6 October 2007

Solo ride

Looking down Jamison Creek Rd It had been a while since I had gone on a real solo ride-- almost two months. I took advantage of the lack of a designated start time to start late and avoid the morning chill. I decided to ride up Zayante and then Skyline and 9, 236 through Big Basin, then back home via Jamison Creek and Empire Grade, a bunch of old favorites.

It was warm in the sun, but a little chilly in the shade. I brought a windbreaker, but never put it on. My original thought was to head up Graham Hill, since it had been a while since I had done that. However, there's a reason why I don't ride Graham Hill much, and as I headed down High, I decided instead to head up Hwy 9, then take Glen Arbor and Quail Hollow to Zayante, which I also hadn't done in a while.

There was somewhat of a headwind on Hwy 9, and more traffic than I usually see. The traffic was probably due to riding around midday rather than in the morning. I turned off at Glen Arbor and then headed up and over Quail Hollow. Just after Lompico Rd, two police cars passed by. When riding alone, leg bothered me more than when riding in a group, so I think it's partly psychological, where it doesn't bother me if I'm not thinking about it. It was still better than it was a month ago, though. The climb was easier as the first climb of the day than it was in August, the last time I climbed it after doing various other climbs.

At the top, I turned left and briefly followed Summit Rd until it ended at Bear Creek Rd, where I turned left. At the turnoff just left of the start of Skyline, there guys working on two or three cars. I turned right onto Skyline, where there was a light covering of gravel for the first few hundred feet. Somewhere between Black and the summit, I saw a deer a few hundred feet ahead run from the right side of the road, then up the cliff on the left side of the road. As I passed by, I looked at the top of the cliff and didn't see anything, then looked further down, and the deer was standing halfway up the cliff, watching me.

At Saratoga Gap, there were a bunch of motorcycles parked and the hot dog stand was there, but I didn't see any cyclists. I passed by without stopping and turned left and headed down Hwy 9. The headwind from earlier was now a slight tailwind. Approaching the 236 intersection, a group of 4 or so motorcyclists that had passed me earlier were pulling off to the right of the road, so I passed them on the left, going almost onto the center stripe. From the start of 236, I hoped to make it to China Grade in under 30 minutes, and from there to the park headquarters in under 10 minutes, which I ought to be able to do without pushing myself, and I did it. While on 236, I heard helicopters and then a siren approaching. A fire truck passed me, cutting its siren for a half second as it passed me. My ears still got blasted. The siren faded in the distance, but the sound of helicopters would continuously come and go.

I took my first break at the park headquarters, getting a coke and eating a snack. It felt good to sit in the warm sun. There were the usual tourists. I got going around 3, figuring I'd be home around 5. At the western Lodge Rd intersection, the firefighters had stopped traffic for fire trucks to go through or something. After 4 or 5 minutes, they let the traffic continue through. A little after that, there were two forestry dept or fire dept pickup trucks parked off the right of the road, and I could smell smoke. I could also hear the helicopters. I could see a little smoke to the right. Soon, the smell of smoke faded away, but I could still hear the helicopters.

I got to the bottom of Jamison at 3:26. I rode harder than I did the last time up this hill, but I wasn't feeling as strong as I did that day. There were two cars that passed me, one around the bottom and one around the middle, that spewed out stinky diesel exhaust. They sure didn't help me get up the hill. There was still a piece of a skunk tail hanging over the front of the 1.33 sign. At times, I could hear the helicopters in the distance over Big Basin. It was 3:55 when I got to the top, so I did the climb taking between 28 and 30 minutes. The GPS data showed the climb time to be 28:54. I hope to regularly do the climb in under 30 minutes now. A year ago, my typical time was somewhere around 33 minutes.

I was pretty wiped from the climb, so I took a break, then slowly headed back home on Empire Grade. It was chilly in the shade and I was going slow enough that I could feel a tailwind blowing from behind at times. Eventually, I recovered and picked up the pace. After Felton-Empire, it was much sunnier and warmer. Climbing out of the trough at Smith Grade, I kicked up my effort a bit more and made it home before 5.

29 September 2007

Davenport, Swanton, and Smith

Ocean view from Swanton Rd It was slightly chilly in the morning, but mostly sunny. Some of the chill may have been due to some overnight drizzle. I had wanted to get started earlier, but ran a little late. I wasn't concerned, though, since the rides usually start after the scheduled time, which, for today, was 8:30. I got to the start around 8:33 and got signed in. There were somewhere around 15-18 riders.

The ride started slowly, going around the yacht harbor, by the boardwalk, West Cliff, to Natural Bridges. The pace picked up on Hwy 1, and got pretty fast going into Davenport. That may have been partly due to a guy in a green Palo Alto jersey going by really fast a little after Dimeo. The guys in front caught him before Davenport. I rolled up a half minute later, totally winded. That would set the pattern for most of the rest of the ride: riding hard coming up to a regroup point. There were a bunch of tourists at Davenport, and two big buses.

We headed out from Davenport, then onto Swanton in a group. On the hill, we split up, but regrouped at the top. The road had damp spots from the light overnight rain. Looking at the route sheet, it looked like we were to turn around at the bottom and ride back up Swanton rather than turning left and taking Hwy 1 back to Davenport, so that's what we did, but taking it easy on climb back up. It had been over two years since the last time I climbed Swanton from the north end. We encountered other riders headed down and a big group stopped near the top. On the descent and the remainder of Swanton, the two guys I was with pushed up the pace to the south end of Swanton, where we regrouped. This was the latter half of the Swanton Time Trial, which all three of us had ridden at least once. Then we headed back to Davenport for a little break.

From Davenport, we headed out to the big climb of the day, Bonny Doon Rd. We split up on the climb, and regrouped at Smith Grade. We then rode Smith, going hard at the final steep climb to Empire Grade, and regrouped at the end. Finally, we headed up out of the saddle point of the Smith-Empire intersection, then down Empire Grade back to town.

23 September 2007

NorCal Coastal Century

Stage Rd I headed down to Natural Bridges for a group ride to Half Moon Bay and back. It was cloudy and chilly in the morning, and the roads had patches of dampness from the rain yesterday. There was the after-rain smell also. Fortunately, the weather forecast called for partly sunny skies and no rain and mild wind in the afternoon. I even heard on the radio that the wind would be about 5mph from the south in the morning, turning to 5-10mph from the north in the afternoon.

I got to the start on Delaware, only to see that Sentinal Triathlon was going to coincide with our initial route. The triathlon wasn't a problem, and the roads were still open, so we didn't have to change our route or park the cars elsewhere. After getting everyone gathered, we got some group pictures, and got started.

When we started, the first wave of triathletes were coming through. Guys with huge shoulders on tri-bikes with noisy disc wheels where zipping by. There were also a couple of entrants on road bikes that joined our paceline for a while. I guess those two were just freakishly fast swimmers or something. Anyhow, the triathlon course turned around at Davenport, and we continued.

Our paceline was now four riders being pulled by a powerful tandem team. The rest of the group rode at a more leisurely pace. The tandem had the pedals 90 degrees out of phase, which I had never seen before, so it looked odd to me. They preferred it that way, as it smoothed out the pedal stroke. We took a break at the gas station and diner by Gazos Creek, then continued on Gazos Creek Rd and Cloverdale, where a rider flatted. While he changed his tube, a pair of riders in the group caught up and joined us. We swooped up and down the last few rollers on narrow Cloverdale, then blasted down wide Cloverdale after the Butano turnoff. We were back to the tandem pulling four riders, the other two taking their time to enjoy the scenery. There were a number of tri-bikes headed the other way on Cloverdale as well.

We stopped at Pescadero, filling up on water outside of Arcangeli's, and the other two riders caught up and joined us as we headed out on Stage at a more comfortable pace. When the climbing started, one guy went ahead, and I went with him. There were many groups of riders headed in the opposite direction, most of the riders wearing the green Alto Velo jersey. I fell behind on the descent, but got caught up on the climb after Pomponio Creek, then fell behind on the following descent. We stopped at the San Gregorio store to regroup, then headed up the final climb of Stage. The one guy went ahead, and I went as well. At the top, he stopped to advise a couple of other riders that were stopped there, but I continued on, to get the big descent out of the way in front of everyone instead of having to redline it trying to keep up. So I made it down to Tunitas, then up the brief rise after that. Soon after that, the tandem, towing one guy, came rolling by, so I latched on, and rode all the way to the lunch stop in Half Moon Bay.

I had a wrap that was huge plus pasta salad, which I didn't finish. A few more riders were there who were doing half of the ride, from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. After lunch, I headed back with the tandem and three others in the lead group. At Verde, the ride organizer dropped out to join one of the other groups, as he was giving some of the riders doing the half ride a ride from Santa Cruz back to Half Moon Bay.

Then came the descents and climbs. I was dropping way back on the descents, then redlining it on the following climbs to get caught back up. After a few of these, I was shelled and had to fall off the pace between Bean Hollow and Pigeon Point. I rejoined the group after they stopped at Gazos Creek. After that, whenever they noticed that I had fallen behind, they slowed down until I caught back up, which happened a number of times. We stopped briefly at Davenport. Around the entrance to Wilder, there was something going on that stopped up the traffic, so we went by a long line of cars. At Western, I said goodbye and headed up to home.