September 25, 2004
calaveras-palomeros ride :: 58 miles
today I rode 58 miles. on the bike for 7 hours. up lots of hills.
we met in milpitas and rode out calaveras/237 and turned towards fremont. We rode through milpitas, up some hills and through a bunch of neighborhoods. we rode by the Mission San Jose in fremont and one of our group got a flat so we all stopped and waited for that to be fixed.
elevation diagram of our ride
it was quite chilly and foggy and we were crazy cold. we stretched to try to stay warm and finally the folks fixing the flat tire joined us. I think we were waiting for about 45 minutes. Really slowed us down.
we rode on until we hit alvarado-niles rode. We did take a little bit of a detour in order to hit a park parking lot with a porta-pottie. at the point we got back on the rode, we split into two groups. up to this point we were practicing pacelining, but from this point on, the roads were narrow and there would be lots of hills. we rode down niles until we hit palomeros at which point we all dropped down in gears and began climbing. this is a 5 mile (4.7) climb up a twisty, turning road. the first portion was difficult (steep) and I had to stop once to use my inhaler. After that point, it was much better, not as steep. Gorgeous twists, side canyons, tree covered stretches. I was riding with Maria and we left Carol and Peggy behind. All the other groups were way ahead of us.
About halfway up, our awesome SAG - Louise - followed us for awhile in the car with music blaring. What a boost! We finally reached the top and stopped in the shade, only to look up and 25 feet ahead, just over the crest, was the rest stop. The view was awesome (pic coming).
After eating some of my pbj and some of the bananas, Maria and I headed off. The other half of our team left just after we arrived and we left just after Carol and Peggy arrived. The best part of the uphill is the cool downhill after. Long downhill, over 30 miles per hour. Exhilarating!
Once we got down the mountain and through some more neighborhoods - farms into subdivisions, and we were in pleasanton. My lord - pleasanton is far away and we just rode there. the worst part of the ride was next. not hard hills, not tough climbs, just a 14 mile stretch of road fronting 580. slight rise and elevation making it difficult - looks flat but isn't so you have to work and boring ugly. finally we finished that section and turned towards sunol. we rode through some more neighborhoods and then along the park that is near sunol - where we had another rest stop. this time with porta-potties - Yay!
The support crew also had potatos for us and bananas and yellow watermelons. gatorade, water and pretzels rounded out the fare. These folks are awesome! Sheila was there with coach jim - she had had a blowout and broke a spoke but it was fixed enough to ride on. Also the first half of our group was there - only 5 minutes ahead of us.
we ate, bio breaked, rested a bit and then headed out again. Down, around curves and finally into Sunol and through the street fair they were having. Crossing the road, past entrances and exits to 680 and onto Calaveras.
The road was pretty straight for quite awhile, a few rollers. Beautiful between the hill ranges. I wish we had stopped a few times for me to take some pics but by this time my butt was hurting and I really just wanted to keep going. The road eventually starts to rise and then we really started climbing again. For the most part I was able to keep a pace near or over 6mph - which is slow for experienced riders - but faster than I have been previously. We kept a steady pace and I needed to stop once - about 2.5 miles into the climb. I really had to stretch and fix some bunchy shorts. The climb follows a road that turns into a single lane hugging the side of the hill. We saw several motorcyclists, lots of bicyclists and few cars going in the opposite direction and even fewer going ours. We were totally alone and Maria was great at keeping me focused. I kept my breathing in check and didn't need the inhaler. When we finally got to the rest stop it was awesome. We were sort of at the top and surrounded by beautiful golden hills dotted with california oaks.
I was so focused on eating and getting water - and ice - I forgot to take pictures. We hit the rest stop at about mile 50.
After a few minutes we took off and started to get some downhills. But this section was not the easiest - fake out downhills only to be confronted with more climbing. Hard to predict which gear to be in and tiring. Butt hurts. We passed the Calaveras reservoir - awesome - and finally hit the downhill out of the canyon. We were going pretty fast - so feathering the brakes and holding on tight we had to stop at a stop sign at the bottom of what is referred to as the "wall" by folks taking this road the other direction - so it is pretty steep.
After the stop sign it was cake, 34 mph downhill into downtown Milpitas and finally after a couple of lights, back into the parking lot.
7 hours on the bike! - I had no idea of time on this ride - I don't ride with a watch and my cell phone was in the case under my seat. I just pedal and eat and drink and go where they tell me. the bike computer recorded 5:17 of actual riding time.
58 miles.
Pretty awesome!
Posted by erin at September 25, 2004 09:01 PM