When my four alarm clocks went off his morning (TV, CD player, sharper image clock and my cell phone), I was tempted to snuggle deeper into my duvet cover and skip the 70-mile Club One group ride. However, I knew I wouldn't enjoy the rest of my Sunday knowing that I had flaked on the ride so I dragged my ass out of bed and began to get ready.
Skull cap, Craft base layer tank, Craft Pro Zero Crew Base layer, Sheila Moon Base layer, arm warmers, long sleeved jersey, wind vest, Shebeest tech tights, warm socks and full-fingered gloves. I was tempted to wear my new TO jacket but thought it might be too bulky during the ride so I decided to skip it. Once I started pedaling towards the bart station and felt the chilly wind hit my face, I desperately wished I owned a Balaclava. Oh well, I figured I'd be warmed up in an hour or two.
I met my friends at the Lafayette bart station parking lot where it was about 39 degrees. Brrrrrr! It was a small group that showed up - Mark Cutone (Club One ride leader), Angie Karanas (Left Coast cyclist), Rich Fisher (old school cyclist), and yours truly. Mark asked for a group consensus on whether we still wanted to ride Palomares or skip Palomares and just ride through Calaveras to the Fremont station. Angie voted against Palomares, Rich didn't get to vote since he was going to peel off earlier. Hmm, I've ridden Palomares before but I've never ridden Calaveras so I'm reticent to do both: "Ahhh, whatever you guys decide." It looked like Angie had the winning vote - No Palomares for us today.
We finally hit the road and ended up riding with a large group of riders with various kits on. Wendy's sponsors a cycling team??? I didn't know that. It turns out that within that group there were two bad-ass bike mechanics: Tim Parker from Left Coast and his brother Erik. Mark and Angie knew them so we rode with them for a while.
We stopped at a Shell station before reaching Sunol for a pee-break. This bathroom was not only disgustingly dirty, it had no lights! We had to keep the door semi-open to let some light in lest we miss the toilet and end up pissing on ourselves in the dark.
Having taken care of business, we continued on our journey to Sunol. Damn, it was windy. Tim and the rest of the guys were too fast for us so we lost the nice draft we had enjoyed up to that point. Mark, Angie and I braved the winds as a trio.
We enjoyed a brief rest at the Sunol liquor store before we headed towards Calaveras. Having never ridden it before, I didn't know what to expect, I'd just heard that it involved steady climbing and offered a scenic view. Hey, that sounds nice. Sure enough, I soon found myself shifting to my little chain ring and enjoying the beautiful hills to my left. Interestingly enough, I found myself constantly shifting between my little chain ring and my big chain ring. Just when I thought I had reached the final descent, damn it if there wasn't another stretch of climbing up ahead. That road seemed to last forever!! Alas, we reached the final descent. Alright!
The Fremont Bart station was only 15 miles ahead according to Mark. However, if I thought Calaveras felt like a long stretch of road, reaching the Fremont Bart station seemed even longer. And, why the hell didn't someone warn me that I'd have to do more climbing to reach the bart station? My inner voice had to keep reminding me to cut the whining and just ride!
About 2-3 blocks from the Bart station, we stopped to use 24 hour fitness' bathroom (we didn't see any gas stations nearby). As I walked though the gym and observed random, bored-looking people reading their magazines while riding their stationary bikes or using the eliptical machines, I thought to myself, "Damn, am I glad I rode outdoors today!"
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2 comments:
calvares is an awesome ride... except that part to fremont through milpitas. yuck!
you were riding with the duro's. http://www.duro.org/ i went on a few group rides with them last year. whoa, that is a FAST club ride!!! i got dropped like it was my job doing some livermore tree ride. it was all friendly and then suddenly these sprint surges happened and i was off the back!
O.K. I'm glad to know that the ride to Fremont sucks in general and it wasn't me just being fussy (in fact, I think I recall Mike Hardy saying he also disliked the ride from Calaveras to Fremont.)
You're not kidding about those Duro guys. They totally psyched me out for the first part of the ride. Before I knew it, they had me panting like a dog who has been neglected by his owner. Next thing I knew, I was watching them ride away. Damn, they're fast!
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