FLCC> [Cookies] Ride Report - Mount Diablo, California

[Donal Fitterer]

Maybe they Googled you Wayne or is your Facebook entry too wild for
them?


-----Original Message-----
From: flcc-bounces at icycle.org [mailto:flcc-bounces at icycle.org] On Behalf
Of Wayne Gottlieb
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 8:28 PM
To: Charles Hamilton; FLCC at icycle.org
Subject: Re: [Cookies] Ride Report - Mount Diablo, California

The LA bike clubs could take a lesson here.  I've been
trying to contact them about riding with them to the
Tour of California.  No offers of bikes, no offers of
helping finding a place, no offers of help finding the
ride start.  The only club that did answer my queries
basically said, we can't stop you from joining us. 
Wayne


--- Charles Hamilton <cph1 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> Hello everyone.  See below for a _long_ ride report
> from a trip last
> week to California.
> 
> Hope everyone is doing well out there.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -Charles
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> 
> Setting up the wake-up call the night before I
> didn't really think I
> would be able to get out of bed at 5:45am.  Being on
> east coast time
> and the rented Fuji downstairs at the hotel sure
> helped.  Between
> business meetings the day before, an overnight
> flight at 6:30pm, and
> five more draining days on the road yet to come, I
> had a single
> glorious day free in Sunny California - a day that
> turned into one of
> my best days ever on two wheels.
> 
> I had found the Grizzly Peak Cyclists online and
> bounced emails back
> and forth with club members finding out how to get
> from downtown San
> Francisco to the North Berkeley BART station by 8am.
>  Their Saturday
> ride called for 7,500 odd feet of climbing and about
> 100 miles.
> Fortified by my rigid off season regimen of eating
> frozen pizza, I had
> no illusions about making it the whole way, I wasn't
> even sure I'd
> make it the first hour without watching riders peel
> away up the road.
> 
> At least I had good gear for the 40 degree morning
> 52 degree high day.
>  Full Ithaca autumn kit and a rented Fuji carbon
> from Blazing Saddles
> Bike Shop.  The 58 dollar rental sure beat the
> hassle of moving a bike
> across the country, as good or better than my bike
> back home and with
> fewer scratches.  The shiny bike and I found the
> BART station for the
> commute to Berkeley and I made it across the Bay
> just before the ride.
> 
> Karen from the club met me when I came out of the
> station and a small
> group of about 10 soon showed up.  Some in the fast
> touring category
> and what looked like a core few with legs that
> clearly had a thousand
> or so kilometers in them just since Christmas.  They
> weren't the huge
> sprinting legs that taunt me at town line sprints,
> but more the iron
> clad legs that clearly will not be phased by a mere
> century.  A core
> group of masters riders were training for what they
> called double
> centuries - competitive 200 mile rides later in the
> year.  Great, I've
> flown across the country to get dropped by old guys.
>  If I had wanted
> to do that, I could have stayed in Ithaca.
> 
> We rolled across neighborhoods and up a good sized
> residential ridge
> with about the altitude gain of Ringwood Road back
> home, chatting all
> the while.  I'm warming up ok and feeling like maybe
> I'll be able to
> hang for a few miles or so.  Gathering at the top we
> split into two
> groups and go rolling down the other side of the
> ridge through what
> quickly becomes very twisty roads through a wooded
> park.  Green moss
> covered trees stretch up and cross over the road
> leaving us shaded in
> between openings  to the rolling hills across the
> valley on our left.
> White mist is rising off the road and filling the
> distance as the pace
> picks up.
> 
> I quickly realize that my fear of fast corners
> combined with local
> guys who know the apex of each turn means that I'll
> fall back on the
> down hills.  A rider named Ernesto leads the pace
> down the twisty bits
> leaning hard into the corners as the group bombs
> down to the valley
> floor.
> 
> An intersection at the bottom splits the group, but
> the stragglers
> manage to catch back on without too much effort. 
> The road gets more
> open and more uphill as the residential parts fade
> away.  Riding
> briskly up a series of hills the guys called the
> three bears, no one
> seems to know which is papa, mama, and baby bear. 
> The sun comes up as
> we pass by a reservoir of clear water near the
> summit.  The club is
> very welcoming and marvels that I'm the first to
> take off arm warmers
> as the hill gets steeper - thinking I'm a weather
> hardened New Yorker
> rather than just working hard to keep up.
> 
> Past some ranches, through a town and up a popper of
> a hill that I
> contest with a passing rider out of sheer folly, the
> ride gets a
> little more residential as we're heading to the park
> road up Mount
> Diablo, elevation 3,800 feet.  On the way to the
> park road there are
> some rollers and pacelines to go through and my legs
> are starting to
> telegraph muscle cramps.  Oddly, my lungs are fine,
> it's just my legs
> that seem to be missing.  I down every gel I have, a
> banana and most
> of my sports drink and hope for the best.
> 
> Coming out of the residential hills I see the
> impressive Diablo ridge
> jumping up from the small town.  Wasn't I just in
> downtown San
> Francisco?  Where did this mountain come from?  I
> figure we must be at
> about 1,000 feet here at the base, so maybe I can
> make it without
> embarrassing myself.  Ten minutes of hard climbing,
> the group is gone
> save one who hangs back being polite as I seem to go
> slower with each
> pedal stroke.  Ok, this is going to be harder than I
> thought.  Damn
> there's the sign for 1,000 feet and I've already
> been climbing for
> what feels like 15 minutes.
> 
> Trying to push, I see the group a couple of turns
> higher on the ridge,
> but my legs are having nothing to do with a faster
> pace.  Fitness
> glory again passes me by, but the view as we rise up
> the mountain just
> keeps getting better.  The ridge and hills we
> climbed before are in
> the distance and beyond a bank of clouds fills San
> Francisco Bay
> before spilling out to the ocean beyond.
> 
> It feels like an hour getting to 2,500 feet or so
> where the rest of
> the group is finishing a water stop at the ranger
> station.  It's a
> balmy 50 degrees now and the sun is strong, the sky
> clear.  Thanking
> the group for the ride and for waiting, I beg off
> the rest of the
> route.  Inviting me back anytime and looking strong,
> they all ride off
> down the ridge.
> 
> >From the ranger station I've got another 4.5 miles
> up to the top of
> the mountain.  I don't know if I've ever ridden a
> slower 4.5 mile
> stretch in my whole life.  At one point I think Juan
> Valdez and his
> burro could gap me.  After a hundred twists in the
> road and the last
> short 20 degree wall, I finally made it to the top. 
> I was just glad I
> didn't break down and have to walk the bike.  The
> view is a full 360
> degrees and certainly worth the effort as I look
> down at a small plane
> flying through the valley.
> 
> A twisty ride down the mountain, a close encounter
> with a family of
> deer, the BART ride back, a short urban ride and I
> make the airport
> just in time.  Total ride 65 miles and 6.5 hours.
> 
=== message truncated ===



 
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