Husband of the Year

My wife sent me this photo in an email entitied "Husband of the Year", and it pretty much sums up how she thinks I think about her vs. my bikes sometimes. All I can say is that it isn't true honey -- I would let you both into the tent.

Deja vu

I take an indoor cycling class twice at week at Endurance PTC in San Francisco. Today when I clicked into my pedals to begin class, I saw they had up on the overhead screen a replay of an old Tour de France stage. You could tell it was "relatively" old because only a handful of riders in the peloton were wearing helmets. As the ride went on, the French countryside started to look very familiar. Almost as if I had been there before. It turns out I had -- this was Stage 12 of the 2001 Tour, from Perpignan to Ax Les Thermes. En route, the stage went over the cols on the Plateau du Sault (Cols du Coudons, Sept Freres and Chioula), the same road our group had ridden on in the reverse direction this summer. Very cool.

Where's the storm?

The weather guys have been predicting mayhem for 10 days now -- a storm that was supposed to hit Friday, then Friday night, then Saturday, etc. High winds were (and still are!) forecast, and some driving rain. I'm pretty fired up because when I'm not on my bike I like to go skiing. And of course this year our entire family has season passes to Squaw Valley and there's zero snow as of mid-December.

The problem is that the storm seems to be a myth. Friday it clouded up pretty good in the afternoon and looked ominous. I rode home over the bridge thinking it would be a wet one. Nope. The clouds bugged out and Saturday morning dawned clear and beautiful. WTF?

So yesterday I thought I would sneak in one last ride before what the weather guys promise will be 10 days of unsettled wintry weather. I rode out to Fairfax, Alpine Dam and up to the 7 Sisters. Coming down, the weather was still nice at around noon, so I hung a right and dropped down to Stinson Beach. By the way, they've repaved the upper portion of the descent on Panoramic Hwy and let me tell you it is MONEY! Wow, those Caltrans guys deserve their bonuses for that one.

The ride to Muir Beach was gorgeous as always, but right when I hit the climb back to Mill Valley it happened -- the rain started. It came quickly (literally "out of the blue" as they say) and I thought for sure I was going to pay for getting greedy to sneak in an extra 15 miles on the ride. I put the hammer down climbing up from Muir Beach while the rain steadily increased. Of course the minute I got down to Mill Valley the rain stopped and the clouds parted again. Crap. Today looks a little more ominous, but there's still lots of blue sky and we're all praying for snow.

Stats for today:
Distance: 44.94mi
Ascent: 4,950'
Time: 2:55:42

Riding on Shoreline Highway, Muir Beach, CA. Storm clouds coming???

Short Days...

The shortest day of the year is only a couple of weeks away, so riding to and from work is becoming colder and a bit less fun every day. That said, it sure as hell beats sitting in a car. Especially when you not only transport yourself from A to B, but you also get in a great workout and see the amazing sunset off the Golden Gate Bridge. People pay big bucks to visit this city and do what I get to do every day. That isn't lost on me. The sunset was especially nice tonight so I did something stupid and took a couple of random camera phone pics while cruising along.

Pray for Snow Ride -- Squaw Valley to Reno

We are up in Tahoe for Thanksgiving but sadly there is no snow to speak of. So of course I brought my bike up (together with some cold weather gear) to try and sneak in a ride. My theory being that if I bring my bike up for some fair weather riding, why then surely it will snow. Kind of like how it only rains right after you finally wash your car.

Well, as you can guess it did not snow. Not even close. But it turned out OK anyway. On the day after "Black Friday", we intended to head down to Reno to do some big box retailing and hit the Patagonia outlet. I decided to ride the bike there and meet Dana and the kids. Although I was about 20 minutes late on my estimated meeting time (due to lots of stoplights up S. Virginia St.), the plan went off without a hitch. The ride was pretty cold starting out around 9am, but I warmed up quickly and it ended up being perfect.

Stats:
Distance: About 60miles
Time: About 3:20
Climbing: Just under 5,000'

Map:
http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/iframe/8030?width=800px&height=600px&type=3


Leaving Squaw Valley

Martis Valley, looking over at Northstar

A good climb up Hwy 267 to Brockway Summit, then a positively SCREAMING downhill to Kings Beach. You go 40mph without even pedalling once over the summit. A bit faster if you are pushing some watts.

At Kings Beach

Up the Mt. Rose Highway

Looking down to Reno. That white dot in the middle is a casino lying around 4,400 vertical feet below. Its all downhill from here.

Had to take it very easy near the top due to potential icy spots. Yikes!

Cool view out to the Washoe Lake area from the Mt. Rose Hwy.

Pescadero - Tunitas Loop

I'm still doing the occasional long ride despite the shorter days. Weather in Northern Cali has been cooperating, though it stinks for skiing. Hence the importance of taking a multi-sport, multi-season approach to life. I ran over a 4 inch screw the other day on my morning commute. Caught it perfectly so it ran up through the tire, tube and blew a big hole in my rim. Major bummer. It looked a lot like this. Great excuse for a new wheelset though. Hello ebay!

Yesterday I hooked up with JG and Steve (reuniting the 2008 Death Ride team) and we rode the Page Mill-Pescadero-Tunitas-Kings loop. Both the weather and the ride were simply outstanding. Weather was quite warm and it was hard to believe Thanksgiving was less than a week away. Steve made it as far as Skyline and then pulled the rip-cord to attend to family duties. JG suffered through the entire loop with me, which was a huge move after being on a long business trip and having not ridden for awhile.

John climbing out of the silicon valley smog on Page Mill Road.

This soon puts you up into the wooded lands and quiet roads.

JG and me at the top of hill #1 (Page Mill @ Skyline). You have to have white shades if you want to ride with me. Extra bonus points if you have Big George's ludicrous Oakleys.

JG descending off the back of Haskins Grade towards Pescadero, which was $$$$ off the top.

Was hard not to stop in here for a bowl of soup.

Stage Road runs parallel to the coast from Pescadero through San Gregorio and ends at Hwy 1. Along the way, there are three nice little mini-climbs, as well as this ultra-cool welded steel contraption that I think is a tribute to our governor at the end of The Terminator.

And what goes up (again) must come down (again). Nice twisty descent on Stage Road.

We filled bottles and I was tempted to have a bud at the San Gregorio Store, where some locals were putting on a show in the back. I freakin' love this place, but don't forget to take your cleats off at the door. The big stove right inside the front door (and some piping hot coffee) saved my life after an ice cold descent off West Alpine last April.

One last hill on Stage Road before hitting the coastal highway.

California has a new hands free cell phone law, but you can still take pictures at 40mph with one hand on the bars At the bottom of this hill we turned right on Tunitas Creek, where Lance and the peleton will be heading during the 2009 Tour of California. This is a great climb from the beach to the ridgetop at around 2,000'. It is shaded beautifully the entire way up and is one of the best rides in the Bay Area.

At the top I turned back down and rode the upper 1/3rd or so until I ran into JG coming up. He was mashing well despite complaining, and we rode back up to Skyline together. I'm starting to get tired here, but all downhill from here.

A standard Woodside moment -- guy on $7,000 bike passing woman on another expensive mode of transport, and 30 seconds later we were buzzed by a Ferrari.

Seven Sisters Photo Op

My friend Matt Dixon has started a new business -- Purple Patch Fitness. He asked a few of us who have suffered through his indoor cycling classes to join him up on Mt. Tam to take some photos for his marketing materials. I'm always willing to pimp myself out and show off my fancy BMC, so of course I volunteered. The weather was simply ridiculous the day we were shooting. The Farallons and Pt. Reyes were seen crystal clear from the Seven Sisters and the late October temps were like a fogless summer day. The results can be seen all over the website and a few here as well. The photog is Martin Sundberg and he's quite good (http://www.martinsundberg.com/).

Pseudo Tam Hill Climb

I had a great ride this morning over Muir Woods and then up the coast to Bolinas. Starting at the stop sign in Stinson Beach, I did a practice individual time-trial of the Mt. Tam Hill Cimb course from Stinson to the top. I needed a hurl bucket when I got there. I've done this ride a lot, but not at full sustained max effort the entire way. I may have to enter the race next year (after I turn 40!) to see how I stack up. My non-race conditions time of 51:02 if done this year would have garnered a 13th place finish in the public men/women category, or a 23rd place in Elite 5's. So not great, but then again not DFL either.

On a sadder note, a good friend went down in a bad wreck yesterday, landing directly on her face and was knocked out for a minute or so. A concussion and lots of cuts and bruises, but somehow avoided any broken bones, lost teeth or major injury. Be careful out there!

"The Most Beautiful Ride" (Alpine Dam / Marshall / Pantoll)

A long ride today (91 miles) with lots and lots of uphill (8,500'), but I rode pretty fast by my reckoning (5:30) which means that I haven't completely lost my fitness since France.

This ride was characterized by an insanely thick fog -- even by Northern California standards -- that blanketed the low valleys around Mt. Tam and the entire coast. But the fog was so dense that it just stuck there; it never crept up the mountain and never ventured off the beach. Pretty much ideal conditions for riding and just simply taking in the beautiful surroundings. I ride this area a lot and have seen a lot of killer days, but today was probably the best scenery I've ever had around here. The pictures speak for themselves.

Cracking Week for Bike Commuting!

Wow, what a great week for bicycle commuting in the Bay Area! The weather has been absolutely ridiculous -- no fog, no wind, no nothing other than pure California sunshine. I could get used to this. Actually, I will have to, since the 10-day forecast shows nothing but "more of the same" :-)

Heading home...

Steve and I are at Heathrow waiting to board our flight for SFO. We scored window/aisle exit row seats, so all is well. We last saw Will in Toulouse looking very stressed as he was being shaken down by the Gendarmes and wondering whose idea it was to get him to the airport only 30 minutes before his flight :-)



Last night/this morning was a blur. The "BNO" for sure. Les Freres Dixon and Robert were last seen climbing onto a bus with a shoddy destination in mind. They have not been heard from since. Here's hoping they get back ok. Of course we forgot our hotel key and I ended up crashing in the street for awhile until St. Tom miraculously appeared at the doorway to let us in. Crazy night. I'll post some more photos when I get back home.