| A bit different route
than the 2001 edition, this time substituting a loop through the
hills east of Livermore for the run up north via Walnut Creek and
back through the Berkeley Hills/Skyline area. |
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| Riders viewing the route sheets for
the various rides- their last shot at changing their minds and going
for the 100 mile instead of the 100k (or vice versa!). |
The base of Calaveras always finds a
flurry of activity, as cyclists shed clothing prior to the grind up
the hill. It's only 53 degrees, but Calaveras warms you up
fast. |
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| A couple photos up the
last part of the wall on Calaveras. Even the 70k riders got to
experience this climb. |
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| Topping out just past Calaveras
Reservoir. After this the 100 mile heads through Sunol and out to
Livermore. |
There are trains and there are
trains! This was a train. We're on Greenville Road, just
east of Livermore. The group won't hold together once we hit
the hills. |
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| Go left and you head over Altamont
Pass, go right and you quickly wished you'd gone left! More
info on a loop involving Altamont (and
Patterson) Pass can be found elsewhere on our website. |
Driving over 580 east, you see a road
on the left side that starts below the freeway, and then quickly
climbs above it. This is that road. Note that the
freeway itself climbs at a pretty good rate, so imagine how this is. |
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| That Domo rider is signaling to me
that I might be able to ride away from him now, but his 4 team mates
will make sure US Postal doesn't win the sprint! Oh, wait, I'm
losing my mind...that was Paris Roubaix last year. |
In April, things are green.
Give this area a couple of months and all will be brown. This
is on one of the prettier sections of Flynn road, across the "top"
of one of the Livermore hills loops. |
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| Much of the course
through the hills east of Livermore was used back in 1974 for the
Northern California state road racing championships. In the
senior race, something like 60-90 men started, and six finished.
Fortunately, the attrition rate wasn't so bad on the century, with
mild temps (high of 78) and few crashes. I still can't believe
that a pack of juniors (with me in it) rode these twisty, sometimes
gravely roads and didn't all end up having gravel plucked from our
sides. |
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| On the right is Norm Domingo, one of
our customers, eating at the lunch stop (a rather nice one, located
at the Rios Lovell winery just east of Livermore). |
That would be Lori, the woman who
thought I was a twin of someone else on last years' (that
person being folically challenged and 15 years younger)! |
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| The final rest stop, just
prior to the climb over Palomares. Palomares would probably be
an easy hill at mile 40, but at mile 90+, it's a challenge. Of
course, once at the top, it's all downhill or flat all the way to
the finish. |
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The very top of Palomares featured a
scene out of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, with a bunch of
people waiting at the side of the road, waiting, waiting, waiting
and still waiting a bit more for their friends to come along.
From here it's a twisty descent down to a car-clogged Niles Canyon,
by far the most congested part of the ride. But the finish
(and food!) is just a few miles away. |
| High points of the ride
were mild weather, great food at the rest stops (although no
cantaloupe... for some reason, there's nothing I like better on a
century than cantaloupe), and seeing many people I knew along the
way, including one of our reps, Jeff Kazan, who I met up with at the
first rest stop and rode with the rest of the way. Low points
would be the ride up Diablo Canyon prior to Palomares, which
featured a mild headwind into a moderate climb. Also a lot of
stop signs during the early part of the ride, which meant a lot of
extra work for people like me who actually chose to stop at them,
and then have to sprint to catch the group you were riding with! |
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