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.
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.
A couple photos up the
last part of the wall on Calaveras. Even the 70k riders got to
experience this climb.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)!
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.
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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