An interesting weekend...
Susan and I had been planing a ride to Henry Coe State Park for a few weeks. Somehow we just couldn't get the time for the ride. We finally got on the road last Saturday. I had been looking forward to this ride, I was also a little worried. I heard stories of how steep some of the sections were.
I have been doing okay on hills with nothing over a 7 or 8% grade, but every climb I have been on where it goes over 9% I get beat up. A week ago Saturday, after installing my new cassette, I rode up Hwy9 to test it out. I now have a 26t replacing the 23t I had previously. It helped a lot having the ability to spin a little faster on the steep sections. I didn't pick up any speed but my legs felt way better raising my cadence.
My plan for this weekend was to ride Almaden to Coe, and back on Saturday, and then ride to Livermore on Sunday. I hoped to do my first 100 mile weekend of the year. Didn't quite work out that way...
Sue and I left at 1:15pm from Almaden, headed out McKean to Bailey. Then to Morgan Hill to Dunne Avenue. We stopped at Concept Cyclery for a little gel and to say "Hi". Last year the shop donated a bike to TWFK for a fundraising raffle. At mile 21 we started the climb up Dunne. 11 miles later we were at the top. One dastardly thing the road throws at you... right before the top there is a steep 50 yard stretch... why do they do that?
A beautiful route, the road climbs past Anderson Lake then heads east up through the oak covered foothills to the park entrance. This time of year the hills were covered by vibrant green grass with many wildflowers brightening up the view. We spent about 20-30 minutes on top and then realized if we wanted to get home before dark we better hightail it. The bottom part of the downhill was fun - hit 47mph on one stretch. Don't tell anyone - the speed limit is 35mph.
Sue and I both agreed that we needed a flat ride home. We bypassed Bailey road and the also the IBM hill. After a long flat 21 miles we rolled into the driveway, the sun was down, but it wasn't quite "dark" yet. 64 miles, 5.25 hours on the bike, somewhere around 4000 feet on climbing.
Let's see... the Death Ride is 2x as long with 4x the climbing. Am I really gonna do this thing?
About Sunday: Nope, not gonna ride 38 miles over Calaveras Road to Livermore. But I woke up Sunday morning not feeling too bad and decided I should do something to loosen my legs up. I had Vero drop me off at 680 and 84. I rode from Sunol to Pleasanton to Livermore the back way. Was a great (except for the killer headwind most of the way) rolling 13 miles in about 50 minutes.
What a weekend. Didn't go exactly to plan, but was good anyway.
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