that was mindy's email description of what she and chad planned for wednesday's ride '5ish.' simple enough. i met the toms at tc's place at 2 pm to 'ride easy and flat' until we get over to old la honda to 'see what the sprinters are doing.' weird weather, changing seasons: hot sun, cold wind, patchy clouds. couldn't decide how to suit up. ended up skipping the base layer but keeping the wind vest, worked well for a couple hours until the clouds bunched up. skinny bald guys gotta carry their insulation...
the winds were funky, mostly from the north and northwest, but sometimes from due west, and gusty, the kind of crosswinds that move you sideways and headwinds that make you stand up to go downhill. tc wanted to get waay north to for the payback when we turned, so we went all the way out canada and skyline to crystal springs road before turning. even the uphills were easy on the way back. quiet, too, after that howling in our ears for the 20+ miles out there.
i felt like crap. again, plenty of cardio capacity but no legs and icky stomach. i could still go, but it hurt and i don't like that. bicycling is fun, right? it is, even when it feels like crap. beats workin'.
so we met mindy on time at the base of old la honda, chad was still workin' for the man. she was itchy to go; she'd caught the bug: she and chad had been setting prs on that road lately – both faster than my 24:52 from a couple weeks back – and hadn't been telling. but now she really wanted to push herself, see what she could do. tc felt the same. i didn't feel like pushing it, wasn't even sure i wanted to go up at all. we had over 40 miles on the clock, it's a good day already...
mindy took off like a rocket across the bridge timepoint. tc and tb followed, and i said fuck it, just follow them up. about a quarter-mile in, on the way up to the first big 180-left turn, i glimpsed mindy's yellow jacket scampering up the slope through the woods to the left like a rabbit. i looked down and saw myself daddling along in my triple chain ring, heart rate below 65% and thought, it's fun chasing rabbits...
ok, let's go, i thought. kicked into the middle chain ring and stood up. in the next half-mile, went by tb in a steep turn, then past tc in the steep esses below home road, then mindy's jacket came back into view. i'd gone to almost 85% to catch her, which is harder than i like to ride. no vomit-drool on the chin for me. so i sat a ways behind her for a minute and looked around.
the clouds had moved in, darker, made me glad i'd switched to amber sunglass lenses. winds swirling and blustery, dry but hinting of rain, pushed drifts of redwood trash across the road in places. and noisy. kind of creepy weather for the deeper parts of the forest. half-expected an ent to pick me up by the seatpost to examine this unusual, hasty creature.
so i find that once i push myself to threshold and recover a little, it's easier to hold that level of effort. so i tried it. hmm...not so bad. i went by mindy, then kept the monitor between 82% and 85% for the last mile-and-a-half. with about a half-mile to go, i started thinking, damn, i could have a good time on this climb, too bad i didn't bother to start my clock at the bridge. oh well. came up on another rider near the top and didn't want to go by on that narrow road with the blind curves, so i followed her. gave me a chance to have an idea, i'll bet mindy's got herself timed, i'll just time the gap. that's what i did, it read 1:08 when mindy crossed the stop line and announced 25:13. makes my time no more than 24:05, another personal best. i see mindy's point. once you start setting personal bests, ya just wants to do it again!
-------
so after mt. hamilton last weekend and this showing today, i'd say the capybaras are in fine shape for the 508. if we don't finish, it won't be from lack of physical conditioning. that's good. one less thing.
two-and-a-half weeks...
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
capybaras ride
ride report, sunday september 16
the capybaras rode in uniform for the first time today on a group run to the observatory. chad, mindy, and tc carpooled to my street and we hit the road at 8:00 sharp. flat light in the cloudy morning, cool and calm. we rolled through the san jose state campus and out the east side to the park at beryessa community center. bathrooms closed, try the convenience store across the street...
going that way, you get a real feel for the 'valley' in silicon valley – our road was nearly flat, but the hills came nearer and nearer. through alum rock park, the road turns up slightly, and the hills close in on both sides. this park set in a canyon, ya think? got our first taste of cyclocross through the construction site at the turn to start climbing the canyon wall out of the park. i ground through the sand and gravel in low gear, but the other three wisely chose to walk. up and over the low ridge and down to the park exit at crothers road. watch out for the unpaved fifty yards at the bottom...
i led them up through the closed and washed-out section of crothers. i've ridden that steep and broken pitch a few dozen times, and every time i think of how stupid it is. it was our last cyclocross chance for a while, anyway. once back on pavement, the directions for the next twenty miles became, 'left at the stop sign, stop at the telescope.' crothers offers a steep half-mile, past the 'house numbers on crothers road are not in numerical order' sign (like that idea?), followed by a short stretch almost flat, then a steep quarter-mile up to the veery steep quarter mile before the rolling up-and-mostly-down takes you to the stop sign at a familiar junction. left turn.
once on california state highway 130 a.k.a. mount hamilton road, the grade steadies out between 6% and 7%, the views open up back across the valley and the bay, and you can see the road cut into the hillsides for a mile or more ahead of you. going up. the clouds cleared off as the the oak forest closed in above grandview saddle. still another couple miles of climbing on rough road before crossing under the power lines to top out on the first ridge with a near/far view of the observatory dome. from there it's an easy mile-and-a-half descent to joseph grant park. time for a good stop at mile 20 in the full morning sun.
the air was cool enough to make the sun more comfortable, especially drenched in sweat like we were. chad asked for a route report, it being his first trip up this road: three miles up, half-mile down, then seven miles up, all at or near 6%. easy to say...
it's all ess-curves wrapping the hillsides from the park up to twin gates trailhead, where again you cross under power lines at the summit. the second descent is a straight chute to a tight blind down right - up left - down right with a little gravel and broken pavement for excitement. then a short rise and a bendy chute down to the big sweeping left turn across the bridge at the cdf station. lick observatory 7 miles.
i've described that last seven miles before (see aug 30): back-and-forth and up-and-up. and up. and back and forth, did i mention that? you go up some, too. the views are wide open and improve as you rise above each surrounding ridge. it's just hard to keep track of which direction you're looking. there's loma prieta and mount umunhum some forty miles away across silicon valley (still invisible behind the first ridge we crossed). wait a second, weren't they on the left before? just try to keep track of where the sun is. a few dozen bicycles, a dozen motorcycles, handful of cars. pretty quiet, mostly, a little wind, much cooler higher up.
the observatory was open, a telescope tour underway, the business end of those beautiful white domes visible from all over the bay area. dark and wooden inside, circles within circles of gears large and small and huge, the long metal cylinder aimed at the hemispherical ceiling, and a horizon-to-zenith quarter-circle slit door in the roof, the eyelid. i bought refrigerator magnets.
we found the sun-warmed bricks in the fountain courtyard out back. the shade was waay too cold with the wind. drink, eat, stretch, drink. no hurry, just another lazy sunday...
on the way down, i had to stop twice in the first mile. caught a wasp under my collar, then a moment later dropped my chain over my big ring so it just hung over the pedal. third time's a charm, right? didn't like that thought, since i noticed a bald spot on my rear tire, belt-threads showing through. nothing like a blowout on a long descent to get the adrenaline going...
we landed safely back at the park, but still had the mile-and-a-half climb back over the first ridge. chad said he had forgotten about that. mindy said that yesterday's 80-mile team in training ride was still in her legs. just turn the crank, i guess. on the way up, several buzzards circled low, as low as i've ever seen them, like right overhead, close enought to make me want to duck. ooh, smell? dinner's on, in a ravine below, probably the mature corpse of a deer. i'm thinking pizza instead...
from the grandview saddle, the road improves, and the valley floor seems close compared with the view from the observatory. below crothers where we came on, the road was repaved last year, smoooth and faast. the four of us dropped sequentially through that 10 mph hairpin right: downhill, decreasing radius, off-camber. wish i had it on video. damn, those team jerseys look good...
we threaded some east-side neighborhoods back, indulging my preference for residential streets where the hazards run more toward kids kicking a ball into the street in front of you and less toward getting sideswiped by a bus. finished with just under sixty miles and chad quoted us 5600' vertical.
pizza it was, and one slice wasn't going to do it. tc and i added ice cream.
three weeks to go...
the capybaras rode in uniform for the first time today on a group run to the observatory. chad, mindy, and tc carpooled to my street and we hit the road at 8:00 sharp. flat light in the cloudy morning, cool and calm. we rolled through the san jose state campus and out the east side to the park at beryessa community center. bathrooms closed, try the convenience store across the street...
going that way, you get a real feel for the 'valley' in silicon valley – our road was nearly flat, but the hills came nearer and nearer. through alum rock park, the road turns up slightly, and the hills close in on both sides. this park set in a canyon, ya think? got our first taste of cyclocross through the construction site at the turn to start climbing the canyon wall out of the park. i ground through the sand and gravel in low gear, but the other three wisely chose to walk. up and over the low ridge and down to the park exit at crothers road. watch out for the unpaved fifty yards at the bottom...
i led them up through the closed and washed-out section of crothers. i've ridden that steep and broken pitch a few dozen times, and every time i think of how stupid it is. it was our last cyclocross chance for a while, anyway. once back on pavement, the directions for the next twenty miles became, 'left at the stop sign, stop at the telescope.' crothers offers a steep half-mile, past the 'house numbers on crothers road are not in numerical order' sign (like that idea?), followed by a short stretch almost flat, then a steep quarter-mile up to the veery steep quarter mile before the rolling up-and-mostly-down takes you to the stop sign at a familiar junction. left turn.
once on california state highway 130 a.k.a. mount hamilton road, the grade steadies out between 6% and 7%, the views open up back across the valley and the bay, and you can see the road cut into the hillsides for a mile or more ahead of you. going up. the clouds cleared off as the the oak forest closed in above grandview saddle. still another couple miles of climbing on rough road before crossing under the power lines to top out on the first ridge with a near/far view of the observatory dome. from there it's an easy mile-and-a-half descent to joseph grant park. time for a good stop at mile 20 in the full morning sun.
the air was cool enough to make the sun more comfortable, especially drenched in sweat like we were. chad asked for a route report, it being his first trip up this road: three miles up, half-mile down, then seven miles up, all at or near 6%. easy to say...
it's all ess-curves wrapping the hillsides from the park up to twin gates trailhead, where again you cross under power lines at the summit. the second descent is a straight chute to a tight blind down right - up left - down right with a little gravel and broken pavement for excitement. then a short rise and a bendy chute down to the big sweeping left turn across the bridge at the cdf station. lick observatory 7 miles.
i've described that last seven miles before (see aug 30): back-and-forth and up-and-up. and up. and back and forth, did i mention that? you go up some, too. the views are wide open and improve as you rise above each surrounding ridge. it's just hard to keep track of which direction you're looking. there's loma prieta and mount umunhum some forty miles away across silicon valley (still invisible behind the first ridge we crossed). wait a second, weren't they on the left before? just try to keep track of where the sun is. a few dozen bicycles, a dozen motorcycles, handful of cars. pretty quiet, mostly, a little wind, much cooler higher up.
the observatory was open, a telescope tour underway, the business end of those beautiful white domes visible from all over the bay area. dark and wooden inside, circles within circles of gears large and small and huge, the long metal cylinder aimed at the hemispherical ceiling, and a horizon-to-zenith quarter-circle slit door in the roof, the eyelid. i bought refrigerator magnets.
we found the sun-warmed bricks in the fountain courtyard out back. the shade was waay too cold with the wind. drink, eat, stretch, drink. no hurry, just another lazy sunday...
on the way down, i had to stop twice in the first mile. caught a wasp under my collar, then a moment later dropped my chain over my big ring so it just hung over the pedal. third time's a charm, right? didn't like that thought, since i noticed a bald spot on my rear tire, belt-threads showing through. nothing like a blowout on a long descent to get the adrenaline going...
we landed safely back at the park, but still had the mile-and-a-half climb back over the first ridge. chad said he had forgotten about that. mindy said that yesterday's 80-mile team in training ride was still in her legs. just turn the crank, i guess. on the way up, several buzzards circled low, as low as i've ever seen them, like right overhead, close enought to make me want to duck. ooh, smell? dinner's on, in a ravine below, probably the mature corpse of a deer. i'm thinking pizza instead...
from the grandview saddle, the road improves, and the valley floor seems close compared with the view from the observatory. below crothers where we came on, the road was repaved last year, smoooth and faast. the four of us dropped sequentially through that 10 mph hairpin right: downhill, decreasing radius, off-camber. wish i had it on video. damn, those team jerseys look good...
we threaded some east-side neighborhoods back, indulging my preference for residential streets where the hazards run more toward kids kicking a ball into the street in front of you and less toward getting sideswiped by a bus. finished with just under sixty miles and chad quoted us 5600' vertical.
pizza it was, and one slice wasn't going to do it. tc and i added ice cream.
three weeks to go...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
lazy sunday
ride report sunday, september 9
met chad and mindy at the page mill park & ride at 9am. for future reference, the time to meet there on a sunday is 8:45. we must have sat on our bikes, ready to go, for fifteen minutes just deciding on a route over to the coast and back. no excess ambition in this group. finally we decided to take old la honda and CA 84 to san gregorio, then turn left on stage to get over to duarte's in pescadero for lunch. so that's what we did...
took a while to warm up. had plenty of cardio capacity but no legs. couldn't stay with the two of them on the way up old la honda at mile 5. the last i saw of them was mindy's blinky taillight disappearing around a turn up ahead. no worries, it's a nice road. there was a chill, probably high 50s, perfect climbing weather. the sun cut through the redwoods and the patchy fog in places. hard to be hatin' life in those surroundings, even if your legs are screaming at you.
they waited for me at skyline, even though the temperature had dropped and heavier fog rolled in. i was cold in my three layers, chad must have been borderline hypothermic in his one. our original plan was to take the west old la honda shortcut down to 84, but mindy needed a stop, so we turned right on skyline for the quick (and c-c-cold) descent to alice's restaurant in skylonda. stood there in the sun for a few minutes before heading down 84 toward la honda.
no traffic at all for several miles, so we just danced down that smooth winding road through the coastal redwoods. that's one of my favorite descents. it's not steep enough to go stupid fast, there are a couple stretches where you can hit 40 mph, but most of it is between 25 and 35 mph, and you have to work some. there aren't any real technical turns, and the road is cambered nicely. just sail...
got to la honda too soon, because from there to san gregorio the grade moderates and the descent requires more work. we traded leads and pulled into the general store at the corner of 84 and stage, a mile up from the pch. mile 25, time for a good stop.
it was a pretty laid-back time. we just hung out there at the store, nobody really itching to get going. chad said he felt like just a lazy sunday, and mindy laughed at him, 'your idea of a lazy sunday...' finally we decided we were getting hungry, so pescadero beckoned. stage road is the route, and i'd never ridden it south from san gregorio. off we went. we knew about the two small climbs, and they gave us the excellent views. road cuts above, then from either of the two summits, ocean away to the right, and several loops of the road below. the second descent rolls through the pasture where you'll sometimes see the sheepdogs working the flocks. and the long avenue lined by the huge eucalyptus on both sides. try to ignore the farmhouse gate with the twenty-foot rusted rebar skeleton wielding the machine gun...
by pescadero, the sun had cleared off the fog, so we nixed duarte's restaurant in favor of a picnic in the shady orchard behind arcangeli's bakery and deli. we had to let the garlic herb artichoke bread cool so it didn't melt the flower-petal goat cheese into a gooey mess. tough duty we pulled today, but somebody's gotta do it...
there's not much for services between pescadero and palo alto, so we had to plan our water stops. filled up at the deli, then turned left on pescadero road and started up the west side of haskin's hill. that road busts out of the woods for the last mile, the steepest part of the climb, and by then it was quite warm. over the crest, slip on the vest, and wheel down the winding forest road. try not to miss the turn into sam macdonald park on the left. another water stop, then the last half-mile down to the junction with west alpine road. it's over 2000' up to the page mill gap from there, in two four-mile segments, one shady, one not. the fresh gravel has been mostly worked into the now much-improved road surface. no sign of sweatpants man today.
mindy left chad and me at the skyline junction to head home. the two of us then skated down page mill like she had done before we met in the morning. at the parking lot, chad's altimeter read 5700' vertical for the 61 miles. just a lazy sunday...
met chad and mindy at the page mill park & ride at 9am. for future reference, the time to meet there on a sunday is 8:45. we must have sat on our bikes, ready to go, for fifteen minutes just deciding on a route over to the coast and back. no excess ambition in this group. finally we decided to take old la honda and CA 84 to san gregorio, then turn left on stage to get over to duarte's in pescadero for lunch. so that's what we did...
took a while to warm up. had plenty of cardio capacity but no legs. couldn't stay with the two of them on the way up old la honda at mile 5. the last i saw of them was mindy's blinky taillight disappearing around a turn up ahead. no worries, it's a nice road. there was a chill, probably high 50s, perfect climbing weather. the sun cut through the redwoods and the patchy fog in places. hard to be hatin' life in those surroundings, even if your legs are screaming at you.
they waited for me at skyline, even though the temperature had dropped and heavier fog rolled in. i was cold in my three layers, chad must have been borderline hypothermic in his one. our original plan was to take the west old la honda shortcut down to 84, but mindy needed a stop, so we turned right on skyline for the quick (and c-c-cold) descent to alice's restaurant in skylonda. stood there in the sun for a few minutes before heading down 84 toward la honda.
no traffic at all for several miles, so we just danced down that smooth winding road through the coastal redwoods. that's one of my favorite descents. it's not steep enough to go stupid fast, there are a couple stretches where you can hit 40 mph, but most of it is between 25 and 35 mph, and you have to work some. there aren't any real technical turns, and the road is cambered nicely. just sail...
got to la honda too soon, because from there to san gregorio the grade moderates and the descent requires more work. we traded leads and pulled into the general store at the corner of 84 and stage, a mile up from the pch. mile 25, time for a good stop.
it was a pretty laid-back time. we just hung out there at the store, nobody really itching to get going. chad said he felt like just a lazy sunday, and mindy laughed at him, 'your idea of a lazy sunday...' finally we decided we were getting hungry, so pescadero beckoned. stage road is the route, and i'd never ridden it south from san gregorio. off we went. we knew about the two small climbs, and they gave us the excellent views. road cuts above, then from either of the two summits, ocean away to the right, and several loops of the road below. the second descent rolls through the pasture where you'll sometimes see the sheepdogs working the flocks. and the long avenue lined by the huge eucalyptus on both sides. try to ignore the farmhouse gate with the twenty-foot rusted rebar skeleton wielding the machine gun...
by pescadero, the sun had cleared off the fog, so we nixed duarte's restaurant in favor of a picnic in the shady orchard behind arcangeli's bakery and deli. we had to let the garlic herb artichoke bread cool so it didn't melt the flower-petal goat cheese into a gooey mess. tough duty we pulled today, but somebody's gotta do it...
there's not much for services between pescadero and palo alto, so we had to plan our water stops. filled up at the deli, then turned left on pescadero road and started up the west side of haskin's hill. that road busts out of the woods for the last mile, the steepest part of the climb, and by then it was quite warm. over the crest, slip on the vest, and wheel down the winding forest road. try not to miss the turn into sam macdonald park on the left. another water stop, then the last half-mile down to the junction with west alpine road. it's over 2000' up to the page mill gap from there, in two four-mile segments, one shady, one not. the fresh gravel has been mostly worked into the now much-improved road surface. no sign of sweatpants man today.
mindy left chad and me at the skyline junction to head home. the two of us then skated down page mill like she had done before we met in the morning. at the parking lot, chad's altimeter read 5700' vertical for the 61 miles. just a lazy sunday...
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
old la honda pb
ride report wednesday, september 5
i'm covering the team in training hill repeats for coach don while he's on the dl, so i started from the voss avenue park this afternoon. stopped into velotech in palo alto to make a service appointment, then met tc to go uphill. got as far as portola and alpine on our way to old la honda when our phones rang sequentially. mindy was looking for us. back down alpine to find her on arastradero, then back up alpine and across portola to the left turn for old la honda road.
this is one gorgeous climb. shady redwood forest, one lane road, steady 7% - 8% grade, 1375' vertical in 3.3 miles. not too long, not too tough. my best time up that hill (25:08) was the year dave sat on my wheel and i drove myself stupid into the red. i'd been up it in 25:30 a couple times this year, but today i felt just great, so i went for it. kicked the heart rate into the 80%+ range right away and just kept turning the crank. rode most of the way at 83%, backed off a little with just over a half-mile to go, then stomped on it the last four-tenths through that crappy pavement near the top. blew past the mailboxes to the stop sign in 24:52, a new personal best, and not so stupidly anaerobic as the other time. mindy called me a beast. tc asked where that came from. easy. i overate this morning, got properly caffeinated at middday, then took 30 miles to completely warm up. i want to go again.
after that, i was ready to just take the easy route over to skylonda and down 84, but mindy told tc that we'd decided to head south on skyline and descend page mill. so that's what we did. i was tired, and did not descend well. tc pulled away in front, mindy was braking a lot behind me, and i left some rubber in the gate three hairpin. i've done better.
we took the altamont option, since i had to get over to hill repeats. left the two of them at foothill college, and hammered over to voss. caught three totally kitted-out club riders at grant road, then dropped them up the hill under 280. i am waay too ego-involved in that kind of shit. it's a growth area for me.
got back over to voss and took the team out to mt. eden. we chased daylight through three repeats, then called it a day. finished with 68 miles and probably 4000' vertical. over 3500 miles for the year now, it's a good run.
four=and-a-half weeks...
i'm covering the team in training hill repeats for coach don while he's on the dl, so i started from the voss avenue park this afternoon. stopped into velotech in palo alto to make a service appointment, then met tc to go uphill. got as far as portola and alpine on our way to old la honda when our phones rang sequentially. mindy was looking for us. back down alpine to find her on arastradero, then back up alpine and across portola to the left turn for old la honda road.
this is one gorgeous climb. shady redwood forest, one lane road, steady 7% - 8% grade, 1375' vertical in 3.3 miles. not too long, not too tough. my best time up that hill (25:08) was the year dave sat on my wheel and i drove myself stupid into the red. i'd been up it in 25:30 a couple times this year, but today i felt just great, so i went for it. kicked the heart rate into the 80%+ range right away and just kept turning the crank. rode most of the way at 83%, backed off a little with just over a half-mile to go, then stomped on it the last four-tenths through that crappy pavement near the top. blew past the mailboxes to the stop sign in 24:52, a new personal best, and not so stupidly anaerobic as the other time. mindy called me a beast. tc asked where that came from. easy. i overate this morning, got properly caffeinated at middday, then took 30 miles to completely warm up. i want to go again.
after that, i was ready to just take the easy route over to skylonda and down 84, but mindy told tc that we'd decided to head south on skyline and descend page mill. so that's what we did. i was tired, and did not descend well. tc pulled away in front, mindy was braking a lot behind me, and i left some rubber in the gate three hairpin. i've done better.
we took the altamont option, since i had to get over to hill repeats. left the two of them at foothill college, and hammered over to voss. caught three totally kitted-out club riders at grant road, then dropped them up the hill under 280. i am waay too ego-involved in that kind of shit. it's a growth area for me.
got back over to voss and took the team out to mt. eden. we chased daylight through three repeats, then called it a day. finished with 68 miles and probably 4000' vertical. over 3500 miles for the year now, it's a good run.
four=and-a-half weeks...
Monday, September 3, 2007
boogerdave
ride report, monday september 3
got out this morning for a quick spin with dave, my death ride partner this year. there's no slacking off when you're riding with that boy. from voss avenue over mt. eden and pierce and up route 9 to saratoga gap. it's a total mindfuck doing a big climb with him on my wheel: i can ride as hard as i want and he'll still be there, usually not even breathing hard. sticks like a booger you just can't shake off... it might help if he weighed more than a gerbil or rode a bike heavier than my socks, but that's just smoke. the guy's an erg monster, the strongest cyclist i've ever ridden with. good coach, too. once on route 9, i warmed up and ramped up the effort, getting faster on the way up. stood up with probably four-tenths of a mile to the gap, grabbed higher gears three or four times on the way, and redlined at the stop sign. wrung about a quart of sweat out of my bandanna before taking that loong sweet descent to saratoga for breakfast at the blue rock shoot. life is good, ya think?
twenty-six miles, close to 3000' vertical, finished in an hour fifty. less than two hours at fourteen miles an hour kicked me silly. i can't see riding that hard out in the desert.
less than five weeks...
got out this morning for a quick spin with dave, my death ride partner this year. there's no slacking off when you're riding with that boy. from voss avenue over mt. eden and pierce and up route 9 to saratoga gap. it's a total mindfuck doing a big climb with him on my wheel: i can ride as hard as i want and he'll still be there, usually not even breathing hard. sticks like a booger you just can't shake off... it might help if he weighed more than a gerbil or rode a bike heavier than my socks, but that's just smoke. the guy's an erg monster, the strongest cyclist i've ever ridden with. good coach, too. once on route 9, i warmed up and ramped up the effort, getting faster on the way up. stood up with probably four-tenths of a mile to the gap, grabbed higher gears three or four times on the way, and redlined at the stop sign. wrung about a quart of sweat out of my bandanna before taking that loong sweet descent to saratoga for breakfast at the blue rock shoot. life is good, ya think?
twenty-six miles, close to 3000' vertical, finished in an hour fifty. less than two hours at fourteen miles an hour kicked me silly. i can't see riding that hard out in the desert.
less than five weeks...
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