Our favorite century is the Sequoia, put on by our local club, the Western Wheelers. I’ve got long history with the club, going back to the day when a subset of the membership was essentially a farm club for the local racing teams (Pedali Alpini, Belmont Bicycle Club and San Jose Bicycle Club, all arch-rivals).

For the past many years, we’ve sponsored a special, “secret” soda stop at the top of the final climb (lately, Tunitas Creek), as well as supplying a mechanic for that rest stop. And for the past many years, it’s always worked out where we had a mechanic from the shop who could take care of the bike end of things, and a willing club volunteer, Sal, who took care of the soda part. Until this year! Sal couldn’t spare the time away from his business this year, and Patrick, our Service Manager in Redwood City, messed up his leg (yes, doing something silly on a bicycle) and wouldn’t be able to stay on his feet that long.

So this year I got to experience the Sequoia from the other side of the counter, as it were, taking care of both the sodas (note to self: it’s not possible to have too much Diet Coke!) and mechanical stuff. Of the two , there was a whole lot more activity on the soda side!

Hope everyone who rode it had a fantastic time. You sure couldn’t complain about the weather, which was great, not even fog at the coast, and, since it’s the Sequoia, the support is first-rate too!