empty cow palace
photos of an empty cow palace on the day before ALC10:
July 14th, 2011
Browsing gf1.
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption
My friend Sam and I stumbled across a “Sacred Places” walking tour by SF City Guides (@SFCityGuides) the other day and decided to follow along for a bit:
st. mary’s cathedral from gough st
the tour started on the front steps of the cathedral and soon moved to the inside.
there’s a quite diverse representation of figures in front of the cathedral
looking straight up from the center
looking back at the entrance
we walked by a few other churches after seeing the cathedral and then stopped into a buddhist temple. then, we parted ways with the tour group and took muni to hang out in golden gate park.
June 3rd, 2011
wine country, clif bars and wine at velo vino for the climate ride
This past Saturday’s ride was very nice. Very different than my Mt. Diablo ride. We participated in a fundraising ride for Clif employees riding in the Climate Ride from New York to DC. Clif sponsored the staging at Velo Vino ( a new wine shop/tasting bar with Clif wines, Luna and Clif cycling apparel, olive oil and snacks, Clif food products, coffee, and soon, food) and of course provided nutrition for the ride – bars, shot blocks, shots, rocs, and so on. 
Long shadows of bikes on bike rack on car
I hadn’t been to St. Helena in quite some time – not since my family came out for a visit maybe two years ago. Here’s the front Velo Vino sign, pre-landscaping. This place is super new.
It was an unexpected surprise to see Gary, the Clif founder there to support the ride. Melissa and Christine talked about the Climate ride and then our route for a bit, then Gary chimed in with a few words.
Lots of nice folks from Clif, Backroads, and Berkeley Ironworks. Velo Vino is turning that grassy area into a backyard patio as I post.
A long line of cyclists through filtered light. I expected it to be cold, but it was a bit warmer than expected – just about perfect for cycling. It was probably about 60 when we started and it got up to maybe 70 during the day. Sunny all around. It was fun riding as a part of such a large friendly group.
There was a little bit of a slide on old howell mountain road.
Stopping to regroup at White Cottage Rd. Gary led the first parts of the ride and, man, is he a strong rider. The first part of the ride was all climbing.
We were aiming to do the longest of the routes at 63 miles but missed a left turn. I think we were on Chiles Pope Valley Road at this point.
A beautiful open field
I took a little photo break and got this shot of a few california poppies.
Got this shot of Lake Hennessey while riding.
Riding alongside a rocky cliff. Not used to this visual. Pretty cool.
Lunch at Nichelini winery
Quite a lunch spread. We realized we missed some turns and made it to lunch at mile 35 instead of mile 50. This was great because there was plenty of food available but I wasn’t able to enjoy most of it because I didn’t want to spoil my stomach for the rest of the ride.
I took pictures of peoples parked bikes. There were a bunch of fun ones. I had to look this one up – an Albert Eisentraut frame. He was a local Oakland guy.
A pink and grey Orbea with what looked like an aluminum/carbon frame
Marty’s Rivendell Romulus
Nichelini wine tastings
I hadn’t noticed this Surly Cross Check cable hanger before.
A fancy Ti/carbon Serotta
Cruising down Sage Canyon Rd. This guy was pushing it on his Bike Friday. The descent was so fun that we did it twice. Actually, we wanted to make up some mileage so we did a little loop back along Chiles Pope Valley Rd, then a climb up Lower Chiles Valley Rd and then headed back down Sage Canyon Rd.
We had a bit of a fast paceline on the last few miles back along Silverado Trail rd.
Velo Vino threw in a wine tasting afterwards to celebrate.
Clif cork
Torta carnitas from the shop next door. I didn’t realize I was so hungry until this was in front of me.
All in all, I got in 59 miles, which wasn’t too far off from our goal of 63. The wine and the fast pace got us pretty sleepy. I think we turned in at 8pm that night. All in all, a really nice day.
April 14th, 2011
Mount Diablo
Last weekend, (pardon my 1-week delay) the second part of a back to back ride was up and down Mt. Diablo. My legs were quite tired from the day before which made it pretty hard to spin the legs around with any sort of force. Looking back, it was a good reminder that I have zero 2nd day endurance and will have to build that up in order to survive 7 days back to back.
It was a pretty day though.
This photo is from near the base of the hill, just at the start of the climb. I believe I took it from Mt. Diablo Scenic Blvd.
Lots of climbing ahead. 3849ft summit. I was going pretty slowly at this point and really unhappy with how I was riding.. but my legs just didn’t have any juice.
We finally reached the saddle point where North Gate and South Gate road meet. We saw a few AIDS LifeCycle riders who were part of the organized ALC ride. It was pretty inspiring to see people tackle that climb for the first time. I felt better after a little bit of rest and some calories, but things got tough again as soon as we started climbing. My annoyance at my body kind of shifted towards anger as I decided that I’d push harder up the second half of the climb to get it over with. It felt like a race. I was yelling and cussing at my legs with every pedal stroke to get them to spin. At one point, I looked to my right (above photo) and thought to myself, “Are you freaking kidding me?”. Pretty steep pitch. This was my third time climbing Mt. Diablo and I didn’t remember it being so hard the last two times. Maybe I was in better shape, or maybe my body just needed a lot more rest.
We finally made it to the top. It was a pretty day and was popular for motorists as well as cyclists. At the summit, there was a line of cars about 6 or 7 deep waiting to find a parking space. As I sat catching my breath, I even saw a bit of an argument when one person took a parking space that someone else had been waiting for. My girlfriend got us a snickers bar for a celebratory snack since they ran out of ice cream.
View from the summit. The observation deck was closed due to leaks but the views were still nice.
It was a bit chilly descending from the summit back to the saddle point but I didn’t mind since I enjoy the descents. My fingers were a little tired from braking though. We met these two guys riding a greenspeed recumbent tricycle. Looked like a pretty sweet setup. They said it was hard to climb but the descents were fast as anything. I was feeling much better at this point since, of course, the hard part was over.
We took off and headed all the way down to the base. I waited for a bit to rest, took a picture or two and then WHOOSH, saw the recumbent trike go flying by with one of the guys waving. I’d love to try one sometime.
We rode back to Walnut creek BART and called it a day. 49 miles in all.
Skittles for a post-ride snack
I heard news yesterday of a cyclist killed in a hit and run by a Ford F-150 while riding a 600k in Southern California. Really sad story and the guy was a friend of friends. It’s sometimes hard to work out in your head that despite having the strength to be able to ride 375 miles in one go, our bodies and lives can be so fragile – and that one person’s mistake or impairment can destroy all of that in a matter of seconds.
April 11th, 2011
