2015 SMR 32 With TEAM ClubSport

JB's still on vacation, so I did the Club ride to Blackhawk and up SGR.

Not the tightest paceline I've ever ridden in, but it'll do.

Roadkill Report:  big fat raccoon on Tassajara.

Been a while since I've been up the Easy Side... observations:  more cars, worse drivers.

OH NO - my saddle bag failed.

Yup, the doodad fell out of the buckle... time for a new bag.

Sports Basement didn't have a big selection, but this one looks pretty nice.

My bag needs to be big enough to hold this much stuff.

Pinole Bakery Ride with TEAM ClubSport

At least four of the riders today were Triple Crown royalty... that was about 10% of the group.

Lots of fun... click to verify.

Pinole Bakery from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Hey - sign the petition for no passing zones on blind corners!

PETITION

Saturday Morning Ride with the Health Club Team

Product Review:  You already know Hammer Gel is like liquid go ... but the Montana Huckleberry flavor is crazy good; it even has little seeds in it.  Thanks to my brother's family for giving me this jug for X-mas.

My usual Diablo partner knew he was going to be sick in plenty of time to let me make arrangements with the health club team for their Saturday Morning Ride.  They called the route "Franklin Canyon and Cummings Skyway" but I saw neither a canyon or a skyway.  I didn't have a route map so I just followed the people who looked like they knew where they were going but I'm still not quite sure where I was most of the time.  I mean I've looked at the map since then and I know where the roads are, but I don't think I could find them again without a GPS or something.

I think that's the Vallejo-Carquinez-Al Zampa bridge.

Golden Bear on the smoke stack of that ship.

So good riding with good folks.  That guy with the Capo jersey is an animal.  There were four or five of us that could ride with him but we didn't do much of the pulling.

Roadkill Report:  two skunks on some road about 20 miles northwest of Diablo.


Hammering Franklin Canyon from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.


Team Club Sport: Franklin Canyon and Cummings Skyway from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Redwood Road with Team Club Sport

Started in Dublin, went out the Canyon where there was a sad roadside memorial for someone next to the freeway, lots of roses and other flowers in a big display.  Couple hundred meters later and I got a FLAT from a ROSE THORN.  So, I hope none of my blog readers ever has occasion to lay flowers on such a site, but if you do... make 'em daisies or something.  It's been a bad week for flats - two flats on Wednesday without riding a single stroke, then none of the fixes didn't hold, then this one today.  My "needs a patch" pile 'o tubes is getting big.

So by the time I got to the first meet-up spot in Union City or someplace, the first riders were just leaving so I didn't stop and went with them.  One by one they fell back but I stayed with the fastest guy all the way through Redwood and Pinehurst and then to the park in Moraga.


Then we did the Blvd all the way back to Dublin.  44 miles, pretty fun, nice change of pace for a holiday weekend.


CoCo Times wrote an article about the Diablo stage of the AToC.  Here's the LINK, but I'm pasting the whole text because they don't archive their stuff sometimes.

Amgen Tour's Mount Diablo visit organizers hope for repeat



By Denis Cuff


Contra Costa Times


Posted: 05/21/2012 09:51:24 AM PDT


Updated: 05/21/2012 09:51:54 AM PDT


The first visit to Mount Diablo by American's most prestigious bike race attracted thousands of fans and favorable reviews -- so much so, that it looks like the Amgen Tour of California could return to this iconic slope.


The May 15 crowds were so big, enthusiastic and well managed that there is a "good chance" the race could come back to Mount Diablo State Park, the Amgen race director said.


"The community was very supportive. If they want us back, we would consider it," said Jim Birrell, director of the Amgen Tour of California. "It was great to have such a dramatic climb early in the race."


On day three of the eight-day race, bikers made up a race route that climbed nearly 2,200 feet up the 3,848-foot mountain challenged the pro racers athletically and state park operators logistically.


The only two roads into the park near Danville and Walnut Creek are steep, narrow and winding -- the type of difficult rural course familiar to Tour de France fans but not most American cycling fans.


Still, Roland Gaebert, the Mt. Diablo park superintendent, said the race went well.


"We would like to have the race come back," Gaebert said. "Mount Diablo is such an iconic place for cycling. "


Gaebert said perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 fans watched the race inside or just outside the state park, although no one has a precise count. Perhaps as many as 1,000 cyclists watched from the race high point -- the Junction ranger station -- where cyclists began their descent, race fans estimated.


Park officials estimate that 7,000 people entered park entrance road gates and hundreds or perhaps thousands of others watched the race from outside the gates or entered the park on foot or with mountain bikes on dirt trails, Gaebert said.


"People were well behaved," he said. "They even took out their own trash."


Gaebert and some cycling fans agreed more could have been done to slow down cars and bicyclists speeding downhill after the race.


"A few announcements and maybe warning signs would have helped," said Geoff Landon, a Danville cyclist and amateur racer. "There was a bit too many cars passing bikes and way too many bikes passing cars on the way out for my taste."


Gaebert said park rangers and volunteers made efforts to slow down the descending cars and cyclists, but he added that more might be done if the race returns.


Installing speed bumps at entry kiosks might help, he added.


"It's a learning experience doing this the first time," Gaebert said. "We're conducting a review to see if there are things we can do better."


Two people skinned their knees in spills from bicycles, but no race fans were seriously injured, he added.


Long after the race was over Tuesday, two park visitors were injured when their vehicle skidded off a park road and rolled down a hill. The passenger was airlifted to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, park officials said.


Race fans grumbled that bathrooms at the Junction ranger station were closed to the hundreds of people there.


The restroom capacity was overwhelmed by the crowds, Gaebert said, and chemical toilets likely would be trucked in if Amgen returns.


Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff.

2012 SMR 14

There were a lot of cars this morning - some kind of Earth Day event with volunteers.

Lots of bike riders too - first Saturday of really nice weather in a long time.

Up NGR, and down SGR to inspect the new AMGEN surface.

Not perfect, but about as good as your average segment of South Gate Road.

JB went through the Hole in the Fence. 

Then I met up with Team Club Sport at the Athenian.  Some of them came from Pleasanton and some from Walnut Creek, and we headed up.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer and turkeys

Jim

Dan

Michelle

Kathy

Maureen and somebody.

Then we split up with some folks going up Summit, others going down NGR, and others back down SGR.  There were dozens of riders hanging around at the Junction.

My new compact crank... at least it's not a triple.

Product Review:  Park Chain Washing Machine

Not everyone is a fan of these things, but I like to have a shiny chain.  My Performance-brand chain washing thingy broke last month so I bought one of these.

Comes with a bottle of citrus cleaner.

Pretty smart brushes and de-gunkers.

Best way to do this is to use a wheel-less hub so you don't get splatter all over your rims and tires.  Bare hub is also a good spacer if you ever pack your bike for air travel.

This is the best feature - you put the cleaner on your chain first, and then you can squirt the cleaning fluid in through those holes on the top.  My Performance brand thing had to be attached with the fluid already inside... very sloppy.

That's what I'm talking about!

Postscript Item 1:  Friend at work is trying to sell her husband's old triathlon bike.  We gently tried to reduce her expectations.  But if anyone is interested, drop me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch.

Trek 2300 Pro, carbon fiber and aluminum, looks like about 58cm.

 Postscript Item 2:  The Sheriff and/or the Danville PD are out to ticket cyclists not stopping at stop signs again - especially on Alameda Diablo after the hole in the fence.  Post your stories in the comments.

Pig Farm, Bears, Wildcat, Pinehurst

My health club team put on a century training ride so I joined them for 52 hilly miles.

Lots of people at the start, but only about 15 did the long route.  Some turned around after the Pig, some took a shortcut back and skipped Wildcat.

It's been a long time since I rode Pig Farm from the east - definitely the easy side.

Then the Bears - and the requisite discussion of which hill was which.  I'm going on record as saying there's only two Bears and the Three Bears thing is just kind of a cute name.  I believe though, that the official designation comes from riding south to north - the opposite of what I did today.  Now check out this profile showing Bear Creek Road from Wildcat to Alhambra.

Mile 0 = Bear Creek Road at Wildcat Canyon.  Mile 8.4 = Bear Creek Road at Alhambra

So from the south (left to right) you have Papa Bear which makes sense because it's the biggest and baddest climb, but then you have a descent and then a couple little bumps along a more gradual climb for the rest of the way which is supposed to be Baby Bear in the middle and then Mama Bear at the end.  I don't see it... there's just nothing "three" about it.  From the north (right to left), Mama Bear is obviously the tougher climb but there's still not three distinctive peaks.  So I always call this area just "The Bears" - everyone knows what I'm talking about and then next question is "Which way?" instead of "Which one is Papa and which one is Mama?"  Of course someone has painted the names of "each bear" on the pavement on the shoulder so I'll probably get over-ruled... or ignored.

So we re-grouped at the bottom of Wildcat where there was a duathlon going on.  Really really fast guys on time trial bikes had been passing us on The Bears, but we didn't know what was the event until now.  Saw them again running trail in Tilden.  I remember riding down Wildcat many times when I was at Cal and thinking it would be a really hard climb back up... but the first time I did it I was surprised at how "easy" it was.  

Then another re-group at the Brasil Building.

Then the excitement.  We were riding along Grizzly Peak as a pretty cohesive group since only the long ride people were left, when Morgan's had a blow out.  After an inspection, I gave her the what-for about checking tires for wear - this could've been a serious injury.  Somebody had a boot that they got at Levi's Grand Fondo and I managed to fix Morgan's tire well enough to get her to the BART station in Berkeley, and we dispatched her down Centennial.

This is AFTER the repair.  Seriously, check your tires people.

More Grizzly Peak, a couple more re-groups and photo ops.

And then down Pinehurst, and then home.  That was probably the longest it has ever taken me to ride 52 miles but it was fun and I got to know more of the people that I'll be seeing in Santa Rosa next month.  Started to get some leg cramps in the flat fast sections near the end so I'm a little worried about that... guess I'll max out on e-Caps and GuBrew or something and hope for the best.

Janet's Zoo Ride

Good day for a non-Diablo ride.  Club ride started in Dublin and rode out Dublin Canyon Road and Redwood and a bunch of fun little back roads to the Oakland zoo.

I split my time between riding with the two or three fitness fanatics (multiple Death Ride survivors, and Triple Crown royalty) and the ordinary middle-aged fitness buffs.  Worked out pretty well.  It was kind of an odd crowd because there were a lot of members at the Death Ride today and a lot of others that are doing the Davis Livestrong ride tomorrow so we were kind of the everybody else group.  

Wildlife Encounter:  a goat eating a tree!

Got a flat just a few miles from the finish and I told everybody not to wait.  Got it fixed in time to hammer back to the parking lot just as the last guy was finishing anyway.

It was a lot of fun going through some areas I hadn't done before.  Click on the video for a 29 seconds of avaunt guard artistry and special effects.

And finally... best wishes for Chris Horner.