB told me it would be a short one since he had a wedding to go to. I’d stopped looking for Rick’s car at the Church so it was a surprise to see him at the Gate. He just bought a new house and has been too busy to ride for quite a while.

So all three of us started up together and it started getting hot pretty early. I did some slow cadence big gear stuff as usual but kept it pretty conversational until the top of the Bump.

Wildlife Encounter: Small tarantula, small coyote, snake roadkill, mouse roadkill. Very early for tarantulas… could be global warming has them confused. The coyote looked like it was barely old enough to be on his own.

After Clavicle Cracker we kind of separated with JB in front and me in the middle. When I came past the Ranger House I saw a guy helping a woman rider with her flat tire and then I realized that it was my neighbor Jim again. He remembered me and said ‘hi’.

There was a little talk about doing the Napa Century – flyers arrived in the mail this week. And there was more talk about what we’ll do when NGR is shut down for repairs. There were no conclusions about anything and then we all went down.



Lots and lots of people coming up and we had to pass quite a few people going down also. I saw the same recumbent go down and come back up so he may have been training for the Death Ride. Rick followed me all the way down past the Bump but then said he wanted to give me a lead out for the Dips so I let him in front. There was a bit of a tailwind and I had to brake a little to keep my position behind him. I launched my sprint with a little bit of downhill before the first Dip so I could get some acceleration and really powered up the first one – then I shifted down a few for the second Dip and faded a little before the top. Then a guy in a Discovery jersey flew past me before the crest! I had no idea he was back there. Rick said Discovery guy missed my initial jump but got on my wheel on the first climb and had a huge smile when he went by. I might not have been able to beat Discovery guy up the second Dip but if I had known he was there I could have at least tried!