Saturday, October 16, 2010

2010 Foxy's Fall Century 50km Family Fun Ride

Diablo daughter and I did this ride in great weather through nut and fruit orchards, watermelon fields, pumpkin patches, horse ranches, and assorted agricultural acres.





Two minute fun movie!

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Gate-Junction-Hole

I'm losing my status as a morning person - had a real hard time getting going this morning.

No rock so I didn't try to catch JB.

Wildlife Encounter: Coyote


Tarantula Tally: three. Local paper did an article on them this week so there were a bunch of cars driving very slowly looking for them. Pretty easy to photgraph since they move pretty slowly.




Approaching Chainbuster, I see four riders coming down kind of excited and one of them asked another, "Was that that guy?" I chuckled thinking "that guy" was "Chris Horner guy". One of the others answered "Yeah, he was getting a ticket for..... (couldn't hear the rest). Then around Chainbuster here comes Chris Horner guy (who from now on will be known as "THAT GUY"... like the way Marlo Thomas was "THAT GIRL" ... gOOgle it if you're under 50) and there was a ranger pickup with the "pull over" lights flashing. I didn't ask what it was for, but I'm pretty sure THAT GUY deserved it.

Then while I'm eating a banana at the Junction, JB comes down from Summit Road. There had been a rock on the post when he got there so he thought I was ahead. The system is not perfect.

We went down SGR and through the Hole. One of the mansions on Alameda Diablo had some awesome Halloween decorations up... check it out:


There were five or six of these things hanging from the trees; witch, skeleton, I forget what all but they're like 30 feet tall.


I've been riding over the Treat Overpass all week in my commute - here she is in a sequence on my way home today.










Wednesday, October 06, 2010

2010 WNR 18

I was pretty sure this would be my last 2010 WNR.

Parked on Doncaster and both tires were flat!

Pumped up the rear and it seemed to hold, but the front had an audible leak from the valve area so I replaced the tube and got a late start.

On the way up I got passed by no one… seems not to be related to my actual speed though since most everybody on the Mountain was on their way back down already.

Tarantula Tally: three

Roadkill Report: snake



And so the sun has set on another season of Wednesday Night Rides – about 6:30 but it was pretty dark by the time I got back to my truck.




The Tour of California just announced the Stage Cities for 2011, and Santa Rosa has been SNUBBED!

There will be a mountain top finish (yay!), but not Diablo (boo!). I am not familiar with Mount Baldy northeast of Los Angeles so I prepared this chart:

That is a climb worth an HC rating!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Volunteering at the Diablo Challenge 2010

My fourth year as a mule. Got to the Athenian at 6am and helped direct the volunteers, showed them where to park or where to go. Helped another guy who was coordinating the trainer drop off.

Rick's had a breakout year and was expecting a PB so I packed a "post PB recovery snack" for him (banana muffin and chocolate milk).

At about 8am I started loading backpacks into my truck. There were 4 drivers this year so that was plenty, but two of them didn't really know what to do and I think they went to the Upper Parking Lot instead of the Lower. Some folks had to wait a while to get their stuff.

At 8:20 my truck was full and I headed for the Summit. Parked and watched the first 80 or so riders come by. Rick was about 60th at 56m00s so that's a fine end to an awesome season for him.

The SMD folks finally listened to me about the course distance and they reported 11.2 miles in all their information instead of the 10.8 that's been in there for years - but they didn't change the distance for the average speed calculation on the results so I'll try again next year!

Friday, October 01, 2010

Beach Cruiser in San Clemente

OK, I'm 100% NorCal, but this was pretty sweet.





Was in San Clemente for family matters and had Friday morning free for sand combing, wave diving, and beach cruiser riding up and down the shore. I could get used to this.



















This is apparently the equivalent of the Peet's in Danville.




If you get down this way, check out Urban Bicycle Outfitters - tell Pete that Diablo Scott sent you. He also sells roasted gourmet coffee beans roasted by one of the guys in his club, and cycling accessories. Beach cruisers are $6/hr... $30 for all day.