Livestrong Davis - Volunteer at Power Stop 2

Diablo Daughter and I volunteered for the annual cancer charity ride.  

Lots of ClubSport people doing the ride too, so we had good exposure.

Filling up the GORP tray like a pro!  

Captions escape me.

At the finish line, there was an announcer who would call out the finishers and some of their stories.  Like "Here comes John who's riding in memory of his father, uncle, two brothers and son who all died of cancer."  "Here comes Julie who had one lung removed three years ago."  

Despite all the sadness that was everywhere, the overwhelming atmosphere was positive and supportive and hopeful.  And Diablo Daughter wants to do it again next year too.

2013 SMR 21

Diablo Time Trial was today, so I gave myself a head start and finished about the same time as the first starter.

Then I went up Summit Road a piece.

2013 WNR 10

Yeah, did some Zone 5 training today!.  Started out with Deanna (who just finished the SF-LA AIDS ride),  Ed, and Tall Charlie.

Took off from the Gate and opened up a huge gap.  Then Tall Charlie caught me back.

Passed up these guys before the Dumpster Gate but then they caught me back up too.  But then I got my second wind and passed everybody.

Max heartrate = 179.

This little guy was really good at pulling garbage out of the bins.


Apparently, 7 miles apart is the appropriate distance between Trek dealers. Any cyclist near North Gate has probably been to Encina Bicyles - a great and convenient shop, a little on the small side, Trek dealer but not exclusively.  The best part about Encina though is their really really good mechanics.  And the best of them, Dave Bzdula, has attacked the peloton and opened up his own store - Big Dave's Bikes in Pleasant Hill; a little on the small side, Trek dealer but not exclusively, more or less convenient depending on your location... he's sticking with a proven business model and DiabloScott wishes him veel succes. 

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2013 SMR 20

Cool at the start, warmed up quickly.

Passed'em - Passed me ratio=  2:2

Continued on up to Juniper.  Felt good but ran out of time.

Yeah!  Do this, Danville!

DANVILLE -- Some call it "the Khyber Pass of Danville" -- a narrow, winding stretch of Diablo Road with hazards from commuters rushing to work and school and a growing number of bicyclists pedaling to Mount Diablo for exercise.

The solution: Get Danville to widen a 1.7-mile-long stretch of road and add bike lanes there, say some residents, cyclists and leaders of the nearby community of Diablo.

The suggestion, however, is getting a cool response from town planners who worry about the steep financial and environmental cost.

Widening the road would require grading large chunks of hillside, chopping down more than 150 trees, relocating a creek and changing the bucolic nature of the road lined by oak and eucalyptus trees, Danville planners say.

The Danville Town Council will hear both sides of the debate Tuesday night in a public hearing before a possible vote on plans for the 66-house Summerhill development south of Diablo Road.

2013 WNR 09

Me and JB at the Gate.  Warm and breezy.

At Mile 2.0 we are very excited to see this new sign!

DO NOT PASS AROUND BLIND CORNERS!

CHING CHING... PASSED-EM TALLY GOES UP BY TWO.

Two Bridges and Carquinez Scenic

Most folks near Diablo have ridden the Carquinez Scenic Drive... it used to be a road but it washed out every year so they stopped fixing it and just allowed cyclists and hikers in the last 10 years or so.  But word came down last week that they were going to repair it again to be part of the Bay Trail and that would mean it's going to be completely closed during construction.

So some internet friends decided to have a last chance ride that included the Drive.  We met in Martinez at 10am.

We were all ready for temps in the high 90's, but it stayed a little cooler closer to the water.


Two Bridges and Carquinez Scenic from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.


Back to Diablo next week.

2013 Ride Ataxia Davis

A fun ride in the heart of bike country, for a good cause!

This was Kevin's first organized ride - he was a little nervous, asking all kinds of questions on the drive up.

After things spaced out, I had him practice pace-lining, taught him about elbow flicks etc, and he really enjoyed it.

Met Tall Charlie at the first rest stop - we didn't see him at the start and he must've made a few green lights getting out of town that we didn't.  He stayed with us most of the rest of the way.

About mile 35, Kevin drifted off the road and crashed.  Not too bad and the SAG driver showed up within a few minutes with bandages and stuff, but he's going to be hurting later tonight.

Yeah... that'll buff right out.

These Davis roads are a lot of fun.

Home stretch

Uploaded my Strava data during the post ride meal, and someone had already defined the route and I was the tenth person to record it... that says something about how popular Strava has become.


OK, this is actually a photo I found from last year's ride, but I did see some of these folks... wheelchair trailers.  Just wow.

The Man with the Plan

2013 Ataxia Ride Davis from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2013 WNR 08

Today's contingent:  me and Seppi.  He waited until the Bump to loose his horsepower.

Look!  A new shift cable.
I figure I'll do one cable per month until I get 'em all.

I've been looking over the Amgen Tour of California results for the Diablo stage and found some interesting segments on Strava.  Depending on which segment you reference, the new (Strava) record for Mount Diablo from the south is either Marc de Maar, or Lawson Craddock.  Both of these guys were in the main peloton when they entered the park.  I contend of course, that the only segment that counts is the Official Diablo Scott Strava Segment.



Of course the TRUE Diablo from the south record probably belongs to stage winner Koenig, who apparently doesn't have a Strava account... doing a little extrapolation, we see that he beat de Maar by 44 seconds, so subtracting that from de Maar's (Official Diablo Scott Strava Segment) 39m02s puts the number at 38m18s: truly phenomenal.  Here's hoping next year they take North Gate Road instead of the Easy Side.

 1. 101  CZE   1987  1115   KOENIG, Leopold         TNE  03:54:17    00:00:00
 7. 142  USA   1992  0220  CRADDOCK, Lawson    BCT  03:54:49    00:00:32
10.  81  AHO   1984  0215  DE MAAR, Marc           UHC  03:55:01    00:00:44

2013 SMR 19

Cold and windy... SRSLY????  It's late MAY!

I had aspirations of extra climbing but the wind sucked it all out of me.

Seat Stay Cam facing backwards.

There was a Team in Training endurance ride today... these folks were part of "Team Ironman" or something like that.  Route arrows and a support vehicle and everything.

Seatstay Cam from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Next weekend:  Ride Ataxia!

Diablo Shout-out to Blog Reader Mike!  

Looking good at Mile 0.02

2013 WNR 07

Everybody wants the tall guy's wheel.
Tall guys know and accept this.

Guest rider Adam shows us his stuff.

Kevin asked "How do I get faster?"  

I explain interval training.  

This is his first ever one-minute interval... 

starting from the plastic post.... GO!

He'll be dropping us all one of these days.

Turns out Iowa Jason lives in the same neighborhood with me and Amy A.

2013 SMR 18 AMGEN TOUR OF CALIFORNIA on MT DIABLO

I've been waiting for today for at least six months.

Last year when the AToC came over Diablo it was not a decisive stage, not a decisive point in the stage, and not really that interesting since they just came up to Junction and went down the other side in one big group plus a meaningless breakaway.  Also they didn't show ANY of it on TV since it was before the coverage started.  But I guess we impressed the race director enough to convince him that Diablo deserved a mountain top finish.

Left home a little before noon planning to be at my spot by 2pm and that worked just fine.  I was kind of hoping my spot wouldn't be too popular... increasing my chances for international television fame; but there were hundreds of people there... including a guy in a chicken suit, a girl in a cow suit, and another guy in fishnet stockings and a bodice.

Race entered the Park at 3pm right on schedule.  New climbing records were set for the SGR-Summit route; The stage winner probably had the fastest time but it doesn't look like he has a Strava account.  Awesome that anyone could do such a fast time after a hundred miles of racing before they got there.

SPD pedals for standing around shoes.
Lower gears help when you've got a 30lb backpack.
Helmet with camera mount, and California mix on the box.

Bike parking was sub-plentiful.

Man, this is a good spot.

I brought some chalk but couldn't think of anything
clever to write on the road.

I wish these guys would pick a spot and stay there instead
of riding around until the last minute.

ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS  !!

Completely click-worthy.

Amgen Diablo 2013 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2013 WNR 06

Me, Tall Charlie, and Seppi.



Windy and kind of cool.

Also met Colnago Jason from Iowa City (he spotted my Hawkeye socks)... said he was "just a pup" when I escaped in '79.

2013 SMR 17

JB was running late so I did a solo to Junction.  This time I went for an assault on Split 2 - Penny Lane, starting at the park boundary sign.  The hard part about this segment is you don't have your climbing groove on quite yet, and as soon as you're done you face the Bump so you know you won't get a chance to recover at the end of your hard effort... 90 percent of it is half-mental.  Missed my PB by 3 seconds.



Roadkill Report:  rattlesnake near the Loading Dock

So the rest of the way to Junction was done in oxygen debt.  Also, it was getting pretty warm.

At the Junction JB showed up a few minutes later, and then ex-regular Moss arrived with his FIL on the way to the Summit.  Moss said he was a volunteer for the AMGEN Tour of California Mt. Diablo Stage.  He'll be directing traffic on NGR early in the morning and he bought one of the special jerseys that aren't available to the GenPop until race day... also he says they told him the finish is definitely at the Upper Lot - and it sounded like they will be taking the Challenge route where they go up the down wall.

The Team ClubSport folks were doing a ride up the Easy Side so JB and I went down to meet them but they weren't there yet so he went on around and I waited at the Tire Poppers and then came back up with them for a Bump de Bump.