Sunday 04/22 ride up....ride down

[melissam]

Well, we're back. It was a lovely day for a ride -- not too hot, not too cold, but just right. (Yah, just call me Goldilocks.)

BikerZ and I cajoled her roommate Beth to come along for the ride, since she & her boyfriend will be doing the Wine Country Century in May. BikerZ, Beth, and I pacelined down Thornhill Road and met Trek and her cousin Maury at Temescal Park. After introductions were made, we started the ride.

It pretty much went uphill immediately, and stayed that way for the next 5ish miles. We all went at our own pace -- Beth was amazing, powering up her mountain bike with big knobby tires in her tennis shoes. Maury was singing -- apparently he hadn't hit his VO2-max, so he had breath to expend. BikerZ cruised up (she wants me to write "plodded" instead of "cruised" but I think that's just mean) with her much-coveted low gears. Trek's hill riding is paying off, she was moving that Mondonico up the hill. Me? Well, I was enjoying my new low gears and the gorgeous views of the SF Bay.

At the Fire Station, Beth went home, and we continued along Skyline with Trek & Maury. We bid them adieu at Pinehurst (Freudian typo = Pinehurts) -- we opted out of that one and continued on Skyline, where we rescued a charming roadie with a beautiful custom Serotta and a non-functional Silca frame pump. He'd run out of tubes, and wasn't able to get the patch to hold or the pump to pump air. BikerZ (the biking version of AAA Roadside Assistance) gave him a spare tube and demonstrated the genius that is the Road Morph pump. Our roadie was suitably impressed -- another convert! He was willing to add the extra weight to have a working pump. Smart man.

From there, it was all downhill back to the house. Downhills are nice, but I must admit that I white knuckled it on some of the descents. Oh well, my forearms needed a good workout.

All told, it was 14 miles for us -- a good portion of it was spent fighting the law of gravity. Well, as the song says, "I fought the law and the law won." No, I didn't fall, I'm just a wee bit tired.

Thanks, Trek for organizing a nice ride and getting us out of the house on a Sunday morning. It was a pleasure to meet Maury.