The Countdown!




Well here it is, less than a month from the Death Ride (and more than a month since my last post!) Time to start getting a little nervous. So, what have I been doing? Uhhh, riding my bike! Oh, you want to know where?!! We've done some great rides. We spent a day down on the peninsula, riding in and out of Big Basin, with some of the steepest climbs around. I've been up Mt. Diablo a few times (try 12, with 3 of those in one day this week). I've ridden around Morgan Territory again, and we went camping up near Markleeville so we could ride the actual passes. Of course, I have some pics and more descriptions below!

Big Basin 5/17

This is a great ride - one I didn't get to do last year. We were riding some truly remarkable roads out on the Pensinsula south of SF, getting all the way down close to Santa Cruz. Sadly, some of the area we rode is on fire right now - last I heard, they hadn't contained any of the fire near Bonny Doon, and had evacuated hundreds of people. It's a shame - some really beautiful coastal woodlands are there, with some magnificent redwoods.

This was one tough ride - especially since this was right after the Tour of the Unknown Coast. There are two notoriously tough climbs pretty early in the ride - Redwood Gulch and Jamison Creek. Both are steep - over 10%, with sections up to 20%. Both lead into another section of more climbing (but thankfully not as steep). Redwood Gulch comes first, soon after leaving the urban area around Silicon Valley. Steep, but since it's not that long and your legs are fresh, ultimately not too bad. This is followed by a several mile climb up Rte. 9, and then a super-fun descent into Big Basin, a beautiful state park with lots of spectacular scenery and redwoods.

Big Basin is a very descriptive name - and now we were down in the bottom of that basin. That's right - we had to climb out. That's where Jamison Creek comes in. The infamous "Billy Goat List" rates this as one of the hardest climbs in the Bay Area, with 1,500 feet of climbing in just 3 miles. Yup, it's steep. And 3 miles is a long time to be climbing something that steep. However, I took my time and actually felt pretty good at this point. After that was a rolling section along Empire Grade and another wonderful descent, this one through Bonny Doon all the way to the ocean. Spectacular, fast and fun.

Riding along the ocean we got the rather predictable headwind for about 10 miles. It was strong enough to slow us down, but not as bad as it has been on other rides. Then we rolled into the beautiful and wacky little town of Pescadero for lunch. At this point we were around 70 miles, and still had 2 climbs to go. The first, Pescadero, isn't that long and isn't that steep - but with tired legs, it sure felt tougher than I think any of us expected. After that was Alpine. This one is both long (more than 7 miles) and has some pretty steep sections - nothing like Redwood Gulch or Jamison Creek, but still steep enough to make you notice. At this point of a ride, there's nothing for it but to grind your way up that hill. After that was a final fast descent to our starting point - fun, and we were all pretty happy the climbing was over. 110 miles, 10,600 feet of climbing.

Weekends off - 5/24 and 5/31

I was suffering from a cold that had me coughing and dealing with a sinus infection. No team rides planned, so I took the weekend off and rode SAG for the Tahoe and Seattle to Portland Team in Training teams instead. The rest helped - I was mostly off the bike for more than a week, and it was what I needed.

I actually rode Mt. Diablo and Morgan Territory the following weekend, but it was a miserable day - I was slow and suffering all day long. A break from riding for a few more days got me over the worst of it.


Altitude Camp! 6/6 - 6/8

Camping is fun! Especially when you're camping with close to 30 friends all there for the same reason - to get some experience riding the passes from the Death Ride! Of course, I'm not a big camper - this was the 2nd time camping in my life! Still, tents are simple to pitch now, there are all kinds of mattress pads that make sleeping more comfortable, and we had the wonderful TnT SAG team providing dinner. My car was thoroughly over-packed - 3 of us, each with a bike (all fit on the roof rack) plus bags, coolers, spare wheels, etc. etc. etc.




We also had a potluck happy hour and the coaches walked us through strategy for maximizing our chance of finishing the event. Notice the spread to the left - who says you have to rough it when you are camping?!!









The riding was spectacular. There's nothing like the Sierras - and there was still snow along the sides of the road at the summits of the passes! The riding temps. were around 75 degrees, so I don't think it will be there much longer.







Ebbets is very scenic, with lots of tall pines and a beautiful lake 1 mile from the summit.











































Monitor feels entirely different (just 10 miles away), with almost no trees (none at all on the East side), and a much more wide open feel.











Riding in altitude is a bit different, but I think the difference is often overstated. It is dry, so we have to drink more. I didn't notice a huge difference with my heart rate and breathing, but some others who were complaining about it were pushing harder (probably because of sleeping on the ground, my back was bothering me all weekend - built in excuse!).



This was a great experience, especially since now we'll know the roads on event day. So what does that ride day look like? It looks like 129 miles with more than 15,000 feet of climbing.

Double click to see the full resolution version of any picture.





D-Peats

This is our nickname for when we do Mt. Diablo repeats. It's a sure sign that I'm much stronger than last year that I've been doing D-Peats for several weeks, although the most I'd done up to now was 2 1/2. Remember, this is a 10.5 mile, 3,200 foot climb - not so easy to go up, back down and then convince yourself to turn around and go right back up! Well, on Weds. our coaches figured we should do at least 3, with some aiming for 4 or even 5. I couldn't start first thing - I had a morning meeting I couldn't get out of. So, I started right after noon, and was very happy that I did 3 by 7pm. That meant that I'm getting faster (even though I really don't feel like I am) and have built the endurance to keep going at a healthy pace without blowing up. Big improvement from last year!

Don't forget the fund-raising!

OK, folks, the fund-raising deadline is upon us. June 26th is it. We've raised just under $2,500 so far, which is great! However, my goal was $5,000 - plus I've already ridden almost 4,000 miles. Remember you all were going to make sure I rode more than I wanted to, since I'd pledged to ride a mile for every $ donated? You've got some work to do!

Seriously, thanks for all the support - we're raising money for a great cause. And of course my fund-raising website is here.

JB

Tour of the Unknown Coast!

Bigfoot!

Wow, what a ride! The Tour of the Unknown Coast is a century ride in Humboldt County, CA. In case you haven't figured it out from the wood carving pictured on the left, this is Bigfoot country. Good looking fellow, huh?

The Bay area is considered Northern California. However, Ferndale (the little town where this ride starts) is 300 miles north of where I live!

The area is beautiful - old growth redwoods, deserted beaches, rugged terrain (some of the hills go up 2,000 feet almost from the beach), lots of cows - you really do feel like you've gotten far away from it all.

The town of Ferndale is really nice - 100+ year old victorian houses sitting down in a valley right near the coast. In fact, Ferndale is considered at risk for a Tsunami, and the road into town (is there more than one?) is marked as an emergency escape route.





We had dinner in a restaurant in one of those old victorians - the food was all organic and really good. I loaded up on a pesto pasta dish, but other teammates had pizza or chicken or steak - great variety, and the food was all great. That by itself was almost worth the 5 hour drive! The restaurant was La Petite Maison (www.lapetiteferndale.com) if you ever happen to be in the middle of nowhere, California and want a first-class meal.


Since we needed to get up early, we all turned in around 9 (not that it mattered, since the whole town was pretty much shut down by then too). Up before 6 to start the ride by 7! It was cool (ok, my teammates all said it was cold), but the sun was already burning through the coastal fog - a beautiful day for a bike ride!


The Ride

We knew we weren't going to be the fastest riders out there, so we let the main pack get going at 7 - we left just a few minutes behind. This was a weekend where we didn't have an organized team ride, but 2 of the coaches were with us, and a total of 12 of us from the TnT Death Ride team were riding. One wanted to get a headstart, and left before the official start at 7, 4 others (including our intrepid coaches) are pretty fast and didn't see the point of leaving quite that early, so that left of 7 of us rolling right after the main pack.

The early part of the ride is kind of a gentle wake-up call. At least 25 miles of scenic, bucolic, gently rolling miles through the countryside, culminating with a cruise down the Avenue of the Giants, amid ginormous old-growth redwoods. This area is beautiful!

Part of the Avenue of the Giants was washed out, so we ended up riding on Highway 101 a bit more than expected, but since that was by far the smoothest pavement we saw all day, that was a good thing. The road quality is really bad up there - low population means not much road usage, which means not much state $ to maintain the roads. There were plenty of areas where there was more patched surface showing than original road pavement, and plenty more where they'd patched the patches - multiple times. Hard on the bikes (I saw plenty of flat tires), hard on your hands and hard on your butt (here's a secret about cycling - the better shape you are in, the less weight you have on the seat - you naturally start carrying it with your legs, so rough roads don't bother you as much).

After we left the Giants, we rolled through a younger area of woods. The road quality deteriorated in a hurry as we rolled along, but the scenery was so nice that you didn't notice (that much). At some point, Rick and I had rolled away from the rest of our starting group - 2 of the riders were doing the 50 mile option, while the rest wanted to go at a slower pace. Rick and I rolled through the first 2 rest stops, just stopping quickly at one to refill a water bottle.

We did stop at the third one - this one was right before the first big climb of the day - Panther Gap. It was a long, fairly hard climb - it went up 2,400 feet or so in about 8 miles. At this point, I passed a rider with a very loud bike - every time he pedaled, his bike made a creaking noise. I wasn't that much faster than him, so I got to listen to "creak creak creak" for several miles. I asked him if something was wrong, but his reply was that the bike had made the noise since it was new! I refrained from pointing out that bikes weren't supposed to make that noise, even if they were brand new - I had to bite my tongue pretty hard.

Anyway the road quality did not improve for the descent. Lots of potholes and rough pavement. However, there always seemed to be a safe line through the turns that wasn't so bad, so as long as you looked ahead you could maintain a decent pace down the hill. Some people were a bit freaked out, though, and were riding the brakes all the way down, trying to pick their way through. I don't think they had much fun.

After the descent was an old wood-plank bridge. Very picturesque - and a fall waiting to happen! However, I made it across without catching my tires in the gaps between the planks (a teammate was not so lucky but wasn't hurt when he fell) and then we had an easy 9 mile cruise into the lunch stop.

Lunch was just about perfect for a long bike ride, at least by my standards. Some people were complaining that they didn't have the fancy, gourmet food served at some centuries, but the turkey sandwiches and minestrone hit the spot for me.

After lunch was a set of "rollers". What I call rollers are a set of hills where the momentum off of the last downhill carries you most (or, even better, all the way) up the next hill. Not this time. Between how steep and long these hills were, along with the lousy road quality, trying to maintain momentum was a lost cause. So, each hill was a schlep up - not so fun, but still not really hard.

After a while, we finally reached the lost coast. A fast short descent led us down to the flat 9 mile or so ride along the ocean to the infamous "Wall". I hate it when they name a climb after a wall! In this case, it's a well-chosen name. It is definitely one of the steepest sustained climbs I've done. Sure, some switchbacks on various climbs are steeper. But this puppy is 18% or so for about a mile. What's worse is that you get to see it coming! We stopped at the rest stop at the bottom of it for about 15 minutes, and watched others work their way up. Most made it, so we saddled up and went for it. I went very slowly - at one point, I was only going 2mph. I was a little surprised I could go that slow and stay upright! I made it, and didn't get too far outside of my heartrate zone to do it. If you look carefully at this picture of Rick to the left, you can see the rest stop tent - it's that little yellow dot near the house. (hint - click on the picture to see a full resolution version) We went up that high in less than a mile!

After the Wall and a nasty descent (steep and bad road quality - really bad combination), we had the Endless Hill. Steep for a couple of miles, then 6 more miles of a more gradual climb. It wouldn't have been so bad - except this was mile 88 or so. I was definitely feeling sore and tired at this point, but there was nothing for it but to keep going. We made it to the top and then got the last descent of the day - over more rough, beat up, poorly patched road. Oh, yeah, and a couple of short uphill sections just to keep us honest.

All in all, a beautiful, hard ride. I'll be doing this again in the future, but I'm thinking I'll use a bike that can take larger tires next time (to help smooth out some of the bumps!)

The Fundraising Continues

A quick reminder that I'm training with Team in Training as a fund-raiser, and I need all the help I can get to reach my fund-raising goal of $5,000. We're almost half-way there, but the deadline is approaching fast! And don't forget, I've pledged to ride a mile for every dollar donated through my website. So far, I've got it covered, but you can add to my pain by donating HERE

In memory of Cooper

Well, after a long and tough battle with cancer, brave Cooper Proscia passed away on Saturday. The following is a quote from the CaringBridge website his family has set up:

Though many tears we are writing to share that our sweet little Cooper earned his angel wings this afternoon at 1:25 p.m.
He is already sorely missed.
Once we have made service arrangements we will post the information.
Thanks for checking.


Please see the Caring Bridge website for more information about Cooper and his fight:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cooperproscia


Marin Buddy Ride

We had dedicated our Marin buddy ride on 4/30 to Cooper. It was a beautiful day - perfect riding weather. We started early, and since it was an informal ride, no ride groups - we were able to ride with teammates that we normally don't get a chance to ride with. We started in SF, went across the Golden Gate Bridge and climbed the Marin headlands (see first picture). It turned out that the Aids Lifecycle folks were training for their annual ride - on pretty much the same route! We spent much of the day sharing the road with more than 600 other cyclists, who were also raising money for a great cause.

The ride started out with some moderate climbs and about 40 miles into Pt. Reyes, close to the Pacific. I felt good, and what made it even better was that one of our teammates, Shelley, who had crashed earlier in the season, was back on her bike and riding with us! She hung in there and did a good ride. Welcome back!

At lunch I made a mistake - I got a panini, which tasted really good. However, it was loaded up with oil and did not sit well as the day warmed up and we got into the more serious climb - up Mt. Tamalpais via Bolinas-Fairfax Rd and Ridgecrest. I went from riding and feeling well to struggling. However, I stuck with it and didn't fall too far behind the mountain goats. That lousy feeling didn't really go away all day, though. Still, a beautiful day and a gorgeous area to ride in.




Taste of the Devil

Another tough ride (gee, we keep hearing that every week!). We rode 109 miles with slightly more than 9,000 feet of climbing yesterday. We rode the first half of one of the toughest double centuries around - the Devil Mountain Double. We rode up Mt. Diablo (yup, that pesky mountain just outside my front door), through Walnut Creek and Clayton, up Morgan Territory (a remote, rural single lane road that goes to the East of Mt. Diablo), got some flat riding in through North Livermore and then went up the Altamont and Patterson passes, part of the ridgeline that separates the Bay Area from the Central Valley. Whew - and that's just the first 70 miles! The remaining 40 miles were flat (or at least reasonably gradual climbs) and directly into a nasty headwind that sprung up in the afternoon. A long, hard ride. But it felt good - really good. The coaches had been, well, coaching me on a more appropriate pace - they felt I was going out too hard and needed to pace myself better. It worked - no back problems, no stomach problems. Some of the climbs left me gasping, but that's why we're doing them!






This first pic is of one of our honorees (ie a cancer survivor) summitting Mt. Diablo with a coach. Grace finished her chemo just a year ago, and she's already doing rides like this!











And here I am with some of my ride group climbing up that same mountain. It was early and not too hot yet.




















And her I am with teammate Michelle, cruising along after coming off of the mountain. Michelle's thermostat is set noticeably different than mine - note that she still has lots of layers on, while I'm down to my jersey.









Up at the top of Altamont Pass is a huge windmill farm - prevailing winds keep these things turning most of the time. Don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows! (with apologies to Bob Dylan). There is a racetrack up here, too - site of the infamous Rolling Stones Altamont concert - the one where the motorcycle gang members were the security.








This is the view that greets you after several miles of climbing on Patterson Pass - at the top of a false summit. Yuck. The corner is known locally as "Oh, my @#$" That little hill in the background hits a 17% grade, and had a few pros struggling during the '07 Tour of California.








And here I am struggling up to the summit. I actually felt pretty good, but it is steep!












After the hills, 40 miles or so of flats. Would have been a nice change - except for the 15mph headwind. yuck.











And here's our ride group getting organized into a decent paceline. I'm the 2nd rider. Our coach got us all organized into a good paceline, reducing the amount of work we had to do to fight that headwind!

Well, it was a great ride - and a relief to finish strong after a few tough weeks. Maybe those coaches do know what they're talking about! I felt good all ride, stayed within myself (even on the crazy steep stuff) and felt like I could have kept riding. Which is good - since the Death Ride is 20 miles longer, with another 6,000 feet of climbing!

Please remember that I'm doing this to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You can help fight cancer by making a donation at my fund-raising website.

In honor of Cooper

Wow, where to start? I'd been hearing about a schoolmate of Kevin and Brian, someone who is fighting cancer. He'd missed some school, but was playing T-Ball and seemed active. Then we heard about a prayer vigil - it looked like Cooper's fight had taken a definite turn for the worst. Cooper continues to fight his battle against Neuroblastoma, but frankly, the prognosis is not good. You can read more about Cooper and his family here: Cooper's website.

So, our TnT team is riding this weekend in honor of Cooper. Originally we were going to ride on Mt. Hamilton, but the route has been changed to a very scenic, but very tough, 100 mile route starting in SF, heading out to the Marin headlands, the Nicasio Wall, some other climbs and then climbing Mt. Tamalpais. We'll have another weekend with close to 10,000 feet of climbing in one day. Cooper's positive attitude is an inspiration - reading the guest book at Caring Bridge makes it clear how many lives he's touched. Our prayers and thoughts are with you, Cooper!

In the Meantime

It's been a few weeks since I last posted - so I've got updates on a couple of rides. Both were long and hard - each one was a significant step up from the rides we had been doing.

The first is a classic ride on the peninsula that our coaches call "Upenuff". Silly name, isn't it? Turns out that it is named after a street on our first climb of the day, up Old la Honda. The street is about 3/4ths of the way up, and rumor has it that Eric Heiden, the former speed skater, used to live there. What is confirmed is that Eric Heiden used to own the record for fastest climb up Old la Honda - less than 15 minutes! It took me longer - a lot longer. The first picture is our ride group at a rest stop after climbing Old la Honda.

Old la Honda climbs a ridgeline that separates Silicon Valley from the much more rural coastline. We continued west, descending and then climbing and finally getting to the coast. It was a beautiful day - ideal riding conditions. The 2nd photo is from road called Pescadero (it also leads to a town by the same name. Coincidence? I think not). This part of the ride became much more rural - after leaving the area just south of Palo Alto behind it's kind of a shock to be riding somewhere this undeveloped.

The ride culminated with one of the toughest climbs in the Bay Area - Tunitas Creek. The road is about 10 miles long, with a long hard climb taking up more than 6 miles of that. Oh, and it goes up something like 2,000 feet. The steep part is really steep, and it just seems to go on forever. An old problem cropped up on this climb - my lower back tightened up and got very painful. I'm going to have to stretch and work on my core a lot between now and the Death Ride!

Terrible Two

The Terrible Two is a double century bicycle ride in Sonoma. Yup - you read that correctly - it's a 200 mile long ride. In one day.

This is one of the hardest doubles in California, and our ride last weekend covered almost all of the climbs from the Terrible Two - in a 100 mile ride. We ended up climbing well over 10,000 feet, and the ride basically took all day - it was tough.

Take a look at the ride profile - almost all of the climbing is in the first 60 miles - we had just shy of 9,000 feet of climbing by mile 60 - an insane amount of climbing! The climb up from Ft. Ross (the last double summit on the map) was really tough - both very steep and long. My back was bothering me again, which really didn't help. We all made it, though! Here's a photo of a lot of the team at the top of the Ft. Ross climb.

We started early - really early. I've also attached a photo of one of our recumbent riders climbing the first hill as the sun rises behind him. This ride was beautiful - one of the nices rides I've been on. The thought of doing the Terrible Two started crossing my mind - then I remembered the pain of those climbs - never mind! Once my back loosened up, I felt pretty good for the last 40 miles or so and the relatively easy (we fought 20mph winds all the way back) return to our starting point. A long, hard but satisfying ride!

Finally, a group of us returned to Mt. Diablo yesterday. We decided to go up to the halfway point twice instead of doing one long climb. After the tough weekend, this seemed easy! The steep parts that bothered me in the past weren't as big a deal, and it was a nice way to spend an afternoon (good thing I have an understanding boss!).

JB

I almost forgot - the fundraising continues! If you want to make me ride more, you've got some catching up to do! My mileage is close to double the amount we've raised so far - go ahead, make me ride more! Jon's TnT fundraising website

The Last Lecture

So, you were expecting a cycling blog? I found this video after reading a review of the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. He seems like an amazing man - dying of panceatic cancer, with literally months to live, he gives a great, inspirational lecture about childhood dreams at Carnegie Mellon. The Last Lecture.

If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, here it is:



Wow, after seeing that it really brings back into perspective why I'm involved with Team in Training. By riding my bike, I'm helping to raise funds to find a cure for blood cancers - and to help those who have leukemia, myeloma or lymphoma now to deal with all that comes with it - the fears, the pain, the treatments that must seem worse than the disease. Please continue to support me at my personal fund-raising website.

And yes, I still have been riding my bike. At least when it's not in the shop. We had a your on your own weekend - no coaching, but we were still expected to ride. My bike was in the shop, waiting for parts (strange sounds coming from the cranks), so I went on a long strenuous hike instead. The regional parks around here tend to have lots of hills, so I ended up doing close to 8 miles across some very rough terrain. Not exactly like riding a bike, but a lot of fun and a good workout. As a result, no pics to share this update - but next weekend is a classic ride on the peninsula south of San Francisco. The hills are steep and long, and I'm sure the ride will be great!

JB

More training...

A small group of us snuck out for a quick ride up Mt. Diablo on Weds. afternoon. The day started out nice, but by the time we were gathering to ride it was looking kind of overcast and getting pretty windy. K. Sue called the info line - 42 degrees and 18 mph winds at the summit!

However, we were there so we rode it. At least some of it. As you can see from the pics to the left, the weather was not so nice - although the sun did break through the clouds further west. We never did get the benefit of that!

After an hour or so of climbing (even by my standards we were taking it easy), we got to the junction (more or less the halfway mark) - and find our intrepid coaches Jacqui and Mike waiting for us. They described the conditions further up the mountain (pretty much what we were already dealing with, only more so!). We carried on - but not for too long. We did 2,400 feet of a 3,200 foot climb before deciding it was just too cold and too windy.

One cool thing - it's wildflower season on Mt. Diablo! Sadly, my photography skills weren't up to the challenge of capturing the flowers (how hard can that be, really?), so I'll have to go up again next week and see if I do better.

Last Weekend

So, last weekend (before our little jaunt up Mt. D.), we had a team ride in the Oakland Hills. After a great ride the weekend before, I was feeling pretty confident. Not so fast - I ended up struggling up every hill and generally not doing well on the ride. Why? Who knows - sometimes you just don't do well. I've included a couple of pics - feeling cold before the start, and then summitting the last hill of the day. It was a fun ride, even if I struggled.

Next Weekend

I'm a bit worried about next weekend - we're ramping up both the miles and the climbing - last year this was one of the toughest rides for me. The coaches call it "18 Hills" - most of us are convinced that there are more, many more. It incorporates several classic Bay Area rides - the 3 Bears (named after 3 hills, of course), Wildcat Canyon and Grizzly Peak, going past Tilden Park, and Redwood. Hopefully, I'll remember to pull my camera out of my pocket and grab a few pictures. The weather forecast is for rain on Friday, followed by a nice day on Saturday. However, the weather around here is notoriously fickle. We'll see!

One change I did make - no hard ride on Thursdays! I'll do an easy spin on Thursdays from now on, and save any tough rides for earlier in the week. Both times I've struggled on team rides this year, I did a tough Thursday ride.

As always, I'm continuing to raise money to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My fund-raising website is here. This is a great cause, and directly benefits so many people who are currently struggling with cancer. Please be generous!

Sad Month

Here in the Bay Area, there are lots of cyclists.  In an area like this, tragedies will sometimes happen - and such a tragedy did hit on 3/8/2008. 

A Deputy Sheriff crossed the centerline on a popular cycling road and struck 3 cyclists, killing 2 of them.  I did not know anyone involved personally, but these kinds of tragedies really hit home.  The cyclists were on a team ride, and were very accomplished - one had just won an amateur race, while the other was considering going to the Olympic trials after a career as a professional triathlete.  My friend Pete posted the following to an internet board after attending the memorial ride: Pete's message.

That was an eventful month from another perspective - one of our riders took a nasty spill on a ride with a group of teammates.  We had just climbed a challenging set of hills, and come off a very fast descent.  She had stayed back to snap a few photos, so we were waiting at the stop sign.  After cresting a few rolling hills, she took her hands off the bars and a nasty wind gust hit her.  She went down before she could do anything about it.  We all raced back to her - she wasn't moving, but was breathing.  All we could do was try and keep her warm while calling 911.  The response was really fast - we were in a remote location, and the first police car got there in under 5 minutes, with ambulance right behind. In the meantime, our teammate came around and started talking a bit.  Thank god for her helmet!  She's ok - bruised and beat up, and she has a broken thumb, but otherwise is fine.

This was on top of an earlier team ride, where our community captain took a low speed spill while navigating a section of road he'd been over probably a thousand times.  He was also scraped up pretty good, but otherwise he was fine (his bike needed some attention, though).

So hopefully we're through this rough patch, everyone will keep their hands on their handlebars and the rest of the season will be safe!

The riding in the meantime has been rewarding, but tough.  Lots of wind and some rain has created pretty challenging conditions.  We've been riding in some pretty wide open areas, too - Livermore and out at Pt. Reyes, on the ocean in Marin County.  That last ride to Pt. Reyes in particular was just much tougher than it might have been - we woke up to weather forecasts of 20mph winds with 30 mph gusts and a 70% chance of rain.  Our fearless leader, Kim-osabe, decided the weather was fine, so we all showed up in Nicasio (a one horse town in a pretty isolated part of Marin) to clearing skies but strong winds.  No rain all day long, but boy that wind off the ocean sure made for some tough riding.  Beautiful part of the country, though - and a great ride!  The picture is of a teammate and me climbing one of the many short but steep sections on the way to the lighthouse.  Note all those trees to block the wind!

For those of you who want to make me suffer by riding more miles, well, you've got some work to do!  So far you all have donated just under $1,400 - good, but not good enough.  I've already ridden over 1,000 miles this season - to keep me riding more than scheduled, you guys are just going to have to pony up!  For anyone who missed it, I've pledged to ride a mile for every $ donated through my website.  Go ahead - make me ride!

JB