2013 SMR 11 -- The Pipe

Doo doo doo dit dit doo dit:  Important announcement... My e-mail service that was associated with this blog (diabloscott@terra.es) will be terminating soon.  I have convinced the nice folks at Yahoo to allow me the use of this new address:  diabloscott@ymail.com

I've updated the text over there in the margin so you can always come back here to look it up if you send me something and it bounces.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog.

OK, today's plan was to ride up to my proposed AMGEN TOUR OF CALIFORNIA Mount Diablo Stage viewing area.  A few times I have stopped for photos here but didn't really remember how much of the road below I'd be able to see.  On the way up I noticed a few other places that could see lots of South Gate Road, so they'd be decent back-up plans.  The Pipe is about a quarter mile up from Juniper - just past the 3000 ft elevation sign; and it's about 2 miles from The Summit so it should be a strategic point in the race for both the stage win hopefuls and the GC contenders.

I'm predicting this will be the money shot.

View from The Pipe

Top of the Pipe

The Pipe from Below

When I got to The Pipe I found that I could see quite a bit of Summit Road below, but not much of South Gate.  Anyway, here it will be... nice views, a place to sit if I want, a place to display my California flag, and a better than average chance of achieving the Ultimate Prize (getting on TV).

I figure that if you can't edit your ride video to less than three minutes, you'd better have some exceptional footage.  Today's clip is 2m17s.

The Pipe from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.