2017 Mount Diablo Challenge - Volunteer

This is the 9th time in 11 years I've volunteered for this event.
Check out these blog post links:

1. 2007
2. 2008
3. 2009
4. 2010
5. 2013
6. 2014
7. 2015
8. 2016
9. 2017

Everybody results are HERE.

Diablo Daughter and her boyfriend came along to help.

Difference this year was that the apres-ride events were all back at at the bottom of The Mountain, so people weren't hanging around for hours at The Summit, and they didn't need comfortable shoes and sweatpants and stuff, so there was a lot less to carry up.

Also, there was a stiff wind, so no course records were set, but plenty of people had good results.

Totally click-worthy:


2017 Diablo Challege from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2016 Diablo Challenge Volunteer

This is the 8th time in 10 years I've volunteered for this event.
Check out these blog post links:

1. 2007
2. 2008
3. 2009
4. 2010
5. 2013
6. 2014
7. 2015
8. 2016

Things went pretty smoothly except they moved registration to the parking lot instead of the start line, so people were showing up late to the Athenian School area.  Also since the forecast was for warm weather, fewer riders opted to have warm clothes when they got to the top, so there weren't nearly as many backpacks as usual.  That meant there was kind of a last-minute rush to get things in my truck, but there weren't all that many things to load anyway.

The other change was at the Lower Lot there were chairs and event-type bike parking so the organization at the top was superb... much nicer than people just laying their bikes everywhere like in previous years.

Blog Reader Rick pulled off a PB of 55m04s... which is about my time to The Junction yesterday... of course The Challenge goes up The Easy Side.

Click below for fast motion finish line action!

Where is everybody?

Bay Area Cycling Legend Chuck Tyler - voice of the Start Line

I forget this guy's name
CHARLEY - Thanks Christine!
 but he's a manufacturer's rep
for several bicycle companies and has some great stories.

John Slawta of Landshark fame, and Jenny Slawta of female 
Diablo Challenge Champion fame.
They come every year with their two young sons 
who are both incredible riders too.

Diablo Daughter enjoys the vegan fig bar of volunteerism.

Uber legend Bob Roll acting like a normal guy.

Bobke tells some stories on stage.

Blah blah safety... OK go.

Your humble blogger and his fan kit.

2015 Diablo Challenge Volunteer

Another one in the bag.

This is the SEVENTH year I've been a volunteer.  I'm so grateful for an opportunity to be a part of this and promote cycling on Diablo.

The first year I did this was in 2007 - may have been the first year that it was a Save Mount Diablo event instead of whatever the previous charity group was.

So I missed 2 years of volunteering since then, and my involvement looks like this:

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011 - not
2012 - not
2013
2014

In 2007 I called to volunteer and the organizer went over some possibilites and when she found out I had a pickup truck suggested that I be a backpack driver.  I'd only had my truck for a few months at that point so it was perfect timing.  Lots of nice advantages to having a truck, this is one of the best.

2014 Diablo Challenge Volunteer

Always a beautiful day on The Mountain.  Today's version was quite a bit warmer than typical for early October and there was lots of great suffering.

This is a long video - the first few minutes are the stills that I took... if you want the hi-res version of one of the photos just e-mail me with the time stamp.  The rest of it is real time video at the bottom of The Wall. In total, about one beer's worth of enjoyable stimulation for your cycling neurons.

edit:  somehow I clipped out the first two finishers in the video part - so starting at 3m14s you'll see the third place guy and I said he was #1.  So add two to each of the placings in the subtitles.  For just the unedited footage, see my YouTube version HERE


Diablo Challenge 2014

 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2013 Diablo Challenge Volunteer

Today I give back to the Diablo cycling community by volunteering for the Diablo Challenge and Save Mount Diablo.

My task was to load the backpacks and gear up in my truck and drive to the Summit where riders collected them after finishing.  Brought along Diablo Daughter and her boyfriend and they were a big help.

Local legend Nate English dusted everyone to no one's surprise, but didn't beat the time of the top Amgen Tour of California pro's.

Among the other riders was blog reader Curtis, who says a lot of the traffic to his BLOG comes from people clicking through from mine, so go check it out, read his inspirational story, see the Scott&Curtis selfie, and leave him a nice comment.

Rick rode with his Kovarus team and had a superb end to his racing season - I'll see him again next week for the veteran's century.

Low-production video of the events below:

Challenge from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

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!

Diablo Challenge 2009 Volunteer

My third year as a volunteer! Dear daughter came with me too. My job was to load the riders' backpacks and gear and drive it all to the Summit before the race.

Got up way too early this morning, got to the start at 5:30 and dinked around for half an hour before there was anything to do. As always, there was a last minute clusterfork and some people's stuff didn't make it... but it wasn't my fault... I was COMPLETELY loaded. There were guys stuffing arm warmers and stuff into the truck bed up until the last second, even as I starting driving.



The winning breakaway of four riders came through at 9:15 and a guy in a Cal jersey attacked them at the bottom of the wall and won the race. It was a little too cold and windy for a record pace but 153 men and 5 women broke the 60-minute barrier.

The famous "Pink Pannier" lady and local icon, Allison.

Blog reader Chris was the official photographer and rode the pace car on the way up. He got some great shots including the one below of Rick at the finish line draped over his bars, verge of spewing. Lots more good ones at this link SLIDESHOW.

Rick's been trying to break an hour in this race since before I met him (12 years ago maybe?) and this year he finally did it. Awesome job buddy.


So my daughter and I watched the first 100 or so riders finish, then we walked around and ate the cookies, bananas, and ClifBars that were being offered. We talked to a few people that we knew and helped riders find their bags. It was a good time and she wants to help again next year too.


Gripes:


1. Number of backpack drivers: There were three vehicles for ~1,000 backpacks: my truck, the Dublin Cyclery truck (half full of other stuff), and a PRIUS! People pay a lot of money for this ride and they should be able to expect that their stuff makes it to the top; two whole boxes of stuff didn't make it to the top because the organizers didn't have enough volunteer vehicles. They need at least three dedicated trucks; no excuses.
2. Volunteer communication: The check in people were telling the riders they had to put their stuff in the boxes that were marked with their starting wave - all the stuff went in the same trucks and to the same place at the same time... it didn't make any difference what box their stuff went into but it would have helped a lot if they put their backpacks in the boxes closer to the front so we didn't have to carry it so far. There's no reason for any boxes to be back farther than 50 feet from the starting line.
3. Distance: SMD has been saying for the last 20 years that this ride is 10.8 miles; they're WRONG. It's 11.3 miles and they should know this. My 18 years of riding experience on this Mountain, everyone I've ever talked to, and even Google Maps attest to this fact. They have timing chips that record to the tenth of a second but they're off by half a mile on the distance and that's just ridiculous. I don't care why they're wrong but they should start doing it right; they also calculate average speed based on this incorrect distance so the results page is wrong in this regard.


Seemed like a good day to make a video:


Diablo Challenge 2009 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Diablo Challenge Volunteer

Last night there was a portentous cumulonimbus lingering over the Mountain, but the rain was over and all signs were for great weather today.

Diablo Daughter sneaks in for a cameo at lower right.

Took my dog for a walk around the neighborhood at 5am and the sky was perfectly clear with no wind and great star gazing to be had.

This is the second year I've volunteered for this epic event. I showed up at the Athenian School at 6:45 and took a parking space ahead of the start line; there were only a few hard cores there warming up already. My job was to haul the riders' warm clothes and backpacks up to the Summit. Last year this was a bit of a fiasco but this year there were additonal volunteers and vehicles so it went pretty smoothly.

I talked to Jim of the Wheel Peddler while he did some (free) last minute bike maintenance for the riders. I would totally trust him to do a headset replacement or crank swap for me when that becomes necessary. He's also a good option if you buy something on-line but don't want to install it yourself. He said he doesn't carry much inventory beyond repair parts but he can get anybody up and running really quick. His dog is also very friendly but maybe not too smart (eats bark). Tell him DiabloScott sent you... maybe you'll get a discount; HA!

Dude, your FD is FUBAR.

So we warmie drivers started up about 8:20 and the riders were right behind us. With the sunlight came some heat and it looked like perfect PB conditions for everybody.

Last call for backpacks!

It was a nice drive up to the Summit but I had my windows closed and stereo up loud so I didn't notice the subtle changes in microclimate. When I de-trucked in the Lower Parking Lot I was blown away (almost literally). It was COLD and blustery and I think I saw Piglet clinging to a branch down near the radio towers. I thought the riders would not be ready for this and it would certainly not be a record-setting kind of day although there appeared to be a tailwind up the Summit Wall.

They probably laughed at him when he packed his goose-down sleeping bag.
I walked over to the bottom of the Summit Wall for some spectacular spectating. Pegasus sleeping bag guy and Ryan from Sports Basement joined me in the revelry.

Whoa, look at the guads on THAT guy!






This year's winner is Nathan English, a young phenom from Berkeley who's been destroying all the local hill climb races and smashed the course record with a time of 43m33s. Last year's winner (above) came in third today.

Rick came in at a couple minutes past his goal and vowed to earn the T-shirte Verde next year. Then I walked around and scored some schwagg and snapshots and entered some raffles. They (I) really could have used a Peet's booth up there though.

Klein Krown award for sweetest bike goes to this Q-Pro Carbon. But dat dork disk gotta kumoff.

The also rodes.

How'd I do? How'd I DO?

I'll stop riding this Mountain until they pry my bike from my cold dead butt.

Can we PLEEEEEEEEEASE go back down now?

Unfortunately there were a couple of serious accidents on the way down. I saw one ambulance putting a rider on a backboard and a little below that there was a larger pileup with paramedics involved. I heard broken hip, and maybe one medivac but I'm not sure. They escort the riders down in big groups and I think they'd be better off letting them go down individually. There's an even bigger disparity in descending skills than climbing skills and when you have huge packs of riders with mixed skills in tight formations you're just asking for trouble; but the staff is too stubborn to understand that (in this bloggers humble opinion).
Bravo SMD for another awesome event.

Diablo Challenge Volunteering



I arrived at the start line at 6:45 am, and checked in with the coordinators Anne-Marie, Julie, and Chuck. The hard core riders were already there warming up on their trainers. Rick showed up about 7:30 and I wished him good legs, I also saw TBV and a few other celebrities... but Flandis was a DNS.

My task as a volunteer was to haul people's stuff up to the Summit. I think the organizers figured each rider would maybe have a jacket and sweatpants but a lot of them had full backpacks that weighed 20 pounds. Confounding this issue was the glitch that this year the riders had to park several miles away since the Athenian school was re-surfacing its athletic fields, so people couldn't put last minute stuff in their cars.


Julie and Chuck figured everybody's bags would fit into 5 bike boxes and all of it in my truck. They both have had experience with this and I hadn't, but 5 boxes for 1200 registered riders seemed a little short. All 5 boxes would have fit in my truck if they hadn't been stuffed to overflowing. My assistants Briana and Linda were very nice and helpful but they couldn't help me lift the heavier ones. When my truck was full there was nothing else I could do, and it was 8 minutes before the start so I told Chuck I just had to get going and he'd have to figure something out.



I drove up to the Summit pretty fast. The sun was warming things up and it was perfect weather for the race. The folks at the aid stations along the way looked really bored and it made me think that my job was the best because I could see both ends of the event. At the Lower Lot I unloaded some of the stuff and then walked over to see the first riders start up the Wall. Briana and Linda told me that Chuck had announced "the ride will not start until we get some riders to help load the bags into the (Briana's) SUV" and that pretty much did the trick... almost everybody's junk made it to the Summit.


At the bottom of the Wall PizzaMan Chris Phipps came past looking like he was barely into Zone 4, and he was followed by 13 seconds of empty road before the second place guy came by - and it was another 90 seconds before #3. Chris really stamped his authority on this one; 45m48s to the Summit, sheesh.


After that I unloaded the rest of the truck and helped people find their stuff - not easy at first since there was so much of it. Rick rolled in and said he did a PB but he needs to find another minute and a half somehow if he want the sub-hour shirt (he does)... I suggested the Zipp 202 sew-up wheels in the Pegasus booth. He said he was about one minute off his goal at the Junction and then he really punished himself to keep speed through Blue Oak Speedway.


Afterwards, I was in a caravan following the last group of riders down and we came upon a rider who had two flats and ran out of tubes so I gave him a ride down, he was a nice guy who'd been riding road bikes for 30 years so we had a nice chin wag the rest of the trip.
A fine event and I got to see it from the inside... I'll probably do it again next year too.