1st Century Survivor

Yeah, I guess the title is a little misleading to those outside of cycling circles.
No, I'm not 2000 years old.
That's established.

I did, however, recently complete my first +100 mile ride.
I've come very close in the past, but never pushed over into triple digits.

Foxy's Fall Century accepted my application, and I have the T-shirt to prove it.
Though considered one of the easier local centuries, I have a certain enhanced confidence, now having passed this milestone. Frankly, it was far easier than some of the training rides leading up to it. The majority of the training rides ended up being solo. Cycling is enjoyable for me, so riding alone is no big deal. However, riding with over 1000 other cyclists definitely has advantages.

I asked a uniformed group of cyclists from Sacramento's Bike Hikers if I could ride along with them for the day. Cordially I was included, and I owe a great ride to their assistance. The company alone makes for an easier ride, as there are other things to think about than the growing pain in your quads and lower back. Ultimately, however, the greatest assistance came in the form of stronger riders to draft off of. The value of this is incalculable - for me at least.
Solo rides put your own face into the wind, with you suffering from the gross lack of aerodynamics inherent to the human body. No amount of spandex and shaving can make a hunched over human form aerodynamic. However, if you place that form behind another one, that is punching a human body size hole in the on rushing air, then you get what we call a draft, and thereby a break for the drafting rider.

I drafted much of the day, while my new friends "pulled." I believe they understood that if I were left at the front to pull, then the line would certainly slow by several miles per hour within only a few minutes. There were times I rode alone. On all of the climbing sections, which accounted for about 1/3 of the ride, the group separated out, each finding his rhythm and pounding it. Of the 4 of us, I found myself to be the second strongest climber. Definitely encouraging.

Though the start and finish were informal, with no official time keepers, I believe we finished in the top 20% at least. Within the first 25 miles, we had passed hundreds of riders that had left before us, and joined a pace line of nearly 30 riders who met up with what I believe was the first group to reach the water stop. Each water stop saw the leaders and followers trade places, as some stopped longer than others. At the end, Daniel, one of our group's riders, noted that the tally of our time spent on the bike was approx. 5 hours and 20 minutes. This totals up to a nearly 20 mph average for the 106 mile course. That makes it by far, my best ride ever.
Teamwork was the difference.

If you guys ever see this blog - THANKS!!!

75

Still getting ready for my first century on 10/18.
Monday the 6th I went out for my final "training" ride with the goal of 75 miles. It was a success. The total trip actually came out to 74.5 miles to the driveway, but it was close enough for me.

The route led from the office in Richmond, out San Pablo Dam Rd., up into Tilden Park, across the Oakland hills, down into Castro Valley, and then up Crow Canyon and along the Diablo valley to home.

I've ridden this route in part and full several times before. It's not an easy ride, since the climbs involved are less than mild. One climb in particular is among the hardest climbs in the Bay Area - in my opinion. South Park Rd., which Google maps shows, but won't let you route, is a seasonally closed road which connects East park Rd. with Grizzly Peak Rd. Elevation 940' to 1660' in 1 mile. (If my math is correct, it works out to an average of 13% grade.) That is after just climbing 900' over the course of nearly 15 miles, since my office in Richmond is at around 40' in elevation.

The 90 plus miles that is recorded in an earlier posting included this same route. At the top of the above noted hill, I was spent, and still had 60 miles to ride. This time, I was holding up much better, and was unconcerned to see the unanticipated DETOUR sign at the end of Grizzley Peak. The usual left onto Skyline was forbidden and reinforced by 2 rather dejected cyclists coming back up the hill. My only choice was to follow the detour - 7 miles out of the way. Fortunately I felt fine and dove off the edge of what was supposed to have been the end of climbing for a while, down the wrong side of the ridge into the hillsides of Montclaire following the orange and black signs. Down, down, down they led me and the 1970's pickup truck that wouldn't let me pass. Choking on exhuast, I finally left him near the bottom, as he gave up on the detour, and I pressed on. The bottom was not the end of the detour, but rather the middle.

Where I was supposed to follow the ridge along Skyline, I was rather forced over the edge, with a grand view of San Francisco Bay, to then loop back up the same distance I had descended. By the time I returned up to the original course, my 7 mile detour had netted me only about 2 miles of progress on Skyline, but an elevation exchange of over 800'.

The balance of the course winds, rolls, and meanders through the hills of Berkeley, Oakland, Castro Valley, and then finally San Ramone, where the straight, and refreshingly innocuous run through the Diablo Valley begins. The original plan included a ride up Mt. Diablo, which likely would have happened, and pushed the final tally well over 80 miles, had the unexpected tour of Montclair / Oakland not happened. Even as it was, the sun was tucked in behind the western hills as I rolled into my neighborhood.

The next morning's ride was painful.
However, since I left a little later then usual, I was priviledged to see the pink glow of the eastern horizon over the hanging fog. I shot a picture with my mobile phone and included it above. I soon descended into that same mist, and arrived at the office completely soaked with it.

The other picture is a shot over the edge of the Oakland hills looking down on San Francisco Bay.
Again with the mobile phone.
Any one want to donate a small light camera for my cycling blog?

Downieville Downhill

I had such a blast in Downieville, that I thought for sure I would immediately sit down and compose a full length account of my adventures.

That has yet to happen.
I've watched the videos that we took along the way and shared the pictures around.
I've even verbally recounted the trip dozens of times to anyone who will stay around long enough to listen.
But alas, I have yet to lay it all out in this format. I've been insanely busy lately, which not only prevents me from having time to write, but also extinguishes the little spark that is necessary to get the writing started.
So, here are a few pictures.
These will have to suffice until the spark re-ignites.
You can see for yourself at: www.downievilleclassic.com/pages/downhill.html
This is the website for the race - we didn't race.
But we did follow basically the same course - at as close to unsafe speeds as possible.

In brief:
Vince and Jeff are animals.
Milt is as steady as they come.
I'm happy I never landed in the creek.
As Milt so mildly noted at one point, speaking of the possible results of a mistake on the upcoming section of trail, "The first bounce is about 200' down."
No one bounced, but a few of us walked. Ok, so we all walked at one point or the other.