2011 WNR 05

HOT!  Felt good though.

Big shady oak was a nice relief.

JB disappeared up the road around Upper Washout, leaving me to finish alone.

Lots of people at the Junction, mostly talking about how hot it was.

Wildlife Encounter:  Coyote at the Bump on my way down.  He watched me come to a complete stop, posed graciously while I pulled my camera out, and then disappeared into the tall grass with an evil burst of laughter before I could trip the shutter.

This couple was headed up for a night of camping and enjoyed having their photo taken.  That's a lot of baggage they're carrying.

2011 SMR 19

First things first - got this video of a rattlesnake near Junction... 

JB had a garage flat and called to say he'd be late so it was just me to the Junction.  I got passed by a steady stream of single riders... about one every 5 minutes.

The only guy I passed caught me back up a few minutes later.

At the Junction there was a downed tree all cut up... couldn't figure out where it came from though.

When I went over to take a photo of it, I almost stepped on the rattler!

I heard a siren down the south side somewhere and hoped it wasn't a rider.  Went up to Livermore Overlook but couldn't see anything from there.  Also heard a helicopter and thought I might even see an emergency airlift from a great perspective... nope. Then JB called and I rode back down to meet him and we took the snake video and then went down SGR.  There was a fire truck and some rangers next to a damaged car and some broken glass but we couldn't figure out what had happened; they had the autos stopped in both directions but were letting bikes through.  I first heard the siren just before 9am so the accident was probably 15 minutes or so before that.  We went through the area probably between 9:30 and 10:00 when it was just wrapping up.

At the bottom we met a MTB guy who admired JB's Della Santa and said that he had TWO Della Santas and used to race with Roland Della Santa and had worked at bike shops all over the area including The Bike Route in Concord where I bought my Ciocc in 1985, and California Pedaler where I bought my Merckx in 1993, and some other ones I never heard of.  Anyway, he had heard that the incident on SGR was a descending cyclist who hit a van going up; didn't seem to match with what we saw (blue car) but his info seemed to be good.  so I don't know if they airlifted the rider out and I was just too late for the helicopter, or if they ambulanced him down SGR and the helicopter never landed.

Then back on Danville Blvd.  Didn't get any cramps... good day!

Club Sport Ride: Bears, Pig, Carq, Pig Again

Ride left from Orinda and it took me almost an hour to get there.

Roadkill Report:  An opossum just down the street from my house.

Eight of us including Coach Janet; owner of a Triple Crown jersey.  She explained the route and distance and then asked if anybody was worried about the ride... everyone knew what to expect, so we rolled.

Did The Bears first with that long grind up Pumphouse Hill - that was enough to size everybody up... no goats, no slugs, good distribution of weekend warriors.

Roadkill Report:  SKUNK!

Long, screaming downhill and then the right turn on to Alhambra.  A few people voiced some fear as The Pig grew nigh. Just before the climb stars is a farm with emus and vineyards - this is where the big fire was a few yeas ago... always nice to see how well it's recovered.  I was the second one to the top so I made the first guy go back a ways and repeat for the video.

Same old pig farm that's not a pig farm... a little more crusty perhaps.

Somehow we got from the top of The Pig to Carquinez Scenic Straight and that's always fun.  Then a short stop at the Bear Claw bakery where bananas cost $1 but the toilet is clean and they like bike riders.

Some more rolling stuff around some boring industrial parts of Rodeo, Crockett, and Pinole on the way back to Orinda and then I excused myself from the group to take the short cut back home via Alhambra... the only time I've ever done The Pig twice in one day.

Not sure why my video quality sucks but I made the movie so I'm putting it out there:
https://vimeo.com/24992619

https://vimeo.com/24992619

2011 SMR 18

Almost summer and I'm still wearing tights.  JB even brought his GoreTex

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys and a jackrabbit

Went up to Juniper - would've been nice having winter gloves and arm warmers but I survived.

Saturday morning regular shoutouts:  Dudley, Chris, Keith.

May have an organized event for next weekend.

2011 SMR 17

Plan today was to meet my health club team at the Junction - they were coming up the easy side.  I got caught by another guy on the club team coming up NGR and we rode together to the Junction.  

Wildlife Encounter:  Jackrabbit and turkey.

We were early so he went up Summit Road and I hung around Junction for a while.  Then Peter came up the South Side and said he'd just moved to San Ramon to be closer to his job so won't be seeing him on NGR much anymore.  Then JB came up and said he couldn't stay because he had to help his neighbor move.  

So when it seemed like time, I went down SGR with Peter down to the pay kiosk and after a few minutes I saw the club team coming up and I rode the rest of the way with them.  Most of them are pretty good riders but not too experienced so the leaders have clinics on how to straighten out corners and ride in pacelines.

One guy had a Pinarello with fancy low spokecount wheels and he broke a spoke so he had a loooooooooong trip back down.  He refused multiple offers of assistance so I just left him.

Nice weather today, first time of the year without armwarmers or anything.

2011 Tour of California Stage 4

Sorry but Blogger is doing some weird things with photos again - if you see a picture that isn't awesome, you should click on it to get the full awesomeness.

Got a pair of vintage sew up rims off eBay for $25 (only needed one but now I'll have a spare too.) 

Built it up this week.   A very satisfying project.

 There was a lot of glue residue that was hard to get off - maybe from Tufo tape?  I used a wire wheel and a drill.

Pulling spokes with heads out.

 Just the right amount of lube.

 Tension, true, and glue on a new tubie!

Went to Rick's house Wednesday morning and we rode to Livermore for the start of the race.  Got to see all the team and official vehicles roll up and  park.

I'm at a loss for a caption on this photo.

 The outhouse was big enough to bring your bike into!
Note foul weather wheels, not my sewups.

 Hey, that's Frankie A!

 We joked that this was Team Radio Shack's Taco Truck.

 I picked Tejay Van G for today's stage... he wasn't interested in my free tactical advice.

 The Liquigas guys were the first ones to get out and mingle a bit...very friendly.

 Rick was hoping for some autographs but we had to get up the road for the race.

Whoa, sweet.

Winaar Ronde Van Vlaanderen!

KOM#1 for viewing - mile 18.

THERE HE GOES!

THERE GO SOME MORE!

Once again, I failed in my annual attempt to get on TV.

And then back to Livermore for lunch.  Important to let the local communities see the positive economic impact of a bunch of bike race fans coming to their town.

Here's a list of all the Amgen TOC stages I've seen:
2011 - Stage 4 from Livermore on Mines Road
2010 – Stage 3 on Bonny Doon
2009 – Stage 1 in Santa Rosa and Stage 3 on Altamont Pass
2008 – Prologue in Palo Alto
2007 – Prologue in San Francisco
2006 – Prologue in San Francisco and Stage 2 on Sierra Road


Then back to Rick's house to watch the finish of the stage.  There seems to be a lot more broken glass on the road around this area, and some little bit of it found its way into my rear tire so I had to stop and swap... glad I didn't put on my tubular wheels with the new tire.