Three's A Magic Number
I'm cruising down the aisle of our local Albertsons, and there, high on the shelf it sits, a gleaming bottle of Gerolsteiner water. I could tell you that I was searching for a natural mineral water that was bottled at the source, Gerolstein, Germany, but alas, that would be a lie. I pulled the bottle of Gerolsteiner off its resting spot and placed it in my basket because there is a bicycling team sponsored by the German Mineral Water Company.Geez and they say NASCAR fans are gullible...
Anyhow that is how I ended my day of cycling.
My cycling day started with a slow climb into the Santa Cruz Mountains. I cruised through the downtown area of Old Saratoga and began my laborious assault on Big Basin Way. As I slowly climbed up the winding road I saw a cyclist ahead of me. Now that I am on a fairly nice ride, it is a requirement that I am able to catch and pass as many cyclists as possible. I geared down and pressed harder on the pedals.
After about fifteen minutes of chasing (Chasing on a bicycle takes awhile, unless one's prey's abilities are at a much lower level,) my victory was complete. I pedaled in his wake for about one minute then rose out of my saddle and powered around him. Take that Mr. Mid-50's guy!!! Uh, yeah...unfortunately, much of my victory was soured when I gazed upon the multitude of wrinkles on his face. Well...at least he was on a really nice bike, so there!
However along with all this chasing I realized that I was closing in on my true goal, riding from the Santa Clara Valley floor to Skyline Boulevard. I'd like to think it's about 3,000 feet of climbing, but I actually think it is more like 2,200. Oh well, it was a grinder.I get a small bit of satisfaction every time I hit a new county when cycling. I think it's very cool the thought that my personal engine was able to transport me over county lines. Today was a three county affair starting in Santa Clara, climbing to Santa Cruz, descending to San Mateo and ending back in Santa Clara.
At the top of the climb I stopped to take the Santa Cruz County Line photo and after multiple attempts I finally got a satisfactory one. However, in the mean time, Mr. Wrinkles had caught up and was pedaling his way down Skyline Boulevard. I hopped on my Giant and soon had passed him for the second time. Not the coolest thing to do to Mr.Wrinkles, but not the worst...
Later I pulled over to a open space park to check out a map. I feared that I had missed my turn off and was zooming towards San Francisco. That would have been a bummer and required a call to my "team car"...my very grumpy "team car". I glanced at the road and who should be passing me? Hey it's Mr.Wrinkles!
I jumped back on my bike and slowly made my way through the gravel parking lot. As it turned out the road I was looking for was only a mile up the road. As I turned on Page Mill, I knew Mr.Wrinkles was only a little ahead of me. The road undulated through the hills and mountains and soon I caught Mr.Wrinkles for the third and last time. At this point I don't think he was amused.
Page Mill Road quickly dropped and spiraled downward towards Palo Alto. I have never been a fearless descender and this flight was no different. Soon Mr.Wrinkles had caught me and blew by.
After ten minutes of futilely chasing the older wrinkled guy on the sweet bike he disappeared. Take that Mr.Jerk that passed him three times!The road opened up and passed under I-280, as I crested the hill I realized I was near Stanford University. Egads, I was in Palo Alto. But amazingly I was feeling really fresh. I turned onto El Camino Real and began the ride home.
Now these final miles passed quickly and I did have a chance to redeem myself. There was a gentleman on a bike who tried to keep up with me. I allowed him to suck my wheel while I pulled for miles. I dropped him. Okay, once again maybe my victory was tainted as he was on a bike from the mid-80's and had a heavy messenger bag slung over his shoulder, but damnit...I dropped him...
Hmmm let me see...about three hours later, 50 miles under my tires and the following towns visited...
- San Jose
- Saratoga
- Palo Alto
- Los Altos
- Mountain View
- Sunnyvale
- Cupertino
Labels: bicycles
posted by LoneCactus @ 8:19 PM
Comments: 0
