REEEALLY nice weather today. I didn't even wear a jacket, just a long sleeve jersey and my holey tights. It was a little chilly until about 1000 feet then it was great.
There was a group of about 6 guys who kept passing me and then stopping for a break and then they'd pass me again a mile up the road. They were friendly but I didn't understand that training regime. I finally got ahead of all of them for good, except 1 guy - his name was Carlos and we were riding together at about the helicopter turnout and we saw famous Cathy make a U-turn coming down to go back up. I told Carlos to say "Hi Cathy" as he went by and that she'd like that... because she's famous.
Had a decent Junction time and felt pretty good. I did an inspection of my tires though and there's only a few more rides in them... sew-ups are getting harder and harder to find too... I better get busy.
Photos in reverse order today - I can never figure out how Google sorts them when I click.
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| I stopped to pick a lupine. |
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| I stopped to pick a poppy. |
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| Wearing bright cycling clothes is a good way to get posted in Diablo Scott's Bike Blog |
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| This is the payoff for a long, wet, winter... a month or so of verdant hills. |
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| I watched this guy for a while - it looked like he was just learning how to ride with Tri-bars... he was tucked really well but didn't look comfortable and he wasn't fast. |
Partly cloudy, cool, and calm. There was snow at the Summit Thursday evening but it was melted by Friday morning.
First poppies of the season at Wildcat Terrace - I think that's the first place I saw them last year too.
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| Oh I gotta stop for poppy photos. |
Oh yeah - first ride of the year without a jacket - I had tights and arm warmers and a thermal T under my jersey... it was wonderful. Also - last day of Daylight Wasting Time!
I thought I was feeling good, but I got passed by a lot of folks.
I was hoping to see poppies, and I did, but they were outside of The Park in the residential area on Blackhawk Road. Apparently they're all over NorthGateRoad, where they usually make their first appearance.
JB decided to ride down SouthGateRoad with me to get in some extra miles for his weekly sum.
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| This rider had no trouble dusting me. |
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| This rider had no trouble dusting me. |
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| This rider had no trouble dusting me, but he has white shoes. |
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| This rider had no trouble dusting me, but he has an Assos jersey. |
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| This rider had no trouble dusting me... but he has Rapha tights. |
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| I could've maybe outsprinted this guy to Junction, but I didn't know he was there until it was too late. We both sang along to my Little Richard song on the Diablo MP3 player. |
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| Tuck! |
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| JB forgot about this steep bit on the way out. |
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| Poppies! |
