Closed at Juniper for ice on the road. Well OK - I'm all for traffic safety. And it WAS cold.
It wasn't supposed to start raining until after 11am though, and that's usually the time I get home after a Saturday Morning Summit... but it started raining about 9:30. JB turned around at Junction and I was good and wet by Juniper. I'm re-thinking my Amazon Wish List to include some better wet-weather cycling gear.
Using the Fahrenheit version in the Holiday Spirit.
Cal House Flag Autoblog
Only the toughest of the tough were on The Mountain today.
OK, storms are happening. Hardmen are riding their bikes.
Justin just quit his job so he'll be a regular Winter Wednesday Rider.
Charlie is in Seattle this week, so it was three of us tonight.
There was some snow up there somewhere - we didn't find it.
Got hailed on on the way down... sounded like popcorn popping in my helmet... pea sized ice chunks on my jacket sleeves.
JB still doesn't have his Della Santa back... rode his Trek tonight. Got a flat and didn't have a tube, but Justin did and gave it to him. Changing tire with frozen hands is difficult and painful.
Justin had his disc-brake bike, my rim brakes were sub-optimal in the wet descent.
Big Game day, so I wore my Cal jersey... didn't see any other ones.
Supposed to rain Tuesday... we'll see; that'd be nice to clean up the air.
JB said Ed Litton isn't returning his calls; hope all is well, but he wants his bike back.
Earlier this week I heard someone complain that Christmas music was already being played in some stores - so I put a Christmas playlist on my phone and played it all the way up on my little speaker. I'll put my little jingle bell on later today.
Charlie and I talked about current events and weather and such.
He said on Alpe d'Huez, the switchbacks are level... not like the steep turns on Diablo. We opined on the reason for the difference; he thought maybe because they were constructed for horse-drawn wagons. I offered that it was probably because the French are pansies... then I joked that they would see Chainbuster and surrender.
A yellow ladybug appeared on my computer at Junction and stayed on for about a mile and a half of my descent. The crosswind at The Ranches was about the stiffest I've seen... it was a slow descent.
Very pleasantly cool this mornng. There was a little fog in the valley.
Not very many people on The Mountain, me and JB wondered if there were some event going on elsewhere.
At Junction, a guy drove up and asked me if I would help him carry a bench. He was a volunteer that was refurbishing the Pete and Monica benches, so the first one was done and we put it back next to the Ranger Door. And then I helped put the other one (by the stairs) in his vehicle so he could take it home and refinish it as well. Make sure you notice them next time you Junction.
There were a lot of hikers today, most of them parked at Juniper. At Summit one of them asked if she could take a photo of my bike. I asked "Why?" and she said she was an Eddy Merckx fan!
Going down from Summit I sight Linda K coming up. I turned around and rode up with her to the Lower Lot and congratulated her on her ONE MILLION FEET OF CLIMBING IN A YEAR trophy that she will be completing on Friday. I won't be able to ride with her that day but hopefully she has a good group to celebrate with. By the way, a million feet in a year is an average of Six Summits per week for 52 weeks. I told her she made it look a little too easy; finishing a month early.
Putting the Monica bench in his vehicle for refinishing.
This guy said "nice bike" when he passed me. So he gets blogged.
This rider about hurled at the top of The Wall... HAZZAH!
I really like this color of blue for a jersey. As a bonus, it gives a sort of fluorescent shimmer to the snot on my sleeves.
Two of Diablo's celebrities!
This rider passed me at Moss Landing and then slowed down. I followed her for the next 6 miles thinking it'd be rude to pass her back.
You will love this... trust me.
Culture Club, No Doubt, Italian cotton sew-ups, and my shadow, harmonizing on Summit Road from Blue Oak to Juniper... artfully edited and produced.
First ride since Standard Time started. I must admit, it was nice to have had El Sol warm things up for an extra hour before starting. Went with tights and LS jersey and was mostly comfortable.
Big group from Hercules Cycling Club on NGR today... those guys are always friendly.
JB's joke: "What does an electrician say when he gets a shock? That Hz!".
Spare the Air day today, but it wasn't really too bad, especially up a little higher.
JB quit at Junction, said he was just tired. I didn't know what my best Junction-Summit time was but I figured I'd do a hard effort and see how I measured up. Answer: 2nd best ever... missed it by 34 seconds.
OK, we've started our Wednesday afternoon rides, during Daylight Wasting Time. I'm calling them "Winter Wednesday Junction" on Strava but keeping my WNR numbering scheme for the Blog.
Most of these will be just me and JB and Charlie.
2:30 o'clock seemed to be a fine start time.
Charlie wore a snappy blue outfit and socks with an amazing fade pattern.
JB wore an old T-shirt and shorts that exposed a little too much in back.
Random guy who passed us. At Junction he took his bike to the bathroom with him. I have never heard of a bike being stolen on The Mountain but that seems to have been his concern.
Still haven't got Winter Wednesday Junctions started - this week The Mountain was closed for high fire danger. We decided to try again next week.
This morning was COLD! My fingers were painfully cold for the first hour or so despite wearing my second-warmest pair of cycling gloves. Also full tights and winter jacket. By The Ranches though I was already too warm with this attire.
Wildlife Encounter: turkeys after Chainbuster.
There was a trail running event going on. The volunteers were really good about safety at places where the trail crossed the road. Some of them though were still driving up before the event and they displayed imperfect safety skills with winding roads and passing cyclists.
From up high, you could really see the residual smoke in the air from the fires up north. I think Diablo really dodged a bullet last week.
