oot.

my phone flipped out again, so thank justin for the photo – THX JUSTIN!  I met up with him at the bridge at 9am, and surprisingly we both turned corners at the same time and started the ride without even pausing for a second.  a rare occurrence if you’ve ever met anyone at the bridge to ride.  anyway, we headed out and the weather on the bridge was cold and windy.  the san francisco marathon was also today, but none of the roads we took were closed or crowded.  I kept an eye out for my brother’s roommate, ash, who was running it today – 26mi, running? BRUTAL.

we started the trek up to alpine dam.  I wanted to keep a quick cadence to conserve energy for the climb out of the dam as well as 7 sisters.  we had the road to ourselves for most of the climb, but caught up to 2 people wearing matching florescent jackets riding side by side.  I yelled out, “on your left!” multiple times and the guy nearest to the middle of the lane refused to move.  at this point I was getting frustrated.  F#$%ING MOVE.  what’s you’re reasoning? you want to continue to ride side by side next to your female friend, blocking the entire lane? there are cyclist behind you that want to pass.  he ended up trying hard for a second to lose me, and failed.  I finally passed him, and turned up the speed to stay away.  the last thing I want on the final decent into the dam is a guy that doesn’t let anyone pass even if they’re going faster than him.

we got to the dam, and I swear I took a picture…my phone has been acting up a lot lately, but I can’t afford to buy anything else because of that cannondale supersix.  priorities…anyway, we stopped for a bit, and dozens of riders passed us.  wasn’t sweating it too much, since it was climbing all the way out of the dam, and not descending.  an older guy rolled up to us and asked if I had a 5mm allen wrench in my multi-tool.  he was riding a carbon bianchi with the works: super record 11, campagnolo neutron ultras, deda stem and bars, and look pedals.  apparently his headset was rattling on the descent from ridgecrest down to the dam.  either way, we chatted for a second about the ergonomics of the shifters.  all internal cables kept the bike’s lines clean.  nice talking to you, GUY!

climbing out of the dam was interesting, to say the least.  I caught up to 3 people riding in a line, the guy in the back didn’t seem to be with the 2 guys we was following so closely up the hill.  I proceeded to pass them, saying ‘hi’ as I rode by.  the bald, tall guy in the back sprung up, and got behind me.  he started puffing and breathing away, and I honestly wanted to drop him just because he became annoying.  can’t you breathe any more…quietly?  it’s messing with my cadence, sorry bud.  I picked up the pace in the sharp corners that peel upwards.  it’s a bit hard to explain via text, but if you’ve done the ride from the dam out to ridgecrest, you know what I mean.  at points, the gradient is increased, but only for a short turn.  that’s where I was placing my attacks.  after a couple of those turns, he made a loud sigh of exhaustion and fell off (as far as I know).  I kept the heat on, determined to get to those 2 florescent people.  they just got to the top when I came up behind them to take a breather while I waited up for justin.  bald tall guy looked at me as he came to the top a couple minutes later, and turned down bolinas-fairfax towards highway 1.  maybe it was to avoid me.  or maybe he lived out there.  who knows.

the rest of the ride was pretty quiet, until we got a little ways past 4 corners and a silver corolla packed with crap decided to pass me on the decent.  we hadn’t gotten to the last stop sign before it merged into highway 1.  I was a bit angry about that for a couple reasons – 1: there’s a hairpin turn at the bottom of this hill, we can all see it, and everyone knows I’m going to have to brake more because you passed me.  2: after that stop sign, you’ll be braking all the way down the mountain, no one wants to deal with that. 3: it’s sunday, CHILL OUT – you don’t have to pass me going 50mph, hurling down a hill towards a hairpin.  and yes, he did jam his brakes before the hairpin, and I had to brake more so I wouldn’t run into him.  the was a white van and then the corolla at the stop sign, waiting impatiently for cars to pass.  at this point, I was feeling even more impatient, and found a pocket where the van didn’t go, and cross-traffic wasn’t close to the intersection.  I went for it, and what do you know, not 1 car in front of me on the entire descent.  one of the fastest times I’ve ever made down highway 1 towards mill valley.

then we had some riders behind us coming through sausalito.  the same 2 guys that had the bald guy following them.  justin asked if I wanted a lead-out through sausalito to slingshot me towards the climb out.  why would anyone ever turn that down?  so we were jetting along the coast and I started the climb without anyone even close to me.  I smashed up the hill.  spotted ryan from roaring mouse heading down as I was coming up, SUP.  justin and I split at the end of the bridge, I took marina/crissy home.  on my way out, I saw the same 2 guys, AGAIN, heading my way.  one of the guys riding turned around, saw me, and said, “that was some good riding back there!” we chatted for a second, and I split off from them.

lots to talk about today, must be a sunday thing.  I’m hoping my phone camera saves pictures in the future.

big thanks to justin for coming out today and making the ride lots of fun.  and for the “race across the sky” bluray.  I think I’ll throw it on right now.