2023 Diablo Day 10 - Friday Junction

Terrible weather on Wednesday so Charlie suggested today, and we were three.

I drove to The Church and met Charlie and we didn't know if JB was coming, so we took off and I was immediately under pressure trying to keep up with him. After a couple miles I stopped trying but I was already weakened and struggled the rest of the way to Junction. I've let my knee ointment therapy get a little lax over the last few weeks and the knee let me know today.

When we got to Junction, JB was already there; so we BS'ed for a while. I brought up how I was looking forward to The Tour of Flanders on Sunday and how it was hard to find live coverage without workarounds and subscription services. There was another rider there on a vintage Serotta who said he watched Paris Roubaix on YouTube and after a little clarification we had to tell him he had watched the version from two years ago... he thought it was this year's (which hasn't happened yet of course).

There were lots of people enjoying The Mountain today - poppy photographers, a painter, ski pole hikers, and a survey crew! The road has been mostly cleaned up too, so the riding was good. 

OH - before we started, I realized that the jersey I was wearing didn't have any pockets, so I was trying to figure out what to do with my wallet/phone holder and Charlie tried to put it in my bottle cage and he broke the cage! He felt bad, but it was old and obviously ready to break anyway so I decided legal action was unwarranted. Also - I wound up stuffing the wallet down the leg of my knickers... I see a lot of women wearing tights like that with phone pockets... so it didn't seem too weird - but it kept slipping around down there.

OK - off to Sports Basement to look at bottle cages - I'm not too picky about those, but I do appreciate style and complimentary colors.

 

This guy had a wistful "wish I were cycling with you" look on his face.

The poppies were mostly gone at the lower elevations, but plentiful up a little higher.