Monthly Archives: September 2011

Skyline between Page Mill & Hwy 9- why so much tougher heading south?

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One of these days my son is going to finally realize that his perpetual challenge, expecting me to constantly come up with a ride he hasn’t done before, isn’t such a great idea. You see, there are traditional rides often repeated, for good reason. They’re fun, they’re challenging in a rewarding way, and they’re easily described to others because they’re well-known. For example, if you tell someone you did the Pescadero/Tunitas loop, everyone knows that’s shorthand for Old LaHonda, La Honda, over Haskins Grade to Pescadero, Stage Road to Tunitas and back over the hill and down Kings back into Woodside. A great ride.

But we couldn’t do anything categorized as “the usual.” I have to come up with new twists constantly, at least until I run out of odd permutations. Today was no exception.

The Yellow Jackets weren't giving Kevin much chance to eat his pastry in Pescadero

It started out like a pretty normal ride, heading from Woodside up over Old LaHonda, out to San Gregorio and then Stage Road to Pescadero. Then up over the “harder” side of Haskins Grade, and up the always-challenging West Alpine. OK, so far, tough, but nothing out of the ordinary. On Skyline, you’re expected to head North. Why? Because for some reason heading south on Skyline, especially between Page Mill/West Alpine and Highway 9, is infinitely-tougher than doing the same stretch in the opposite direction. Why? The Highway 9 end is only a few hundred feet higher, and heading north, you fly through those 6 or 7 miles. But it’s a whole different story heading south.

Along the way we came across Katherine, out for a 91(.1?) mile ride to commemorate 9/11

West Alpine's "Bridge of Death"

Once at Saratoga Gap (Skyline & 9) we descended to Redwood Gulch and then plummeted (seriously; Redwood Gulch is incredibly-steep) to Stevens Creek. From there it was a long & largely-flat run back north on Foothill, then back into Woodside via Sand Hill.

Kevin got his best time yet on Old LaHonda (21:45) and rode strongly again on the West Alpine climb (famous for its

It's tough to beat an ice-cold Mtn Dew on a tough ride!

“Bridge of Death” shown in the photo, marking the start of the climb), at 44:36. But once on Skyline, heading south, it was another story. Consider Kevin one more person done in by that should-be-easy but merciless piece of road. He was incredibly happy to pull into the fire station where the machine was happy to take his dollar bill in exchange for a Mtn Dew.

The long haul back on the valley floor wasn’t much fun for him which, again, was something I figured would be the case. One of these days he’ll figure it out. The regular loops, the usual rides… there’s good reason for them being “regular” and “usual.”

Marcus- nice guy or cruel sadist?

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I had expectations of a kinder, gentler ride this morning. Why not? It was Thursday (and Thursday rides are supposed to be easier-paced than Tuesdays), Kevin (my son, not the pilot) was home with a cold, and at the start of the ride, it’s just me, Eric, Karl & Mike, picking up Marcus along the way and Millo further up the hill. The dynamics of the group are such that Marcus and either Karl or Mike might key off each other and bolt up the hill, so I did have some understandable fear & trepidation.

Since it’s a Thursday we did the through-the-park option, delayed slightly by the bottom gate being closed, requiring a dismount & squeeze (not for everyone though; don’t remember, might have been Marcus that deftly squeezed through the narrow spot to the right of the gate without getting off his bike). It was a moderate pace to the upper park entrance, just a few seconds over 10 minutes (by contrast, it takes 7:45-9:00 minutes the “normal” way). We quickly regrouped and were off again, this time with me sitting on Marcus’s wheel. Why? Good question. Partly defensive; if I’m on his wheel, someone faster isn’t, so there’s less incentive for him to really push the pace. Nevertheless we gradually pulled away, with me wondering how long I could hang with him before blowing up.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Marcus rides very smoothly, and if he’s not trying to ditch you, and notices you’re falling off a bit, he doesn’t just sit up and wait, but instead slows down just a bit, allowing you to claw your way back up to him at your own speed. You could say he’s allowing you to perfect your Levi skills (Levi Leipheimer is known for getting dropped during hard accelerations on steep grades, but instead of becoming discouraged or working too hard and blowing up, he grinds away at a sustainable pace and catches up to those who dropped him. This works because the hard accelerations that allowed the other guys to drop him also put them into their reserves so deeply that they have to slow down and recover).

In the end my time was 28:16, which if I extrapolate for the normal route up the hill, would have been a darned good time. Could not have happened without Marcus (and the new, lighter me probably helps a bit too). –Mike–

If I call out “Car Back” could you please move over?

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It would be easier to skip this entry and not risk offending anyone, but there are cyclists out there making my time on the road more dangerous and more difficult because… they’re rude? Indifferent? Feel priviledged?

On Monday’s ride (the 94 mile figure-8 to Boulder Creek) Kevin and I were heading up 9 on the return to Skyline, about halfway between Waterman Gap and the top, when we came across a couple of guys out for their own ride in the same direction. Riding two across, they were taking up at least half of the lane on a road with very fast-moving cars. I understand the idea of being social and riding next to someone else; I do it often with Kevin, because it’s easier to carry on a conversation. But when I hear a car coming up, I immediately drop back and get in line behind him. Why? Because it’s safer, and because there’s no reason a cyclist should cause others to go out of their way or get delayed when there’s no good reason to. It’s called sharing the road. Continue reading →

One of us felt better than expected this morning. The other…

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I went to bed Monday night with no small amount of fear & trepidation, wondering how I’d feel after the tough ride out to Boulder Creek. Surprisingly, while my legs didn’t feel “fresh” they did feel like they wanted to go places! And go they did, heading up Kings with the fast crowd, eventually getting to the front and making it to the park entrance before anyone else. Of course, neither Chris nor Marcus was there, but still, anytime I can get to the park entrance around 7 minutes 30 seconds I’m moving pretty good.

Unfortunately, Kevin wasn’t. I looked around, saw some familiar faces, but no sign of Kevin. I waved the rest of the guys on ahead and about a minute or so later, Kevin appeared, not looking like he was really enjoying life. We rode up about a mile or so, not terribly fast, and down he goes, one of those seizures that hits him without much notice. Worse, he went down on the right (the derailleur) side of the bike! Fortunately no damage, but he rode the rest of the way up the hill a bit groggy and suffered from the double vision that his meds sometimes induce.

By the time we got to the top of Kings the rest of the guys were long gone (we’d be warned ahead of time by fast-guy Jon, who was riding back down the hill) so we decided to follow the usual route to Sky Londa and then trace the west-side Old LaHonda loop backwards to run into the group again. Kevin hadn’t yet come out of the fog, so we once again waved the group on and tried something that seems to help him- a good dose of Caffeine, this time in the form of a bottled Starbucks Frappaccino drink from the market. Amazingly, this seemed to do the trick! Caffeine may be the key to clearing his head, with today’s effect mirroring that of Monday’s stop at the Starbucks in Los Altos. We’ll shortly be stocking the ‘fridge at home with bottled Starbucks Frappaccinos, one to be had before each ride. Hoping it works! –Mike–

Started out questionably, stuck to the plan, worked out in the end (94 miles, 9000ft of climbing)

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The day didn’t start out so well; Kevin was having some dizziness, likely caused by his various meds, causing him to be pretty wobbly and slow on his bike for a while. The planned ride (remember, there’s always a plan) was a 94 mile figure-8 heading down through the foothills to Steven’s Creek, up Redwood Gulch to 9, 9 up to Skyline, south on Skyline to Bear Creek, descend to Boulder Creek and return via China Grade, Highway 9 & Skyline. A bit convoluted but Kevin prefers that I try to create something new & different each time, and got to tell you, after a few years that becomes pretty tough!

It should have taken about 1 hour 20 minutes, no longer, to get to Steven’s Creek & Foothill. Should have. Today, it took 2 full hours, and a whole lot of patience as Kevin just couldn’t get much speed going. What to do. I went for broke. Drugs. Caffeine might do the trick, so we stopped off at the Starbucks outside our Los Altos store and downed a pair of Grande Mochas (White Mocha for Kevin, Caramel Macchiato for me).

It worked.

Mr. Mustard at Skyline & 9. Note the woman on the left with the interesting bottle holder.

By the time we got to the base of Redwood Gulch, which I feared we’d be walking up, Kevin was kicking into full-on mode, up to the challenge and riding stronger as he climbed. No world records, but it wasn’t as if I didn’t have to work pretty hard at his pace. We made it up to Skyline feeling pretty good, snagged a pair of cokes at Mr. Mustard (more caffeine) and headed south on Skyline. A bit of climbing but pretty easy, followed by some narrow twisty rollers to Bear Creek.

Bear Creek. Yuck. I originally wanted to do East Zayante, but that would have added too many miles, so that was killed in the early planning stages. The problem with Bear Creek are the cars. Evil nasty cars that tailgate you on the steep descents, sometimes blasting their horns, sometimes just flipping you off as they fly past. Today it was the latter. Bear Creek is not, repeat not, a road I’d recommend to inexperienced cyclists who might get rattled by obnoxious motorists. Oh, one more reason to not like Bear Creek- Kevin got a flat tire near the top of it.

In Boulder Creek was snagged more cokes at the local store before heading out towards China Grade for the long haul back up to Skyline. China Grade didn’t disappoint; it was as steep and nasty as ever, but fortunately, not nearly as warm as the mid-90s we saw in the Boulder Creek area. Still, I was a bit concerned how much Kevin had left in him, but the subsequent run up 9 showed there was no need. We started up pretty easily, but about halfway through I picked up the pace, hard, and Kevin stayed glued to my wheel all the way to the top. I was pretty close to redline and couldn’t have gone much faster. The plan (remember, always a plan) was to get to Skyline before Mr. Mustard left, but even though it was just 5:05pm when we arrived, he was gone. Darn. No late-ride hot dog!

Thankfully, there’s a coke machine (acutally Pepsi) at the Saratoga Gap fire station, but today it wasn’t taking dollar bills. That was when Mr. Wonderful stepped in. A fireman stationed there opened up the machine to snag Kevin a Mtn Dew. With that we were fully fueled up and kept a good head of steam the rest of the way home. Had it not been for that first really slow two hours, the stats would have been pretty impressive!

Breaking the chain

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Another nice but slightly-cooler morning (so leg warmers and a base layer required) for the Thursday edition of our regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. New today was the addtion of Jeff Z, one of our very good customers who also happens to be getting very fast on his Trek Madone. Y’know, after customers test ride and buy the bikes, and later bring them in for their 30 day check or whatever, maybe I should be loading up the tubes with sand or something? Jeff powered up the hill with Todd, with me hanging on for dear life until the park entrance, at which point I dropped off and waited for Kevin (my son, not the pilot) and the rest of the guys before heading back up.

Jeff Z on west-side Old LaHonda

No records broken, at least not by me, although Jeff and Todd did something around 25:40 which is close to the best for Jeff. Good thing Marcus wasn’t there too or it might have been a minute faster!

The “breaking the chain” refers to the fact that this was Kevin’s first ride up Kings in a while without a seizure, hopefully something that will become more normal in the days ahead. In the meantime, got to figure out what sort of interesting ride to do this coming Sunday!