Eighty-five percent of a century

I might have guessed the Tierra Bella Century was going to be "special" when I:

• Couldn't find my camera charger the night before.
• My bike computer went all finicky and wouldn't work right.
• Discovered I failed to place my prescription lens insert in my cycling glasses

None the less, at 7:35 we launched from Gavilan College with our Bikeforums.net friend Mr. Pete (Taxi777) into a cool morning and a mild headwind.

By the second rest stop the day was turning warmer and starting to feel hopeful.

Tricia and rode through Morgan Hill, did a short but steep climb and then dropped down Anderson Lake County Park. That's where the big climb of the day was going to start. Then...

Tricia threw her chain. She popped it back on and started uphill, and dropped it again. She executed a no-speed fall over, banged her knee tweaked her wrist a bit. When we flipped her bike over to try and figure out what was going on we realized she was missing three inner chain ring bolts on her triple. No wonder she was having problems. (Note to us: check those hard-to-see bolts)

We were now in a low spot, and either direction was a big climb. We did the sensible thing -Called SAG.

After much discussion of possibilities, the SAG drivers, who I swear were Bartells and James, the two goofy guys from the old ads, picked us up and gave us a scary ride. Cliffs on the left, cyclists on the right, two happy goofballs in the front.

They took us to the Sunshine Bicycle Shop in Morgan Hill. The great guys at the shop popped on new bolts and didn't even want to charge us.

We realized we weren't that far from the route, and tough Tricia decided we could just rejoin our ride, and so we did. We got to ride through a very beautiful section near Gilroy Hot Springs, surrounded by green, a river and some delightful rolling hills with a few climbs.

Coming back was another story. By the time we had 20 miles to go the wind had kicked in. We rode straight into a huge head wind that lowered our speed to 9 mph for miles. Then we turned and had it from the side. Twenty to twenty-five mph with gusts. I could actually see Tricia leaning into the wind to stay upright.

It was a relief to turn on the last leg and get all that as a tail wind. Zoom zoom zoom, and back we were. We ran into Mr. Pete and had a good post ride dinner (with pie and ice cream!) We ended up with 85 of our planned 100 miles.

I awarded Tricia a new jersey, purple heart, and new gloves in honor of her swellness and toughness. They do have about the best looking ride jersey I've seen, and Tricia will look extra swell in it.

I heart Davis CA

Check out this video about Davis, CA and bicycling. I could live in a city like this.
Update: The link is broken. I guess the video moved. If you know where I can link it please post the url in the reply.

Mr. Pete's Marin Adventure ride

Mr. Pete lead the usual gang from Norcal Bikeforums.net on a ride Sunday, April 13. What an adventure. Tricia and I took BART to the City and met the crew at the clocktower at 10 AM. The weather was amazingly warm and we were able to head out over the Golden Gate without jackets, leg or arm warmers. We rode through Sausalito to San Anselmo and on to lunch at Point Reyes Station, enjoying the great views and climbs all along the way. Pete took us through the secret roads of Ross, avoiding most of the heavily trafficked roads in the area. I thought he was just lost, but we ended up where we were supposed to.

The ride went well until sometime after lunch. We'd just gone through Samual P. Taylor State Park and were headed down narrow and annoyingly bumpy section of road. I was waiting for a car to pass so I could drop back and ride with Tricia. When I looked back I didn't see her, and she'd been right behind me just a moment before. I turned around and saw her bike laying by the road and went into a panic. I couldn't see her! I rolled up and still couldn't even see her. I can't think of the last time I was so scared. Then, there she was. Her handlebars had rotated suddenly when she hit a pot hole, tossing her forward and her cell phone into the road. She'd walked back to retrieve it. Pete had tool and her bars were quickly reset and we were all on our way again, like it had never happened, except for the remaining shaking in our hands and stomachs.

After that it was on to the Golden Gate, where the fog was rolling in (Jacket time!) and then through the City to Pete's. He rides there a lot and is comfortable. Tricia and I pretty much hated the whole city riding experience. I'm just glad we escaped intact.

All in all, a great day, 87 miles or so, plenty of climbing.

Safe cycling video

This video should be shown to all new cyclists, and maybe drivers as well. Sure, the voice over guy isn't exactly Hollywood, but the info is good. You just have to love YouTube, don't you?

Two-hundred what?

Yikes, yikes, and double yikes. I just sent off actual dollars to sign up for this ride. It's 200 miles, and it's hot. Unless it's cold. Unless it rains too. And it's a flippin' long way to ride in one single friggin' day. What am I doing here? If there are no posts after May 17 you'll be able to guess why.

$eattle to Portland 2008 plans

I just signed up Tricia and myself for Seattle to Portland. YIKES! What with add ons and bus rides and parking and 2 hotel nights (not counting motels we'll use on the drive up and back) it came to a whole lot more than I'd thought. And that's before commemorative jerseys and mid-point lodging.

I started signing us up and it just got out of hand, but it was too late to stop once I'd hit the first button. The ride itself is only $85. It's when I started adding up all the other smallish pieces it went through the roof. At least they provide food on the ride. And I'm sure gas will be back to a buck a gallon by this summer, so that won't be an issue.

We had a great time last year, so maybe this year will be as good. Maybe better as we can turn th trip into family extravaganza by visiting Tricia's new child of her child (we've so far avoiding the G-word around here.)

If you're going on this year's STP please leave a comment and say what jersey you'll be in and bike you'll be on. Heck, there are only a zillion people there. Maybe we'll see you.

Carbon Handlebars. Why?

Tricia wanted some of those nifty flat top aero bars, not for aerodynamics, but to have a larger platform for lean on. Being the guy I am I got her some Ritchey Streem Carbon Bars and installed them after she got done pretending they were animal horns. I'd read that carbon bars helped lessen road vibration, so I bought myself some Kestrel EMS Pro Carbon Bars and put them on my Kestrel.
Tricia likes her bars. I even double-wrapped parts to make 'em nicer. But mine? I'm not sure I'm noticing any difference in ride quality. If there is, it's minimal, and not worth the the cost of the bars or even having to retape them. They're fine bars, but I can't tell any difference between these and my old Ritchey WCS aluminum bars. Oh well, live and learn.

Offensive Vacaville Reporter column

The Vacaville Reporter recently ran a lame "humor" column that included
"I hear they are remaking Sly Stalone's '70s picture "Death Race 2000." Here's hoping they film on the back roads of Solano and Yolo counties."

Great. Let's encourage people to run over cyclists. It was so wrong and off putting I wrote the letter to the editor. They actually ran my letter, and also ran Tricia's letter.

A few days later the editor offered a low-sincerity apology that included:
"We're sorry the column wasn't received in the spirit it was intended."

I wrote them and pointed out that this isn't isn't exactly the same as "I'm sorry, we were wrong." but I guess it'll have to do.

I publicly challenge the editor and reporter to go for a bike ride with a local club as part of a real apology.

Last day of spring break

Tricia and I took my last day of spring break to do the Diablo Loop, plus a bit of wandering around the edges of Walnut Creek. I'd heard there were turkeys on Mt, Diablo (insert your own joke here) but I'd never seen any myself. Then, just a few miles past the Northgate entry there they were, doing their full on turkey thing with the feathers and all, right by the road. It was a weather-perfect day, and the mountain was beautiful. Only one driver tried to kill Tricia, and he missed. So all in all, just another grand day in California.

Recovery and flowers

Tricia and I had Friday off, so we went or a short 25 mile recovery ride. I thought I was feeling pretty good after the Marin climb-a-thon of the day before, but yikes, I could barely move. Just riding at 70% heart rate was a pain. I felt so slow. But it was a beautiful day, so I convinced Tricia to play model in mustard.

Curtis Sawyer/Huckleberry Pete

"Curtis Sawyer/Huckleberry Petes Spring Break Tour" took place Thursday. We should have been working on important stuff, but heck, it was a beautiful day and do we really need any more excuse than that? So we met at the Marin Civic Center, popped out over Lucas Valley and ended up in Petaluma for lunch. We knew we'd done the right thing when we came across this sign. Clearly the ride was blessed by the gods. Along the way we picked up fellow BikeForum cyclist ConstantRider. We ended up with right about 63 miles. A grand time was had by all.

Yehuda Moon

This is pretty "inside baseball" or perhaps "inside cycling," but it cracks me up. It's a near daily cartoon about cycling. I didn't love it at first, but somehow I kept coming back to it. As I'm getting to know the characters I'm finding it funnier and funnier.
Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery

California poppies on Diablo

It's hard to ride on Mt. Diablo in the spring. It's just too gorgeous. It's hard to know whether to keep riding, or stop every few feet to admire the mountain and maybe make photos. Making snapshots seems almost disrespectful. The mountain deserves a photographers full attention and vision. But Tuesday I was a cyclist, so I stopped and made a snapshot. Please forgive me.

UPDATE:
DiabloScott, overlord of all things Diablo, has commanded I provide more info. Click these for larger, readable versions.

Tricia's morning commute

tricia morning commute
Originally uploaded by ccorlew

Tricia's ride to work takes her along the canal trail just a ways. This time of year the mustard is in bloom and it glows in the morning. Not a bad way to start the day in wonderful California.

Los Altos Hills memorial ride

Tricia and Curtis -- memorial ride
Originally uploaded by ccorlew

Tricia and I joined about 1000 other cyclists in a memorial ride in memory of cyclists Kristy Gough and Matt Peterson who were killed when a sheriff's car crashed into them on a training ride to Stevens Canyon in the Los Altos hills.

The ride was really a procession. We took over the highway on the ride from Foothill College to the crash site. Though it was a sad event, it was good to get to be with so many other cyclists. Even though we didn't know Matt and Kristy, we know cyclists who know them, and we share the same community. We rode with our Nor Cal Bike Forum friends, which made the ride all the more meaningful for us.

Mercury News moving story on the ride.
Mercury News video

Tricia and Curtis Los Vaqueros

Tricia and Curtis Los Vaqueros
Originally uploaded by ccorlew

You just gotta love California. Here is in early March, the flowers are in bloom, and weather is a sunny 70. It was a perfect day for a ride. We knocked off forty-something miles that included Los Vaqueros Reservoir and Empire Mine Road, smiling as we went. It wasn't a fast day, it was just plain 'ol fun.

The only bad part was dropping by 2Real Bicycles in Brentwood only to discover they'd gone out of business when we weren't looking. They were a nice bunch of people and I'm sorry to see them go. We always tried to buy something every time we went in, even if it was small. I guess it just wasn't enough.

I'm not Tricia

The Bikeforums.net gang from NorCal went on a 52 mile ride all West Contra Costa. It was a bit windy, but still, it was great to get out after all the rain we've had. Tricia was a an educator conference, so Joyce went with me. She wanted to be sure no one would think she was my wife, so she wore an "I'm not Tricia" name tag. (Though Pete still referred to her as "The tall Tricia, AKA Joyce" in a post on bikeforums.)

Though the day started overcast, the sun came out and we ended with another miracle California day. I love this state even more when the mustard blooms.

The Kestrel seems like a better bike every time I ride it. I got to decent through the highly textured road of Franklin Canyon on this ride. In the past the road quality has beaten me up pretty well. Now, through the magic of carbon fiber, I felt just fine at the end. What a blast!

Wine Country Century

I keep signing us up for stuff. I sure hope we actually like riding enough to do all this stuff. There's the ride in Gilroy, the Waves to Wine, perhaps Seattle to Portland. We getting pressure to do the Grizzly Century . Tricia is doing the Cinderella Classic and I'm headed for the Davis Double (gulp...) and now we're signed on for the the Wine Country Century. Is this getting out of hand? At least I didn't spring for the jersey. That's got to be some sort of progress, right?

Tour of California

What a blast. Cyclists everywhere, and bike swag galore. There were amazingly fast and cool pros. There was nifty free stuff. There was even great weather. I couldn't have asked for more that at the prologue of the Amgen Tour of California of at Stanford.
I went with Joyce. We were going to leave early, but kept saying "one more rider" until it was such a short time till Levi was up we waited for him.
Here's Levi zipping by with Joyce in the background. We had so much fun I talked Tricia — who didn't go Sunday — into joining my NorCal Bikeforums.net friends for a ride into Point Reyes Station to see stage 1.
We drove 1.5 hours, rode 10 miles, goofed off. Watched cyclists scream by for 20 seconds, rode 10 miles, drove 1.5 hours and had a great time no matter how stupid it sounds.
Here's the peleton going faster than fast. Real time. It's what we waited for, then we went home.

Tricia does Diablo

Kestrel in the Cold
Originally uploaded by ccorlew

It was way to cold Saturday morning. Or at least colder and more wet then we expected it to be. But that was OK. Tricia and I were at least going for a ride with our friends Joyce and Dan. And our ride was going to include Mt. Diablo.

Tricia had never been on Diablo. I think I made it sound to hard, so she just wouldn't go. Now, after doing Seattle to Portland (back to back centuries) and Waves to Wine she was finely up for it.

After a chilly foggy start the weather warmed up and it was a cool, but beautiful day. Tricia just rocked, of course. Easy up, fun down. Just a blast. We went up Northgate, down the South, through Danville, out Pleasant Hill Road to Releiz (a pleasant climb indeed) and back through Pleasant Hill. I wasn't at all surprised she road so strongly, and I don't think she was either.