Special visitor on the ride today; Jon Rogers, Trek’s West Coast Regional Manager, coming out from Wisconsin to see what a real hill looks like! He needs to get used to them, as he’s signed up for L’Etape du Tour, the big “citizen’s race” that follows the route of one of the most-arduous stages this year, going over the Tourmalet and Hautacam climbs.

First chance to ride without leg warmers in a while, always a nice thing, and also nice to head up Kings at a moderate clip, just over 32 minutes, helping Jon find his climbing legs again. He actually used to live out here some years back, when he was the local Trek rep, and would sometimes join us for the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. He’s got a full schedule of shop visits (whipping us dealers into shape!) and rides, with Tamalpais tomorrow and Diablo Thursday. They might be shipping him back home in a box.

Besides Jon we had Eric and Marcus. And a whole lot of deer. I mean everywhere deer. Racing across the road as we headed from my place over Jefferson, several points along Kings, and a huge guy enjoying the fields alone Albion. Yet another nice morning to ride. Surprising more didn’t show up, but with such nice weather, some may have found a way to get in a longer ride and skipped the regular morning routine.