When holidays come on a Tuesday or Thursday, does the regular ride go on? In general, yes. Exceptions are for Christmas (no ride at all), Thanksgiving (longer ride, typically out to Pescadero), New Year’s Day (Mount Hamilton) and… what about the 4th of July? Good question. Not sure what we did last time it happened, but today, we were definitely going to start out the ride from the same place because, after all, others might show up!

But having the day off definitely provided an excuse for a longer ride. Not as long as I would have liked, since Kevin (my son, not the pilot) had a date with his girlfriend in the afternoon. I let Kevin pick the ride; he chose West Alpine. That’s got to be his favorite climb. Not sure what mine would be, if I had to pick one; despite having climbed it more than anyone else on the planet, it probably wouldn’t be Kings. Would it be West Alpine? Tough to say. I tend to do better on more-consistent grades, but I prefer it to Page Mill. Old LaHonda might be high on the list simply because it’s not too long so even a bad day can’t last forever.

Just two others at the start today; David S and Chris. David we see pretty rarely while Chris used to be one of the regular regulars back in the day. Apparently he now terrorizes the noon ride. We set out together not for Kings but Old LaHonda, meeting up with a much larger group that Kevin (pilot) had told us about, and climbed Old LaHonda at a very leisurely pace. That group was doing a longer ride, out to Pescadero and back via Tunitas. That would have been my preference, but as mentioned, Kevin (younger Kevin) needed to get back for his date.

Three of us started up West Alpine; myself, younger Kevin and Chris. We rode “casual” to the Bridge of Death (base of the climb, where it crosses the creek) and then Chris and Kevin started doing some serious work. I held up for a few minutes before telling Kevin he was looking strong, go for it, and off the two of them went. Then, a few minutes later, Jeff Z comes flying past. I mean really flying. I knew he’d catch up with Kevin; I didn’t know that Kevin would be able to hold his wheel the rest of the way to the top! Both Kevin and Jeff Z got PRs; Chris nicely slowed up halfway and waited for me to catch up. One of those frustrating ride times though- 44 minutes, 0 seconds. YUCK! Missed a 43-something time by just 1 second? But that’s nothing compared to Kevin’s time of 38:02, just 3 seconds off a 37-something time. Now that’s impressive! And Jeff Z? 36:28. I’m surprised it wasn’t even faster, considering the speed he was going when he passed me! But most-surprising was that Kevin could ride the rest of the way up the hill with him.