Tuesday, July 31, 2007

2006 Tour of California Stage 2: Levi/Kohl/Landis battle

That's me yelling "GO LEVI" with the California flag. Rick's next to me with the red jacket.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Gate-Junction-SGK-Gate

Rick and me up for a quick one, didn't even get any fotos tooken.

Wildlife Encounter: a young deer off the road below the bump.

At the Junction there was a lot of Tour talk and I said out loud "You mess with the High Life and the High Life WILL mess with you... everyone cracked up.

Then Rick and I did the Kiosk and back up. There was a headwind down low so I didn't get a very high MXS - Rick said he couldn't even catch my draft.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Gate-Junction-Gate



Felt pretty good today, drove to the church and parked. There was a woman there prepping her bike and chatting on her cell phone at the same time. She started riding just before I did and while I was stopped at the stop sign, she turned left and rode up the wrong side of the street like an idiot. I passed her right away.

Wildlife Encounter: a whole swarm of turkey vultures circling over the Loading Dock, must have been something about ready to die but I couldn't tell what it was.

Wow, it got very windy all of a sudden. A little ways up the road Mark A passed me up, said "hi neighbor" and then he was gone. In fact I got passed by a fast guy every couple minutes the whole way up!

Wind died down with about three to go and then I spotted a guy that I thought I could pass near the Upper Ranch. By the looks of him (skinny, shaved, Team Peg jersey) he should have been going a lot faster, maybe he was recovering from pneumonia or something. I accelerated and went around him with a big swig of schadenfreude.

JB and Amanda were already at the Junction along with way too many bugs so we didn't stay long.




Bonus Quiz: Where is this line of pennies in the asphalt? Crap, it's out of focus.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Danville Blvd-South Gate-Junction-Gate

Watched the Diablo Time Trial today - took photos at the Gate and at Son of Chainbuster; if you think I might have gotten one of you, see my photo site: HERE

JB met me at my house and we rode to South Gate - an hour ride at a very easy pace. Didn't see as many people going up as we thought, but there were some. Started off cool and then got warmer.

After the 1,000 foot elevation sign, we saw a group of three and JB decided to chase them down, and I decided... not to.

Wildlife Encounter: six turkeys near the helicopter pad. I stopped for a photo but then some cars came by and scared them away.

We saw Adam helping out at the TT finish line, watched people coming in for a while, then we went down to watch from a better perspective.

I stopped at Son of Chainbuster and took a lot of photos - I'm not PhotoCrazy but this would have been a good spot to take those kind of shots.





Then I took some more photos from the Start line and went home.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Gate-Junction-Gate

And I was late, didn't get started until 6 o'clock and most folks were on their way back down by then.

Perfect temperature and hardly any wind. I had some kind of bruise or subsurface boil or something in my saddle contact area that was making my ride pretty uncomfortable though. Made me pedal harder to get the wait off the saddle.


Saw JB coming down at the Upper Washout - he said he would have gone back up with me if I had made it to the Ranches before he passed me.


So I got to the Junction and there was nobody there at all. Then some guys came up the south side and I heard them talking about a coyote that chased one of them on a previous ride... never seen a coyote do that.

Descending was even more uncomfortable in the saddle than climbing... wonder what I did to myself?

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Gate-Junction-Summit-Gate

JB and Rick are both out of town, so just me today and I took my time getting started. After a week of insanely hot weather, this morning was chilly and windy; I figured it would warm up soon enough though.

Dudley Driveby: 8:16am at the Froat Field.


When the wind whips the flags up like this, you know it's going to be a long day.
Lot and lots of people on the mountain this morning, mostly bikes, hardly any cars. It got warmer and less windy all the way up and it was almost hot near the Lower Ranch.
Wildlife Encounter: One baby snake and a couple jackrabbits.

My original plan was to go down SGR and come back up but since it was so windy down below, I decided to summit. That's when I saw this...

Oddball Sighting: A solo guy on a tandem. I didn't ask why, and I didn't make any jokes about losing his stoker, I just asked if I could take his photo.

I took one from the front too but it didn't turn out.

Amazing, but why?

From Muir Picnic Area, about a mile from the Top.

Then I stopped to investigate the area of Rick's Wreck. This is looking down at Biff Point from above, as you'd see it while descending. There's a sort of parking lot for park maintenance vehicles just off to the right there around the bend.

I guess Rick didn't heed the warning.

I like the depth in this shot. Looks better all blown up though.



Yessiree, the Summit Wall is a steep one.

Next week is the Diablo Time Trial, not sure what I'll be doing, but it won't be racing.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Bonus Post !

Got an e-mail from Rick at Team Pegasus. He wanted me to advertise the Diablo Hill Climb which is a USCF race but you can get a 1-day license pretty easily at the start. I saw this last year and it was an interesting event - they even had a time trial starting ramp just like the pro's. I'd do it myself if I thought I could put in a sub-embarassing time.

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I just wanted to let you know that the 2nd annual Diablo Hill Climb (NG to Junction TT) is coming on July 14 and registration is open. The downtown Lafayette Crit race will be held on July 15. Here is a link to all the info:
http://www.c4racing.org/www/events.htm

Rick M.
P.S. We still need more volunteer course marshalls for both days, so if you know anyone that would be interested in volunteering let me know.

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Also, I don't know how I found this, but here's a link to my new favorite bike blogger:
http://belgiumkneewarmers.blogspot.com/
Lots of photos, YouTube videos, great stories from an insider. His identity is a mystery but he's definitely done and seen some cool stuff. Mostly pro racing, pro equipment, and bicycle industry stories.