zestos

that wind was killer today, i was dead. i had to stop for a vanilla cone on my way home. :-P

tnmwr

tuesday night is dirt night, all 29ers too. nate was a rocket cause he had to stay on top of a 36x16 gear.

monday miles

heading back from malcolm.

road closed

they're digging up the w. raymond road and hwy 79 intersection up ahead. you can get through it but you have to do some cyclocross.

afternoon latte

tailwind

jen, aaron and i had just flown through the alps into denton. we could easily hit 35mph on the some of downhill sections, but i couldn't get jen to try to hit 45mph with me. it was that windy.

motorized bicycles

outside of that tina's mexican place on s. 9th, i saw these two vintage puch mopeds. if gas prices keep going up perhaps we'll see more and more of these.

tnmwr

it's a tuesday night tradition... johnny T changing a flat at the bridge.

vacation was too short

i can hear tony singing it now. SF is quite the city and i wish i could go back tomorrow. so much to do and see there, and the riding is awesome. it has everything you could ask for. it's good to be back home though, i'm tired and still recuperating (caught a bad cold last monday on the long ride back from mt. tam.

tulio's

patrick and i celebrated a great ride the right way, with THE BEST italian food around. tulio's in walnut creek is pretty amazing (highly recommended by the rivendell guys). i went for the linguine with scallops, lots of bread and olive oil, and washed it down with a couple of morettis.

kevin at rivendell

when i came outside a group of rivendell staff were checking out the t-check. they were surprised that surly had a travel frame.

retro central

we stopped at rivendell

didn't see any elves but we did see some nice lugged steel creations.

sight seeing at the top

at the summit

nina crests the top

after climbing for 10 miles, to add insult to injury, the last 100 meters or so is a super steep 20% grade. you have to get out of the saddle and hope you have enough left to make it.

39x26 most of the way up

while patrick took off up the road, nina and i went our own pace.

young gun

sarah's brother patrick accompanied me on my assault of mt. diablo. the last time i rode this climb was 10 years ago). this was his first time on this climb. he had just bought a used road bike a few days before and he was eager to test it out. he did pretty good... he looked like he was never in difficulty and basically flew up the climb. he stopped to wait for nina and i a few times, but if he hadn't, i'm guessing that at the pace he was flying he would've easily done the whole climb in under 55 minutes.
hey patrick, if you read this, i'm telling you that you must try the challenge in october. i know you'd do a great time.

nina

on the way to the start of the mt. diablo climb we met nina on her saluki.

mercedes and lovely locks of hair

tuesday was day two for another epic climb. we were heading to mt. diablo. we saw a few local cyclists going there too, and i'm sure there are a lot more on the weekends as it's a popular climb.

off to work

sarah heads off to teach spanish to rich kids.

the descent

21 miles of this... or so i thought. i didn't know it yet, but i had a lot more climbing ahead of me. after this road decends to hwy 1 you turn south and start heading back around and up the south side. i bonked shortly after this point and it made the last 10-15 miles of climbing back inland to mill valley on the other side the hardest i've ever done. it had been windy all day, but now it was getting pretty cold. my swobo arm and leg warmers were great, but i had just a cycling cap on my head. i should have brought a stocking cap too. out on this stretch of hwy you are pretty much alone, and that means no place to refuel or recuperate. atleast the views of the ocean helped me forget the pain in the legs.

at the top

made it

clouds

rounding the northwest side, still a ways from the top but getting closer.

alpine lake

after climbing in the shade of tall pines the road decends down to the lake, and then the climbing starts again.

dark forests

in the first hour you climb through the trees. i saw only a few other cyclists, and one car passed me. that was it... you are quite alone on this road.

fueling up in fairfax

road to mt. tam

getting route suggestions from the guys at bicycle odyssey.

sausalito

clif bar girl

on my way into san fran to start my b-day assault on mt. tamalpais ride, i met melissa on the bart. she works for clif bar and was on her way with some other company peeps to do some riding from south san fran to santa cruz and then make their way to sea otter. we chatted awhile and she convinced me to do the full mt. tam loop, which turned out to be an epic ride indeed. thanks melissa!

sharing the lane

most of the streets downtown have a bike lane.

buena vista

the climb to the top of buena vista park is freaking steep but the views were worth it.

haight-ashbury

cruising through the haight... i saw roadie hipsters, brakeless trackies, and chic ladies. you see all types on bikes in SF.