alpine dam

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tuesday’s ride.

today, I headed out towards fairfax to hit up alpine dam.  the bridge was damp and busy with commuting cyclists.  I always feel like people sleep in on mondays and then go out in force on tuesdays (and fridays, too).  there was a huge gaggle of cyclists riding 2-3 across on the bridge, coming back into the city.  they appeared to be part of mission cycling, but I couldn’t tell because a bunch of guys near the back were wearing different kits.  either way, I made it across safely, and dropped into sausalito.

the rest of the way was pretty quiet.  definitely more cars and people out today, for some reason.  I topped off my bottles before beginning the climb towards alpine dam, and rode on.  surprisingly enough, I caught up to a guy wearing a camelbak of sorts, riding a red caad10.  no comment on the camelbak, but the bike was looking good.  I think it was stock…anyway, I had the road all to myself, even climbing out of the dam towards 7 sisters.  the weather was nice and cool, but dense fog looked to be waiting for me at the lower elevation.  I dropped down into the ranger station to fill my bottles once more, and descended down towards stinson beach.

it was exactly like the weather last week.  the dense fog was everywhere.  after rolling along highway 1 and climbing out of muir woods, I decided to tack on paradise loop.  I wasn’t feeling particularly good or bad, and hoped that hydrating, refueling, and spinning would help me pull through the extra k’s.  as I reached tiburon, the legs started feeling much better, and I was actually glad to have added the loop onto the ride.  I spun all the way through sausalito, hitting the tourist packed golden gate bridge.  it was pretty thick with blazing saddle bike rentals and people walking 3-4 abreast, but I made it across without much fuss, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

five and a half hours and 138km later, I was home.  now, I am tired.

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with a fully charged garmin edge 500, and a practically brand new powertap wheelset, I headed out the door in search of data.  syncing the computer head to my heart rate strap and hub was simple enough.  I set up the various screens on the garmin last night – there were 3 pages that could be scrolled through with a touch of a button, but what I was most concerned with was my power output and heart rate.  granted, I wasn’t expecting huge amounts of wattage, but up until this point I had never known how much power I was putting down.  the numbers jumped around a bit since it was updated every second, so I swapped it out for the power average every 3 seconds, which was much smoother in number transition, and easier to look at.  the wonders of a modern cycling computer…

I stopped looking at the computer after a while, though.  maybe a quick glace every couple minutes, or more frequently when I could feel the lactic acid seeping in.  it was pretty neat, but the part I was most impressed with wasn’t even the geeky tech of possessing a power meter.  I was completely blown away by the 23mm wide rims the powertap hubs were laced to.  the ride quality was absolutely unparalleled to that of my 19mm wide mavic open sport wheelset.  it was so consistently smooth, like nothing I’ve ever ridden on before.  I remember looking at the front wheel thinking, “look at how wide that tire and rim are…it’s like a big rig tire for a bicycle”.  the gatorskins never felt so good through corners.  since they weren’t ballooning out anymore, it felt completely different that how I was used to them feeling.  ‘smooth’ is really the only word that comes to mind.

I can’t even remember the last time I came out to alpine dam.  it’s been a long time, that’s for sure.  the weather was perfect, no cars were out, and the handful of cyclists that I did see out where enjoying it as much as I was.  my legs and lungs were burning on the climbs, but they didn’t feel completely exhausted.  finally, progress!

after a quick refill at the ranger station, I dipped down into stinson and highway 1, pacing a car that appeared to have a driver more intrigued with me in his rear view, following his every move, rather than the actual road.  the weather grew foggy and cool, a sharp contrast to the rolling hills I had just came from.  I hit the back half of muir woods and headed back towards the bridge.  there were tons of tourists, as expected, but surprisingly, I made it across in decent time, without eating it into a blazing saddles rental bike.  quite the success.

oh, as a side note, I’m running my garmin in metric in a small attempt to be more euro.  I guess the garmin embed box shows in standard though…

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metromint sunday.

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today was the 2nd recruiting ride put on by team metromint.  I missed out on the first ride but decided to show up to the second one to mingle a bit with everyone that showed up.  we all met at the bridge at 9am, which gave me a chance to catch up with some familiar faces: joseph, naveen, connor, travis, kevin, and mike (godspeed) were all present.  we had roughly 20 people total, which was much less than the previous ride, but much more manageable.  I remember seeing at least 30 people pass me by on the bike path on the previous metromint ride, their group was massive.

the route was decided fairly quickly, max from metromint suggested alpine dam via fairfax bolinas road, then back on ridgecrest/7 sisters.  I’m fairly familiar with the path, I took it numerous times this past year, but not recently.  I was looking forward to climbing some hills with some strong riders.  we made our way across the bridge, into sausalito, and jumped on the bike path, headed towards camino alto.  I got a chance to talk to lots of cyclists about various things like racing this upcoming season, riding, and the ride itself.  we regrouped at the top of camino alto, then snaked our way through to fairfax, the beginning of the alpine dam ride.  when the climbing started, I tried to stay relatively close to the front of the group, where the riding was more aggressive.  we regrouped at the top of the initial climb, allowing some riders to head back towards fairfax, and eventually san francisco.

the descent was damp, and everyone was cautious through the turns.  I wiggled my way past riders to get back to the front just before the 730ft climb out of the dam began.  there were 4 riders, including myself, making our way to the top of ridgecrest, the beginning of 7 sisters.  travis and mike pushed the pace near the end, and dropped me for a couple seconds as they made their way to the top.  the group was significantly smaller than the previous regrouping, and we decided to wait for them farther down the road, where the weather could potentially be better.  it was fairly cloudy and moist out up to that point.  we began 7 sisters, but a couple minutes into the rollers, travis noticed that naveen’s rear vittoria tire was slowly going flat.  so the front group pulled off for a bit, to let naveen change the tube out.  we found out that the second half of the group had also gotten a flat at the dam, so they were several minutes back.  we regrouped again, and proceeded to finish the rollers.

we stopped at the parking lot just before the descent back to the ranger station and penciled out the rest of the ride.  travis, naveen, a recruit, max, and 2 other metromint riders decided to head to stinson beach, and ride highway 1 up past muir woods, and back.  the rest of the group, lead by connor, would be heading back towards san francisco.  I decided to roll with the stinson beach group for a bit more mileage and climbing.  on the descent back towards the ranger station, a metromint rider skidded through a turn, and fell.  thankfully, he was okay, and lucky a car wasn’t driving through in the opposite lane when it happened.  it’s always sketchy descending when the apexes are covered in a thin sheet of water, I’m all too familiar with falling on that road.  the group split, and we headed down towards stinson.

the weather was sunny and clear along the coast, a refreshing view from the low-laying fog we had during most of the ride.  travis and naveen pulled hard in the front, and I was behind them.  I had never climbed the rollers along highway 1, past stinson beach.  the road hugged the windy coast and offered seamless, smooth pavement to lay down some SRS speed.  we dropped down into the backside of muir woods, and connected to the 630ft climb back towards mill valley.  we regrouped again, there were only 6 of us now.  unfortunately, we lost max along the way, and his roommate offered to stay behind, near mike’s bikes to wait for him.  hope everything was okay!

we continued back through sausalito, and took e road to the underside of the bridge.  after regrouping with just the 5 of us, we headed across the bridge, and I split off towards crissy fields.  we probably clocked in somewhere around 60mi+, and ~6000ft of climbing.

it was a great ride, I had a blast.  big thanks to johannes for inviting me out, and metromint racing for having me!

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over 6000.

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met up with naveen and jaffa at the bridge.  and before I start describing the ride we did, let me reintroduce jaffa – he’s a cat2/3 cyclist, and triathlete.  he also came along on that 90 mile ride I tagged along on several months ago, and he crashed on his hip.  up until this point, I haven’t seen or talked to him, so it was nice seeing him back out riding again.  we departed from the bridge with our eyes set on 4 corners and the ranger station.

as we started the climb from mill valley, jaffa took the lead pushing the pace out of the saddle, in the big ring.  and he stayed in the big ring.  naveen and I fell back, going at a reasonable pace up the climb.  after a while, I spotted jaffa ahead, still out of the saddle pushing a massive gear up to the ranger station.  naveen continued for a minute past the ranger station, to complete his 30 minute power interval, and I pulled off to meet jaffa at the station for a short water break.  we regrouped, and jaffa talked about his experience riding in europe.  roads like glass, meadows and countryside, and brutal elevation gradients…I have to say, his description of the riding conditions in switzerland, france, and italy just made me want to bury myself for the rest of the ride.  the roads out here are good, but europe is just better.  period.

we dropped into stinson beach, and rode out to bofax.  then jaffa kicked the pace into something painfully fast.  he was out of the saddle for nearly the entire duration of the climb (yea, crazy).  I just wanted to snag his wheel, just to say I caught up.  I dug deep and burying my legs into the pedals, and his wheel became closer, closer, and closer.  he knew I was catching up, he looked back every so often to see me suffering behind him.  the climb became grueling, my legs were turning into mush trying to catch up to him.  but I finally did catch him, and we arrived at the top of the climb at the same time.  he seemed completely unphased by the climb, though he spent an amazing amount of time out of the saddle pushing huge gear inches.  I took a breather, and he rode back down to ride with naveen up.  yea, he rode back DOWN the hill, so he could ride with naveen back UP.  jaffa can put out the pain.

instead of taking 7 sisters back, jaffa suggested we take alpine dam into fairfax.  I had never ridden the opposite way through the dam to fairfax before, so the descents and climbs were a bit alien to me.  I found myself farther back than the other two, wondering if I’d have enough left in my tank to continue riding at the pace they were keeping.  but somehow, I caught back up to them on the final climb, and figured I’d stick around for a bit more.  they snagged perfect timing down the descent into fairfax, whereas I got stuck behind 3 cars…we regrouped at the bottom of the hill, and then jaffa reminded us how brutal his training is.

bergs.  what is a berg?  well, I’ve never heard a clear definition from anyone, but it seems like a berg is something that jaffa calls a short section of road that has a sharp climbing gradient.  we did a criss-cross double berg loop in fairfax.  gradients anywhere from 15-23%+ outside quiet residentials.  then we headed back towards sausalito, making one stop at a grocery store for some bananas (thanks jaffa!).  reverse camino alto put me in a world of hurt, the steady 300ft climb made me fall back from the other two.  at the top, I grabbed my gel flask and emptied it in my mouth.  the rest of the ride would be relatively flat, I was hoping it would give me enough energy for the ride home.

oh, and maybe one more berg in sausalito.  I was fairly familiar with this one, it rode on the outskirts of sausalito, basically avoiding downtown all together.  jaffa kept the heat on, and continue to bring the pain upon us.  we dropped into the main road out of sausalito after a bit, and then took e road to the section under the bridge.  yea, another 240ft climb to get to the bridge.  jaffa dropped back, and naveen kept pace in front of me.  I was determined to not get dropped this time around, and kept hoping the gel would last me this final climb out.  I made my last effort to the parking lot, emptying everything I had left.  I was joined by naveen and jaffa in the parking lot, and we crossed the bridge.

they started heading down, towards the marina, and I assumed they were doing one last berg through the presidio, before going home.  I yelled out to them, and continued towards crissy fields to go home.

6000ft+ of climbing today with some good cyclists.  good times.  big thanks to naveen and jaffa for having me out.

what did I do for the rest of the day…lurked in the old house for a bit tying some loose ends with mi madre.  oh, and I continued to demolish tons of food through the day.

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the halloween ride.

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joseph (house of commons), naveen (team metromint), justin, and I had spent the last half of the week deciding what we wanted to do on sunday.  unfortunately, justin was caught up in work, so he couldn’t make it up to the city to ride with us.  joseph and naveen were still meeting me at the bridge, possibly with some company.  so I headed out from my house, the weather was cool and clear, not a cloud in sight.  I made it to the bridge and a couple minutes later, a small group of cyclists came through the connecting tunnel at the bridge.  it was joseph, naveen, connor (cat1 hero!), johannes and chris.  the whole crew was decked in metromint kits, sick.

after talking for a couple minutes, the route was decided: mill valley, ranger station, stinson, highway 1, bolinas-fairfax road (bofax), down into alpine dam, fairfax, camino alto, and back home.  I decided to ditch my idea of a solo alpine dam, in favor of their ride.  I had never climbed bofax before, and figured it’d be good to do some exploring, especially when the route connects to the familiar ridgecrest/7 sisters climb.  we headed across the bridge and the pace was kept smooth and steady.  we turned off the sausalito bike path, headed towards mill valley, and eventually 4 corners.  naveen broke off the front of the group at the start of the climb, and I picked up the pace, determined to catch up.  he was just one turn ahead of me, on every turn through the hilly residential.  I finally caught up to him on the road that would eventually lead to 4 corners (730ft elevation), and paced behind him for a bit.  I passed him, continuing to the top on my own.  I turned off at the side of the road, thinking we’d wait for the others at the intersection, but he kept riding along the panoramic highway towards the ranger station.  he mentioned something about a 20 minute interval earlier in the week, so I figured that was what he was doing.  tricked me though, here I thought we were stopping for a second, haha.

I hustled and caught up to him again, and we climbed to the ranger station (1500ft).  we regrouped and rested for a second, and then descended towards stinson beach.  the road was slick, so I was cautious and rode achingly slow, still a bit stunned from my fall a couple weeks back.  my descending wits came back, and I became a bit more comfortable with the turns near the end.  the rest of the guys were waiting near the bottom intersection for me, and we continued on highway 1.  I have to say, my flatland speed still needs a lot of improvement.  I found myself struggling to keep pace behind connor and the rest of the guys while they pulled massive gear inches across the pavement.  after several miles along the coast, we made an abrupt right turn, heading inland.  bofax.

4 miles and 1500ft of elevation gain from the coast.  one of the best climbs I’ve ever ridden.  connor and I rode in the front for a bit, then he dropped off and regrouped with joseph and naveen.  I rode solo in the front for a while, embracing the new road.  it was epic, to say the least.  the road gradient resembled the road that leads out from alpine dam, towards ridgecrest/7 sisters – interestingly enough, we were heading that direction after this climb.  we regrouped at the top of the climb, and waited up for johannes and chris.  as you can see in the picture above, the road was damp and covered in pine leaves (correct term…?).  we decided not to descend towards fairfax and alpine dam, and opted for ridgecrest instead (2000ft at it’s highest point).  it’d be faster, and probably safer because of the road conditions.

after the rollers of 7 sisters, we descended down towards the ranger station, and back towards mill valley and sausalito.  most of the roads were dry, but there were several damp patches, that made me slightly concerned.  the rubber side was kept down, and the descent went quite well.  johannes and chris split off in sausalito to get some food, and I continued on with naveen, joe, and connor, back towards the city.  we took the newly paved path (google calls it “e road”) that led under the bridge for one last climb.  I had nothing left in my tank, my legs were completely toasted.  I spun for a while to rest, as naveen passed me.  as we approached the bridge parking lot, I shot out of the saddle and put everything I had in a last ditch attempt to catch him before he hit the parking lot.  he made it through the gate a couple seconds ahead of me, though.  I was done.

I split off at the end of the bridge, wiggling my way through weekend cyclists, tourists, and oblivious pedestrians walking in the middle of the path across the marina greens.  everyone seemed to be in a weird zombie trance, walking mindlessly across the pavement.  no one seemed to hear my call outs towards them…I figured it was a combination of sunday and halloween.  at least I got home safely.

what awesome ride, big thanks to naveen and joseph for having me out.  it was nice meeting some new people, and riding with well-seasoned cyclists.

happy halloween!

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a grueling, rainy ride.

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that’s pretty much how the whole ride was after fairfax.  slick roads, rainy weather, and cold.  justin and I were soaked to the bone.  I brought out my gore bikewear oxygen jacket today, a lightweight waterproof shell with a race tight fit.  so glad I did, even though riding through sausalito, mill valley, and fairfax was warm, so I was sweating…afterwards, when the rain really started coming down, I was completely dry.  there was a bit of condensation build-up inside the jacket, but it wasn’t too bad.

we took all the climbs at a smooth, steady tempo, conserving our energy to climbing out of the dam, and 7 sisters.  it was colder, and even more wet on the other side.

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the descents were sheeted with water, and the stopping power of our brakes were diminished.  at pantoll, the road started descending down towards the ranger station.  and then I took a spill on a left hander.  I braked before the turn started, and tried to stay as upright as possible, making sure not to lean too far over.  my rear wheel kicked out from under me, and I fell on my left hip.  I was carrying a good amount of speed, and skidded for roughly 30ft.  the whole time I had my hands on the ground, trying to slow myself down.  it felt like I was sliding on my asphalt forever.  I finally came to a stop at the gravel at the side of the road.  I’m fairly certain if there was no shoulder on the road (like many of the turns after this), I would’ve skidded right off the side of the hill.  I’m grateful that I didn’t.

I sat there for a couple seconds, dazed, and in a world of pain.  my left hip was frozen in the position I had crashed in.  my hands were visibly dirty from the all the skidding they did across the asphalt.  justin came around the corner about 20 seconds later, and came to my side.  a couple seconds after that, a jeep rolled up, the two people inside offered to drive me down the hill.  after talking for a second, we figured out that they were from the city, and were heading back.  justin opted to ride his bike back to the bridge, and meet us there.  we drove back, and I talked a bit with them.  john and pam.  pam majored in painting at the art institute in the city, and taught kindergardeners as well as 5th graders in atherton (a city in the peninsula).  I didn’t figure out what john did, but he said he worked in oakland.  he was also considering building up a cross bike.

riding in a car down the hills I would’ve normally ridden on was an odd feeling.  I was extremely grateful for the generosity that john and pam showed me.  in the back of my mind, I was angry at myself for ruining the ride for justin and I.  I was mad I fell, mad it was raining, mad my jacket didn’t have vents on it, so condensation just built up…why should I be mad though?  I didn’t break any bones, the accident could’ve been so much worse.  all the if’s in the world wouldn’t change what happened, and how fortunate I was to walk away without too much damage to me or my bike.  I’m grateful that there are still generous people out in the world.  including justin, who drove me home from the bridge.  thanks for the food, bro.  you are a true friend.

the damage?

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rash.  worst at my hip, but continues down to my knee.  just on my left side, though.

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an interesting abrasion on my left arm, from impacting the ground and then sliding on it, across the road.

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a very dead looking sidi ergo 2.  the carbon and outer shell of the shoe is damaged, and took most of the heavy impact of the crash (along with my hip).  needless to say, I’m pretty sure these shoes are done.

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and of course, the scuffed and gouged left shifter.  know of anyone selling a left 7900 shifter?  let me know, I’m on the hunt, now.

my hip and hands hurt the most, my left knee started to swell up.  I think I’ll be taking a couple days off the bike.  and that’s what’ll drive me crazy.

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sunday, alpine dam.

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how I spent my sunday morning.  met up with zach and ben at the bridge.  to my surprise, the weather was humid and misty.  I had a fat rooster tail along the marina greens all the way to the bridge, which just made my bike completely gritty.  anyway, we left from the bridge, took it chill all the way across to avoid any accidents in the wetness.  there weren’t too many cars or riders on the roads, which was nice.  but then some guy on a rental cannondale supersix rolled up and started riding in our group.  I probably shouldn’t have said, “hey, nice bike” at the light, because he never stopped talking afterwards.

we were on the bike path riding, and after a couple minutes he pulled up in front of me, and made some weird gesture with his hands, signaling for a pace line.  except the path was about to end in about 500 meters.  anyway, we started climbing camino alto, the first time I’ve done it with the new wheelset.  ben was in the front with me for a bit, and dropped back.  I figured I’d wait at the top for him and zach.  I started to push the pace a bit, see how my legs were holding up from the nice tempo we kept through sausalito.  and then I hear the cannondale guy behind me.  mind you, he’s wearing a red windbreaker and red cannondale bib shorts on a black and white bike.  it was easy to spot him.  I struck up a conversation with him since he seemed to be tailing hard.  he had a heavy accent, but from what I could decipher, he was visiting from brazil, and was riding with us because he didn’t know any rides out here.  he also mentioned that I kept a good tempo, or something like that.  it was hard to understand him when he only said two or three words before gasping for more air.  poor guy.

we made our way through to fairfax, and somewhere in between, mr. brazil found another riding buddy to pace with through to alpine dam, and we never saw him again.  bummer.  stopped for a second to refill our bottles.  I took off my arm warmers because it was warming up quite a bit.  BUT NOT FOR LONG!  we started the climb and my legs felt even better than they did on camino alto.  zach was behind me and we chilled for a second at the golf course to wait up for ben.  when he finally caught back up to us, he said his legs were feeling it already, and that pretty much determined the rest of the ride’s pace.  I don’t blame him though, balancing school, riding, and life is hard.  I pulled ahead since it seemed like zach and ben were going at a similar pace.

it was colder at the dam, as you can see in the picture above.  we threw back on our warmers and started the climb out.  at the top, I waited for ben and zach, just before the start of 7 sisters.  the weather was grueling.

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extremely foggy.  luckily, the descent to the ranger station was dry.  we grabbed a bit more water, and started the descent back towards 4 corners, and eventually, mill valley.  the wind started picking up HARD.  we made it down to mill valley without any problems though.  catching up to a train of cars can do that.  ben and zach said they were going to stop at the cafe in sausalito for some food, but unfortunately, I didn’t get to say goodbye to them because I went to pass a guy in the bike lane and they were behind, going at their own pace.  so, “SEE YA!”

bring food next time, zach.

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played around with the camera a bit in the morning to familiarize myself with the controls.  it’s quite easy to use, the shot above is from my bed side window.  nothing like a little bit of coit tower in the morning, while eating frosted mini wheats. mmm, delicious.

I headed to the bridge and met up with justin and a new guy, scott.  I was expecting ben to roll out with us, but I gave him a ring, and he was still in bed.  hope you got a later ride in, ben!  anyway, while we were at the bridge parking lot, while I was still making a call, some guy on a hunter cross bike was talking my ear off about the supersix.  specifically the edge tapered fork rake (and the stock supersix fork rake) and the enduro ceramic hybrid bb30 bearings.  he asked why I didn’t go with phil wood bb30 bearings – good question.  they actually weren’t out yet when I was piecing together the caad9.  maybe on the next rebuild…I wonder if they have carbonite…hmmm.

anyway, we rolled out and kept a quick pace all the way through sausalito up to fairfax.  scott impressed us all with a nice trackstand at a t-intersection, bravo!  we stopped and the guys bought some food for the climbing ahead.  it was perfect weather out, all the way to the dam.  scott put the hustle down in the middle of the climb, his first time doing the ride from the fairfax side.  those potatoes must’ve helped, haha.

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from left to right: justin’s look 585, the supersix, and scott’s bmc (slc01?).  and if the picture extended a little to the left, there was this guy talking to us about how justin had some pedal-strike through a turn.  he claimed he saw the cleat spark the ground.  be careful, bro.  pedal stike is srsbznz.  and not in the awesome way.  check out these trees on the other side of the dam:

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sick, right.  we climbed out of the dam and made our way to 7 sisters.  at this point in the ride I was starting to wish I had a 12-25t cassette, and not a 23t.

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check out that awesome fog.

we stopped for a second at the ranger station to get some water, and proceeded to descent down, back towards mill valley.  justin was up ahead of me and cornering pretty well.  he recently changed out his michelin pro’s for continental gp4000s’, and the difference was obvious, just from riding behind him for a bit.  I do really like these tires as well.  whatchu know about sticky rubber.

by the way, what’s up with this tar on the highway 1 descent towards mill valley?  it ruins all my apexes and my rear tire almost skipped out 2 days ago when I first got my supersix.  if you look at the ground, you’ll see a goopy line the exact width of a road tire.  it’s not oil, it sits on the surface of the asphalt and has a smooth texture to it.  maybe I’m just being overly analytical.  but I’m pretty sure I’m not.

as a side note, uploading pictures from the phone onto the computer is pretty easy.  with my lg dare, I had to e-mail the pictures to myself, and sometimes they’d come out all resized and ugly.  and they used up text messages, so that was pretty inconvenient.  now, with the htc, I can just plug in a mini usb to the phone and drag the files off like a flash drive.  how nice.  thanks technology.

hope everyone had a fun sunday.  now I need to find some food.

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alpine dam.

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met up with justin, joseph, kevin, and naveen today for alpine dam.  it was probably the windiest ride I’ve ever done, there was a constant 15-20mph westward wind the entire time.  I still had a great time, just had to watch descents and the pillars on the bridge.

as I understand it, joseph is the founder of house of commons, a brand base around premium street wear and other boutique items.  he’ll be starting a small cycling team in 2011, which kevin will be a part of.  joseph is cat3 and the others are cat4.  they’ve got the speed to back it up!

good ride guys, hopefully we can ride again soon!

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alpine dam? nope.

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this is how far we made it.  we got to the top of the first climb into alpine dam from the fairfax side, and I turned around to wait up from justin when I heard a huge POP!  my heart sunk.  a flat.  we pulled off and took a closer look at the tire.  it was gashed from the sidewall to almost the middle of the tire.  must’ve been a sharp rock, F*CKING ROCKS.  COME ON.

justin busted out a clif bar wrapper, and we put it in the tire from the inside, held with a bit of rubber cement.  swapped tubes, and put the wheel back on.  we figured it’d be risky riding the rest of the ride with a tire running on about 50psi, held together with a wrapper and some glue.  so we hobbled it all the way down, back into fairfax.  climbed and descended camino alto, home bound.  and just after we beat all the hard parts of the ride, with only flat riding out to sausalito left, it blew out a second time.

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we had just pulled onto the sidewalk from the gas station at the corner, and my rear went flat.  there’s justin making the call for a pickup.  out of tubes, energy, and out of fight.

wasn’t our day, I guess.  big, big thanks to justin and maggie, my saviors!  time to crush hard next week to make up for this mess.

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