Reflections on 2008

Well 2008 is just about over, so it's time to evaluate the year. After last year's accomplishment of a triple crown, I think I got burned out. So in 2008, my goal was to not have a goal, but just to enjoy cycling. What that really meant was I had no idea what I was going to do for the year.

The first thing I decided to do was to follow the Tour of California, all the way from beginning to end. I took a one week vacation to do this. True, this wasn't a one week vacation to anything exotic, and half of it was in my own backyard, but it was one of the best one week vacations I ever had. The highlights of the tour was to see Levi charge up the top of Sierra (a category 1 climb). The atmosphere was electric. The second highlight was hanging out in Solvang, in the driving rain, and seeing Christian Vandevelde time trial it over the hill. Little did we know what a super year he would have. The unfortunate thing about the tour was the weather. Stage 4 was epic, where not only was it the longest, but the coldest and wettest. Many riders dropped out due to hypothermia. Then, the rain came back at stage 7, as they came over the mountain, down through Hwy 2, down into the Rose Bowl. Yes, it became a sprinters stage, due to having to lap a circuit 7 times, but it was exhilirating seeing the speed across at 30+ mph (where I would normally ride them at 12 mph).

Spring came, and Pete led our inaugural BF Spring Ride. It was a great idea, if only I wasn't so stupid in trying to bomb down a fast descent. This is where I went too fast, down an off camber left turn curve, and I crashed. This was truely a scary episode, especially because all my friends were with me, and some witnessing the fall. To all my friends who witnessed it, I'm very sorry. I know you were very concerned, and I appreciated your support of this.

I was able to get back on the bike after a couple weeks, and slowly got back into shape. I started riding my recumbent, which helped me, not having to put much stress on my wrist. I had to skip Tierra Bella and Prima Vera, but targeted Wine Country. I originally was only going to do the century, but I love the double metric so much, I went ahead and did it. Pete led us on an alternative route, and it turned out all right. Considering my wrist was not 100% (~75%), it was quite an accomplishment to complete a sub-double metric century.

I had to skip the Davis Double, as there was no way I would be in shape for it (and my wrist was about 90% healed). I decided to shoot for Sequoia Century in beginning of June instead. Wow, what was I thinking? This was a 112 mile, 10,000+ foot climb century. I completed it, so that's all that counts. It was one of the best organized centuries I have ever done. But it was sure tough, especially Skyline, after being tortured by Mt. Charlie.

The summer was filled with epic climbing adventures with the Gladiators, Pete, Ramon, Marco and Ruth. I climbed Mt. Tam many times, and I was making trips up to SF routinely, climbing Mill Valley a number of times.

Of course, once a month, I had my visit to LA to visit my dad. While there, I frequently went up Mt. Baldy, which I would say is similar to Mt. Diablo. The difference is, it was hot ... hot hot hot. I think it must have been 90+ when I hooked up with Karen (wolfpack) who visited from NC. Ramon also came down to try this out, and he actually went up to the ski lift. What an animal!

The next big event was Lighthouse Century in SLO. This is where we joined NorCal and SoCal peeps together. It was cool. Jonathanb715, Bigbossman, MHendricks, Ramon, Marco and I came down, and I introduced them to my friends for SoCal. That was a total blast.


After this, it meant the end of summer. My concentration was focused on improving my hill climbing. So I decided to lead a weekly Montebello Sundays ride. The climb is 5.1 miles, and 2500 feet climbing. My hopes are that if I keep doing this enough times, my climbing will improve. Pete has noticed an improvement, but I'm still lagging way behind everyone. I also did Mt. Hamilton two weekends in a row (one of them being Low Key Hill Climb). Did Mt. Diablo twice in a span of 2 months ... that's more than I did in 10 years of living in the Bay Area. In fact, on Thanksgiving weekend, I climbed Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, and Montebello. And my legs still survived after that.

December saw a sudden decrease in mileage. Just to get in one last epic climb in, I led a ride that went up Sierra (yes, the same category 1 climb in the tour of california). That was epic too.

In retrospect, I think the year was dominated by my silly accident, and took some time for my wrist to heal up. Unless you have done significant hill climbing, you don't know how much that effects your ability to get leverage while trying to climb. Hopefully 2009 will be free of any accidents.

Goals for 2009? Another Triple Crown, starting with Solvang, Davis, and probably Eastern Sierra. Also, I am volunteering for the Tour of California, and will be working stage 2 in Sausalito. I'll definitely do the Sierra climb again, and see the peloton sprint up Sierra, what would take me 50 minutes to do (they do it in 17 minutes).