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...