Mt. Diablo

Being new to the area, yesterday (Nov. 29) was my first day riding in the East Bay. And what better way to experience it than climbing Mt. Diablo, especially on such a beautiful day with, ahem, memorable winds at the top (averaging 43 mph with peaks around 63; no joke, check Diablo Winds etc). That must be what Mt. Washington feels like at the top.

Thanks Marco (uspspro) and Ruth for driving me out to the start of the ride. And Pete (Taxi777) too, for hooking me up with the powerful Gladiator crew. It was a blessing to be with such a strong group of riders with great skills, gladiators no doubt. The course was a 60-miler from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station, up the south side of Diablo, down the north side, into Walnut Creek (well not actually into the Creek, we rode alongside that, but into the town with said name), then back south with lunch in Danville and finally a short ride back to the starting point. It was about 12 miles to the base of Diablo from the start. Diablo is an 11.0 mile climb gaining 3300 vertical feet. In other words, it's awesome.

uspspro and Taxi777

Normally I am more of a punk rocker, or Pink Floyd, etc. but for some reason I was listening to the Brandenburg Concertos on Friday and this was on my mind throughout the ride. Allegro, baby! It really helped me up the mountain:

As I recall the climb: near the beginning I said to myself, "You better catch up with the guys at the front." That was a good call. They were in sight so with a little effort, I motored up to Colin (CRSturdivant) and Don (dl33), passing a few people on the way. Then it seemed like for the next few miles, until about halfway up, we rode at a blistering pace. I was able to just hang on to the back and stay within myself. At one point, CRS is just pushing it and he explains, "I want to catch up to that guy ahead" who had been ahead of us for awhile but not by much. Was that Beaker? I am not sure (ed. no, it turns out). dl33 takes the cue and just closes the gap. But opens a new one... I was able to hang on for awhile, CRSt ell back a little (after a long hard pull...) and so now the gap was between dl and the rest of us. But the guy slowed down a lot, we caught on and passed him, regrouping and then dialing it down a notch. We chatted and climbed. And climbed and climbed. And then came the severe wind tunnel less than a mile from the top. Oh boy! Here was my main contribution to the climb as it was the only time I led the group (for probably less than 3 minutes, but 3 minutes of hell), trying to get through and get it over with as fast as possible. I definitely maxed out the HR, but at least there was some recovery time between the worst of the wind and the wall. And some tailwind here and there. When we got to the wall, dl33 jumped out of the saddle and took off but CRS was all over it. Me? I looked up at the daunting prospect and thought, "I just need to make it up there. Bye, boys." And they were gone, But I made it. I believe CRS crested first with dl33 having the same time. I don't know - I must have been 10 to 20 seconds back. Taxi777 came cruising up the hill, looking very strong. Check it out:


The weather was in a way perfect. Yes the winds were extreme but there was definitely some stretches of tailwind on the way up. And it was so cool, that there was not much sweating or overheating, and in fact, I was freezing about 20 seconds after reaching the top. Luckily, I learned the meaning of alee with a nice sheltered sun spot near the peak. And the final brutal climb had no headwind. The descent down the north side was notable for the extreme winds which parried with us and set many of us on edge as it played games with our directional intentions.

In retrospect, you could say the ride was easy. Yes there was 11 straight miles of climbing, but the other 49 were pretty much flat or downhill. And we went very fast through much of it.

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