Saturday, August 29, 2009
Seven Sisters
HOT today. Got in an early ride on the regular loop. Stunning Wx this morning -- 100 mile views and no winds. Farallons and Pt. Reyes were so close you could almost touch them. Incredible. Now off to Outside Lands!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shop Ride
Did the Sunday shop ride with the folks from Studio Velo Mill Valley. This is a great local shop with some very nice high end bikes and accessories. More importantly, they provide superb service and are fun guys to ride with. An added treat yesterday was the ride start at Cibo, Sausalito's newest cafe and lunch spot. GREAT coffee here. Check it out.
The weather was (and has been for too long!) pretty cold and foggy in the mornings. Sunglasses were not required and in any event were covered in mist almost immediately. We rode from Cibo into downtown Mill Valley, then up to Four Corners where we listened to the SV guys give us some important reminders and tips on descending skills. We put these into practice on the increasingly curvy road down into Muir Woods. From there, a good tempo up the coast to Stinson, and a very fast ride up and over Panoramic Highway. For the first time on this ride, not a single car passed our group from Stinson Beach all the way up to Pantoll Summit. Very nice.
I'm hoping the fog/wind cycle breaks soon, and we start getting that classic "Summer in Fall" weather instead of the dreaded "Winter in Summer" weather.
The weather was (and has been for too long!) pretty cold and foggy in the mornings. Sunglasses were not required and in any event were covered in mist almost immediately. We rode from Cibo into downtown Mill Valley, then up to Four Corners where we listened to the SV guys give us some important reminders and tips on descending skills. We put these into practice on the increasingly curvy road down into Muir Woods. From there, a good tempo up the coast to Stinson, and a very fast ride up and over Panoramic Highway. For the first time on this ride, not a single car passed our group from Stinson Beach all the way up to Pantoll Summit. Very nice.
I'm hoping the fog/wind cycle breaks soon, and we start getting that classic "Summer in Fall" weather instead of the dreaded "Winter in Summer" weather.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
How do I get one of these kits?
"dznuts. Protect your junk". Classic.
And apparently dznuts comes with video instructions on how to apply it.
Friday, August 14, 2009
North Shore Three Pass Ride
Tahoe is still delivering perfect weather, although a bit cooler yesterday. We stayed at Squaw in the morning playing tennis and just generally being lazy. For lunch we went up to the village and while sitting there saw a group of four cyclists roll in with full High Road team kits and some very nice bikes. A closer inspection revealed that one of them was Bob Stapleton, owner of the Columbia-HTC team and the man who delivered some impressive stage victories in this year's Tour de France.
One of the guys in his group was riding on Bert Grabsch's old T-Mobile Giant. I guess you get some pretty sweet hand-me-downs when you run a pro tour team.
This morning I had time to go on one last ride. I was meeting the family at Sand Harbor on the Nevada side so I left the house thinking that I would ride around the south end of the lake and up to Sand Harbor. I have actually never ridden around the lake and at first I thought this would be a good opportunity. But then I realized that if I rode to Sand Harbor, that's only riding 3/4 of the lake and I would still have to come back to ride it "for real" in order to say I have done it. So in the end I chose a different route. Turns out that Levi Leipheimer was in town and rode around the lake today, and it would have been awesome to bump into him out there.
I rode to Truckee down the very cold canyon at 6:30am and stopped at Tahoe's best coffee shop -- Wild Cherries. From there I rode what I'll call the "Three Pass Ride" -- up and down Old Donner Pass, over Brockway Summit to Kings Beach, and then up to Mount Rose Summit and down. Then a nice easy spin along the beautiful east shore of the lake to Sand Harbor. A very hilly 65 miles. There's some traffic along this route generally, but this is a fantastic ride with some varied and spectacular scenery. Highly recommended, especially the beach finish for a post-ride swim (and jump off of the huge granite boulders).
One of the guys in his group was riding on Bert Grabsch's old T-Mobile Giant. I guess you get some pretty sweet hand-me-downs when you run a pro tour team.
This morning I had time to go on one last ride. I was meeting the family at Sand Harbor on the Nevada side so I left the house thinking that I would ride around the south end of the lake and up to Sand Harbor. I have actually never ridden around the lake and at first I thought this would be a good opportunity. But then I realized that if I rode to Sand Harbor, that's only riding 3/4 of the lake and I would still have to come back to ride it "for real" in order to say I have done it. So in the end I chose a different route. Turns out that Levi Leipheimer was in town and rode around the lake today, and it would have been awesome to bump into him out there.
I rode to Truckee down the very cold canyon at 6:30am and stopped at Tahoe's best coffee shop -- Wild Cherries. From there I rode what I'll call the "Three Pass Ride" -- up and down Old Donner Pass, over Brockway Summit to Kings Beach, and then up to Mount Rose Summit and down. Then a nice easy spin along the beautiful east shore of the lake to Sand Harbor. A very hilly 65 miles. There's some traffic along this route generally, but this is a fantastic ride with some varied and spectacular scenery. Highly recommended, especially the beach finish for a post-ride swim (and jump off of the huge granite boulders).
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tahoe Rides
The weather has been insane up here this week. Cool misty mornings and clear warm days (not too hot). Been spending a lot of time on the lake and doing a few early morning rides. On Monday I rode the "Triangle" (aka 267 Loop) to Truckee, over Brockway Summit, and then back via Tahoe City. This is a good quick 2hr (38mile) loop from Squaw Valley. It follows some very heavily travelled roads, but done early morning the traffic isn't too bad and most of the route has a good shoulder. The one climb from Truckee up and over to Kings Beach is not particularly long or steep, but it always surprises me how much this little climb challenges me near the top.
On Tuesday I did the Donner Pass ride out to Cisco and back, with a mandatory stop at Wild Cherries for a quick coffee. A touch over 60 miles with one real nice climb (Donner Pass from the east), and one long gradual schlog (Donner Pass from the west). The descent of the east side of Donner Pass is really fantastic. Huge sweeping turns (no brakes required) in a rugged alpine environment with incredible vistas. Pretty incredible.
Today I could only do a quick ride before meeting the family in Kings Beach so I headed to Tahoe City and along the north shore to the Mt. Rose Highway. I climbed up about 2/3rds of the way to the summit before hitting my turnaround time. Great shoulder on this road, although it is a busy highway (it is the main road connecting Reno to north Tahoe). A speedy descent just coasting at 40mph.
By the way, the roads in the north Tahoe area are in crappy shape and although it is beautiful here, the riding is not particularly great (by Marin/Sonoma standards at least) with all the cars and shoddy pavement. There's also some serious stimulus dollars being spent here on road repairs and it seems like the entire north shore is a construction zone. That said, it is still pretty incredible with the weather and the mountain surroudings. Hoping to get in at least one more ride before heading home on Sunday.
Misty morning in the meadows of Squaw Valley. 40F. Brrr....
View from 267 across Martis Valley to Northstar.
On Tuesday I did the Donner Pass ride out to Cisco and back, with a mandatory stop at Wild Cherries for a quick coffee. A touch over 60 miles with one real nice climb (Donner Pass from the east), and one long gradual schlog (Donner Pass from the west). The descent of the east side of Donner Pass is really fantastic. Huge sweeping turns (no brakes required) in a rugged alpine environment with incredible vistas. Pretty incredible.
Today I could only do a quick ride before meeting the family in Kings Beach so I headed to Tahoe City and along the north shore to the Mt. Rose Highway. I climbed up about 2/3rds of the way to the summit before hitting my turnaround time. Great shoulder on this road, although it is a busy highway (it is the main road connecting Reno to north Tahoe). A speedy descent just coasting at 40mph.
View over Lake Tahoe from halfway up the Mt. Rose climb.
By the way, the roads in the north Tahoe area are in crappy shape and although it is beautiful here, the riding is not particularly great (by Marin/Sonoma standards at least) with all the cars and shoddy pavement. There's also some serious stimulus dollars being spent here on road repairs and it seems like the entire north shore is a construction zone. That said, it is still pretty incredible with the weather and the mountain surroudings. Hoping to get in at least one more ride before heading home on Sunday.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Good commuting, but now its Tahoe time...
Man do I need a vacation. Thankfully, mine started yesterday promptly at 5pm when I boarded the ferry and ordered myself a jack daniels for the boat ride home. The day started great too, with a perfect 6:30am bike commute over the bridge. The morning was warm, fog-free and the full moon was still cranking.
I drove up to Tahoe late last night with the family to start our week-long break. Despite only getting 6 hours of sleep, I was already jonesing this morning for a bike ride and was not deterred by the 36F reading on the thermometer outside at 5:45am. I wasn't meeting Trevor and Grant until 7:30, so I had a little extra time to warm up the legs. I rode down the West Shore and up to the top of Barker Pass (7,700'). Then back to Sunnyside to meet them, then back up to Barker Pass (2d lap), then up to the backside of Alpine Meadows where I bade my companions farewell and rode back home to Squaw Valley to play tennis with the wife and kids. Almost 70 miles and about 4,000' of moderate climbing. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures, but no camera today.
Rudy rides the Golden Gate Bridge on the worlds best commute
I drove up to Tahoe late last night with the family to start our week-long break. Despite only getting 6 hours of sleep, I was already jonesing this morning for a bike ride and was not deterred by the 36F reading on the thermometer outside at 5:45am. I wasn't meeting Trevor and Grant until 7:30, so I had a little extra time to warm up the legs. I rode down the West Shore and up to the top of Barker Pass (7,700'). Then back to Sunnyside to meet them, then back up to Barker Pass (2d lap), then up to the backside of Alpine Meadows where I bade my companions farewell and rode back home to Squaw Valley to play tennis with the wife and kids. Almost 70 miles and about 4,000' of moderate climbing. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures, but no camera today.
Sunrise and migrating birds over Lake Tahoe
Trevor on the Barker Pass climb
Today's route (with 2x on Barker Pass)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The White Princess gone?
I was cleaning my BMC a couple of weeks ago after a ride and noticed a small crack near the bottom bracket / left chain stay junction. One ride later, it had grown alarmingly. At the shop, they also noticed cracking at the bottom of the seat tube where the carbon tube slots into the aluminum bottom bracket box. Photos were taken and sent to BMC and they've now said that it is "90%" likely it is a warranty issue. It has since been stripped and sent back to them for confirmation. I've had some great rides on this bike (including an awesome trip to France last summer) and it would be sad to lose her.
Frame cracks on 2008 BMC SLT01 Team Machine
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