Monthly Archives: May 2011

Three days in a row… I could get used to this!

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

It’s not that often that I get to ride three days in a row. Well, if you included commuting to work, sure, but that’s not quite the same as 2+ hours of hard riding. Tuesday was the usual Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride but with rain, yesterday was my ride from the San Jose train station to the top of Sierra Road to watch Stage 4 of the Tour of California, and today it was first Marcus and then Karl’s job to beat me up.

It was a spectacular morning, with few clouds, a bit warmer (I honestly never checked my computer to see what the temperature was) and dry roads despite a heavy marine layer that had blanketed the hills the night before. We rode up through the park, as is often the custom on Thursdays, and I glued myself to Marcus’ rear wheel as solidly as I could, which will never be solid enough to hold on much more than half way up the climb. At the top of Kings we met up with Millo, dropped off Marcus (he lives just off Skyline) and the four of us rode at a reasonably-civil pace the rest of the way, at least until the last half of west-side Old LaHonda when Karl and I found ourselves a bit ahead of Marcus & Eric, and rather than ease up Karl just kept going. Today, I could keep up with him. Soon, probably not! Just like the way I couldn’t stay on his wheel when he pushed things on Manuella ahead of the final sprint.

No ride tomorrow, or Saturday, darn. But Sunday the rain’s been called off, and I’m ready for something big.

An awesome tune-up for the Tour de France… for me *and* Chris!

Personal stuff, Web General
I’m not going to reduce the size of this photo because there’s no way to reduce the size of Chris Horner’s ride today!

Wow. I had no idea this day would turn out quite so spectacular. First, the rain that had been forecast stayed away. Second, getting to the race without using a car went without a hitch, taking CalTrain to San Jose with my Bike Friday (didn’t want to risk damage to my Madone on what passes for a bike rack on CalTrain) and riding from there to the course. Third, I saw lots of friends & customers (often one & the same) offering encouragement as I climbed the hill, and on Sierra Road, with camera gear on my back and a rack bag with all sorts of other stuff, I needed all the help I could get! And fourth, I saw a fantastic race, with Chris Horner showing that getting older doesn’t mean getting slower.

I’d by lying to say Sierra Road was easy. While the temps were moderate, I felt overdressed for most of the climb, with a warm base layer and leg warmers causing me to consider stopping along the way to remove them… but stopping, once on a climb, is something done only for “external” reasons (or should I say excuses?). Such as coming across a friend you haven’t seen in some time (saw a few of those today but didn’t stop), or maybe an imaginary mechanical problem. I was sweating more than I have in ages, and wondered how close my heart rate was to red-lining (hitting the maximum that I can reach, which these days is going to be around 175). I was getting a much-tougher workout than I had planned, and that, of course, was a good thing.

But everything worked out great. I made it to the top without getting passed by too many along the way, and the Bike Friday and I felt like we were up to the task of some challenging rides in France. I’ll admit that initially I felt like I wanted my Madone but it wasn’t too long before that feeling passed and it was just me & the hill.