2014 SMR 18

Me and JB to the Summit on another beautiful day.

Tarantula Tally:  one cadaver.

Looked pretty smoggy over the 680 Valley, but bright blue skies everywhere else.

Diablo Shoutout to blog reader Keith who was within a couple hundred meters of us the whole ride.  That's him in the video on the Wall.

Oddball Encounter:  two unicycle guys... odd but awesome.

Some kind of serious injury at the ZigZag coming down... ride careful my readers.

OK, you totally have to do this:

Diablo Karaoke from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2014 WNR 06

Cool and breezy tonight - supposed to drizzle by morning.

Charlie called... can't come because he forgot to pack his shoes.  So just me, Kevin, and JB.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer at the bottom of the Bump.

JB goes for a full aero attack down the dips

Kevin had his first ever gel today.
Hated the taste but thinks it worked.

This lady is becoming a Wednesday Night Regular,
but she always rides by herself.

2014 SMR 17

Front tire was soft this morning - rode fine on Wednesday so it must be a really slow leak... I decided to risk it.  Still felt good at Junction, noticeably a little low at Summit, but I figured I could make it home.  Descending down the Bump though, I started to get that squirmy feeling around the curves and so I babied it the rest of the way down.  Stopped at the Church where the race registration was and borrowed a pump from a guy.  Got home and it was soft again so I barely made it.

Today was the Diablo Time Trial - 10km race from North Gate to almost Junction.  First rider was scheduled to start at 8am so I started at 7:30 to avoid the ignominy of being passed every minute.   A lot of riders had the same idea as me and my passing ratio was zero to something.

Cool and windy at the start - warmer and calm after about 5 miles.

And he's OFF

Hey - is that the famous Nate English
of the Kenda 5-Hour Energy Team?

Four people walked their bikes up the Wall while I was at the Summit.
Well, at least they tried.

2014 WNR 05

Pretty hot tonight.  Me, Kevin, and Evan from work.  JB showed up late and then passed us all.

Kevin didn't feel good so I stayed with him and coached.  I thought he was going to vomit at one point.  We saw a guy near Junction and I convinced Kevin to beat him to the line... success.

Diablo North Gate time trial is Saturday - I think I'll show up early to beat the rush.

2014 SMR 16

Beautiful weather this morning.  Maybe a little too warm and a little too windy to be perfect weather, but beautiful.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys... dozens of them, including a whole bunch of little babies who were kind of cute in a turkey way.

These two guys in white were speaking a cool
language that sounded half Polish and half Arabic.

Blog Reader Smooth Joey is almost as fast on his
fat knobbies as he is on his cool pink road bike.

Plaid shorts - would be uncool except MOVEMBER
for prostate cancer.

Not even that Dos Equis guy could make this thing look cool.
Still, I have an odd desire to try one... somewhere very private.

2014 WNR 04

Not too hot tonight - last few days have been close to 100°F, but today maybe 80°F.

Me, JB, and KK.  New guy with the MTB decided not to come I guess.  EQ's on vacation and CJ had to work late.

Punkin Jay passes me easily;
his battered body held together by duct tape and Belgian baddassery.

Woo hoo!  Passed two riders around the same switchback...
although one was stopped and the other seemed like she
had a good excuse.

These two moto guys buzzed us four times.  Other than
riding real fast, they were safe and courteous.

2014 SMR 15

First really warm Saturday morning ride of the season.

The Mountain was crowded with riders and hikers and drivers; glad to see so many people enjoying themselves on Diablo, but had to be a little extra careful.

Saw that guy with the "toes down" pedal stroke again - his nickname will now be "ballet toes"

Regular Characters:  Tuck, Dudley, Ballet Toes

100% Clickable and FUN!

goindown from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Hasta la proxima.

2014 Ride to Believe In

This was a charity ride put on by a church - a friend from work was volunteering for it and he asked me to do it and I agreed because he's a good guy it goes over Diablo anyway.

The check in at Sports Basement was really slow... the flyers said start at 8 am, but I guess that was just what time check in opened... we didn't roll until well after 9.

Pre-ride safety lecture included a prayer, and there were Bible verses on all the handouts but other than that it was just a bunch of friendly people who talked about cycling.

There were a couple hundred people at the start, but only about 15 opted for the Diablo loop.  After sizing everybody up I figured I was in the top 3 or 4 guys for speed and experience.  There were two guys who were talking about Ironmans and half-Ironmans and I couldn't quite stay with them, so I was between them and the next couple guys a few minutes back once things broke up on The Mountain.

Coming up to Chainbuster I thought one of the RTBI riders was catching me so I dug kind of deep to stay ahead but when he did catch me, I saw that it was a different guy on an electric-assist bike, like this one:

Pretty cool looking, and it looked like he was having fun.

I couldn't do the whole 100km so I turned around for home at the rest stop in Danville.  The rest stop had some nice drinks but no good food, and there was no post-ride meal at Sports Basement, so I just went home and worked on my garden.

2014 WNR 03

Just me from work tonight - a few people went early and a few people went late; I was the only one on schedule.

Passed-em -- Passed-me ratio =   0 : 3

Passed-me #1... I was just getting warmed up.

Passed-me #2 is local legend Kevin Metcalf

Passed-me #3

2014 SMR 14

Nice day and The Mountain was packed with bike riders.

Calfee Bamboo Bike!

Another cool bike, this guy was smoooooooooth.

Started to get pretty warm on Summit Road.

JB keeps talking about getting lower gears, but he doesn't want
to buy a new crank to go compact, and he doesn't want to buy a
new rear derailleur to go Alpine.

TEAM ClubSport had a Save Mount Diablo fundraiser breakfast at Castle Rock at 10:30 so that worked out really well.  

Mostly rest stop kind of food at the breakfast, but I also snagged some individual Cytomax packs and some new kind of Cyto gel blocks... watch for the product review on those.  Then I won one of the raffles and a nice dry-fit pullover like this:

It doesn't have pockets, but it'll be nice on cool nights.

2014 WNR 02

Big crowd from work tonight - lots of people are doing Ride Ataxia next week.

Warm and not windy.

After Chainbuster I decided to put in a hard effort to the Junction; first time I've really pushed since the crash.  It's going to take some serious, focused training to get my endurance back.  Lungs and muscles hurt but the pelvis didn't complain.

2014 SMR 13

 Wildlife Encounter:  deer near the goat patch.

10-weeks post pelvis fracture.  Plan today was for the Summit.  Blustery wind on the first half, not so bad on Summit Road.

Lots of riders enjoying the Mountain today; racers, campers, geezers, and everybody in between.

Flanders sock club fist bump to this guy.

Felt pretty good, but my legs and lungs were knackered 

by the time I got to the Upper Parking Lot.

Inside!  Watch your line!

Amgen Tour of California Update:

I made this sketch or what the Upper Lot looked like on Tuesday - there was hardly any room for the racers - anyway, posting this in case anyone wonders what it's like the next time.

And of course... there's a video of the whole experience.  Enjoy, my readers.

Amgen VIP Experience from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.