alpine dam

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.