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

[Wayne Gottlieb]

Gosh Don,you're mellowing in your old age.  I had
expected much worse. Wayne
--- Donal Fitterer <DonalFitterer at vectormagnetics.com>
wrote:

> 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
> 
=== message truncated ===



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