May 7, 2007

  • Sunday, May 7

    I'd been looking forward to today's ride for a long time.  Over the bridge to Fairfax, through Lagunitas to Olema, and then South the Stinson Beach before heading back into Mill Valley.   A whole lot of climbing but it was going to be a fun fun day.  And it was hot!  I like to be prepared, so I had arm warmers, leg warmers, a fleece and a wind breaker and I'd shed all of those before we left the parking lot at the Sports Basement.  Here are Michael and Sandra who have been doing a lot of sweeping during this series.  Also pictured:  Kurt who's been leading the CAT2 rides on Saturdays and sassing it up on our rides as well:

    We had a very late start because one of the riders showed up with a flat tire.  Which isn't all that unusual if you ride the day before as she had.  Also present: super cute Nan and Ed:

    I finally got to be at Saint Anselm's when it was sunny and the sun wasn't behind the building.  How fabulous is this place???

    I continued into Fairfax where a lot of the riders had already departed.  I waited for the sweeps to show and hung out with the riders.  If this group is Charlie's Angels then I guess Kurt must be Bosley.  Bosley's gotten hotter over the years.

    We had a bunch of flats coming out of Fairfax because some asshole(s) placed tacks in the bike lane.  Poor Max of the two flats last week was one of the recipients:

    He's got a really good attitude about all of it which helps a lot because nothing sucks more than repeated flats.  I helped another rider fix a flat and then I continued on.  I made it over White's hill and then down into Lagunitas and then into Samuel P Taylor Park.  Where I saw Max again!  This time he'd broken a spoke.  I advised him to turn around because the rest of the ride was kind of a bike shop dead zone and if he started breaking other spokes he'd be screwed because there wasn't much cell phone service either.  Poor baby!  It turned out that he completely ignored me but didn't have any other problems that day and I'm glad he was able to finish the ride because it was so pretty and so much fun and he did exactly what I would have done which proves that there can be a difference between the advice we give and the advice we take. 

    I continued over Olema hill and then headed south on the 1 towards Stinson.  That's a tough stretch of highway.  It was hot and had all these rolling hills that were cleverly disguised so that you didn't realize the only direction you were really going was up.  But I have an Altimiter on my watch so I was able to see how much climbing I was doing and it was a lot.  I finally made it to Stinson where Stephen and Ben were really concerned about my lateness but without cell phone service they hadn't been able to call me.  Between our late start and all the flats it had been a looong day,  But Stinson was very pretty apart from some of the locals who evidently had decided it was "Hoochie Mama" day and dressed accordingly.  And Lord, it wasn't pretty.  I made a wrong turn and ended up heading halfway up Tam instead of taking the 1 back to Mill Valley which got me to the same place but only after a whole lot more climbing.  Notice the gain in altitude:

    And finally one with me in it.  The glamour!

    I made it back to Mike's Bike's and waited for the rest of the riders and then headed back to San Francisco.  It was a tough day and not everybody had a good one because of the climbing and the heat.  But everybody should be super proud of themselves and I'm sure they'll give themselves a pat on the back as soon as they come out of the coma.  My hero for the day??

    Dorothy -  Man she hauled ass!  I only saw her twice all day.  I don't think anybody has shown as much progression on the cat2 rides as Dorothy.  She was moving so fast I couldn't even get a picture of her!

    I stopped by the Quickly in the castro and got one of their frozen Sugar-Soy-Blueberry drinks that was super cold and very delicious.  It's like a Jamba Juice but with twice the sugar and none of the nutrition.  I like!  They also serve a suprising range of asian snack foods and I brought Jeffery some fried Calimari rings.  I don't know how much I like the idea of Jeff being able to get fried Calimari rings right down the hill for $2.99.  I had visions of that Simpons where a future Marge was weeping at Homer's funeral sobbing "I wish they'd never invented fried cheese!".  Stay tuned.  Total Mileage: 75.  Mileage for the week:  362!