Windemere with RCS

Went out with the Club Sport team on Sunday, it was HOT. Plan was to go to Livermore but we stopped a little short and turned west for the return ride back. Gordon and Michelle were on their tandem and pulled us back to Danville and then I was the only one who could stay on their wheel up the Blvd.

The RCS team is training for the Livestrong ride but mostof them are only signed up for the 50 mile option... odd that they're doing 40 mile training rides and not aiming for a full century event... oh well.














Saturday morning I took my daughter to see Rick race in Benicia. She didn't want to do the kiddie race but we brouht her bike hoping I could convince her; it was the racer girls from the women's event that talked her into it though, they were really talking her up and then she decided to go for it.

Here's the video of Rick's race:


2009 Benicia Town Criterium M35+ 4,5 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo

More Nevada City

Nevada City Classic 2009 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2009 WNR 10

Got a late start and missed most of the regulars.

Kind of windy tonight.

I interrupted this guy's dinner but he stayed close enough for a snapshot.

Passed 'em - Passed me ratio = 0:6

Package of STP stuff came today... getting exciting!

Nevada City Classic !

I was sick yesterday so couldn't go watch the Diablo Time Trial. Today for Father's Day the wife and daughter took me to Nevada City to watch the race. This race has been around a long time but I've never seen it. Adam wasn't going to race it until he found out that Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner were all coming - it was too late for him to pre-reg so he got there at 9am for day-of and just made it.

We got there about 4pm and saw most of the masters category race before the P12's got started. It wasn't exactly crowded but it was very cramped because the sidewalks are so narrow - you couldn't really walk the course like other criteriums or circuit races so we just picked out a good spot and stayed there.

It was 2-1/2 hours up but 4 hours to get home because of highway construction (brilliant CalTrans!) and we didn't pull into the driveway until almost 12:30... photos and a video soon... check back later.

Having been lapped 4 or 5 times already, Adam "buried himself" to stay on Lance's wheel for half a lap in the finale hoping someone would get a photo just like this one... wow.

JamFoto's Flickr account

EDIT:

Be sure to see the video I made, posted a little later:

http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-nevada-city.html

2009 WNR 09

Kind of a stiff wind tonight - also starting to get a lot warmer and buggier.

JB doesn't usually drink coffee but today he had a cup to check for effect and by mile 3 he had two minutes on me.

Jeff came too and we all rode together until the first rabbit passed us and then the elastic snapped.

I sent postcards of Mount Diablo to the Gov and Legislators asking them to keep MDSP open while we work together to solve the budget crisis... I can be pretty persuasive.

Gate - Junction - Juniper - Gate

I was first to the Gate, then Peter then JB. The lower elevations were filthy with squirrels today.

Nice and cool, no wind, kind of foggy up high.

• Don't know that guy in front but we caught him and he rode at our pace for a while before backing off.

• Above Junction the fog was really wet, and by Juniper it was pretty cold too.
  
• On the way down we saw two sherrif cars coming up - they were a couple minutes apart and looked like they were on their way to some kind of police action but didn't have their sirens on... they also weren't much better than the genpop at passing around blind corners.
  
  

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Product Review: Detours Metro Handlebar Bag

Catalogue photo

DETOURS

Detours is a neat little company in Oregon that makes all kinds of bike bags and accessories.

I decided I needed a little extra storage capacity for my Seattle to Portland ride. I wanted room for:

• knee warmers
• arm warmers
• wind breaker
• Hammergel
• Cytomax and Perpetuem
• pills
• camera
• wallet
• keys
• phone

I considered oversized saddle bags, frame bags, fanny packs, and handlebar bags and I liked this one the best.

Here's what you get: bag, attachment, detachable carry strap, safety cable, instructions.

Just the right size with useful pockets and slots.

You can see here another zippered pocket inside the main area for ID or money or something.


Several slots in the front, covered by the flap.


The underside of the flap holds a map.

My concerns with a handlebar bag were that it'd be too bulky, not stable enough, and dorky looking.

It's really not bulky at all. It's advertised as "STI-friendly" and it surely is, but it does push your cables around a little. Next time I do a recabling I'll give myself a little more housing for a better line when the bag's installed.



Repositioned my computer from straight forward to straight up for some extra space. You might have to move yours outside of the bracket too. Also, you have to make sure your brake cables don't go through the clamp or your brake won't work... needed to untape my bars a little to move them on my rig.




Plenty of room on the tops for your hands and a heart rate monitor or GPS.




The zipper is waterproof so it's a little hard to open.

The mount is REALLY stable and not too tricky to install. Some of the old style handlebar bags were really flimsy and saggy and wobbly.


There's a little safety cable that wraps around your stem so the bag doesn't fall into your front wheel if the mount fails.

If you take the bag off, the mount by itself can stay on without getting in the way (much).

So how much does it really hold? I rolled up a windbreaker, arm warmers, and knee warmers and there was still plenty of space left for other goodies... take a look -

It actually doesn't look too bad at all, hardly into dork territory... and the thing is in STP they make you mount your rider number on the front of your bike so mounting it on the front of the bag instead of just hanging on my handlebars will actually be a pretty good upgrade.

Photo courtesy of blog reader Curtis.

So it's not too bulky, it's plenty stable, and minimum dork factor. I've taken it up Diablo twice now, partially loaded and it has been rock-solid and unintrusive... I think I've made a really good choice on this one, and I think it's going to be a really nice asset on STP.

I give this one a 9 on the DiabloScott handlebar bag rating scale.

2009 WNR 08

Me, Jeff, JB, Brad and Adam. We all split up pretty early though and rode solo. Just a little cool and breezy and I'm not really in a hurry for the oppressive heat.

At the Junction we talked to the new park manager (I forgot his name) - he oversees MDSP and a few other state parks. He's a bike rider and we related well to him and he asked us all to write the Governator and state lawmakers to keep the park open despite the budget crisis. He said it would cost more to shut the park down than to keep it open and the park makes a net profit anyway but he's sure they'll close it if we don't organize a campaign. He said if the park did close they'd barricade all the roads and post NO TRESSPASSING signs on all the access routes including dirt trails and there'd be some hefty fine if we tried to ride it under those condtions. He was a troubled man.

Gate - Junction - Summit - Gate

• Met JB at the Gate and we went. I've had a stiff neck all week (kind of a recurring problem) but felt pretty good this morning.

• Clouds over the top of the Mountain looked a little like rain.

• A bunch of old men bike riders at the Junction and I said "it must be old man on the Mountain day" and JB said "Hey, that's not too far from us" and I said "I was including us!" Lots of talk about the threat of closing state parks for budget reasons... we all decided it was BS and we'd ride even if they did close it; can't afford cops to arrest us anyway.

• JB went home and I went up solo. It got cooler and windier and cloudy but never rained.

Thumbs up!





This reminds me, I have to get to work on my "Babes of Diablo" Vimeo project.

2009 WNR 07

Started up with Jeff and a couple women from work.



Jeff and I went on ahead after about a mile.

Wildlife Enounter: lizard

I pulled ahead of Jeff at the Bump. Unbelievably, it started to rain on me! I kept going. Saw most of the Diablo Cyclists coming back down.

Did the Junction, turned around, saw Jeff and Adam and JB coming up but I didn't wait for them thinking it was going to get cold AND wet. It was fine and I had a nice downhill. Saw a big group of Club Sport folks at the Bump.