On Saturday I was riding the famous Tour of The California Alps: The Death Ride. It is a 130 mile bike ride with 15,000 feet of climbing on which you go over five passes. Well, you really go over three passes, but you go over two of them twice.

Let’s see, where to start. I loved the terrain. I so want to go back and do it again. Overall the ride was relatively easy. Yeah, there was a lot of climbing and hot, but the climbs were relatively mild and the views were spectacular. The toughest climbs were in the 10% grade, but most of it was around 6-7%. It was also great to see so many riders. The organizers closed most of the roads, so cyclists were uninterrupted by the drivers.

I finished the first part of the ride without any effort. Riding over Monitor pass was great and bombing down the back side was super fast. I was getting speeds of 50 miles per hour. The views were out of this world. Also, the road was super smooth. It was a bit tricky to pass slower riders and at the same time avoid riders coming up on the other side of the road. But I came to the bottom without any issues.

Ebbetts pass was a bit trickier, since it has more turns and the road is not in as good of a shape as the Monitor pass. However, it was just as enjoyable. From the Monitor pass, the views were mostly of the valley, where as from the Ebbetts pass, the views were of the canyon and trees. Again, I did not have any problems going up Ebbetts pass, but I did feel slight stomach discomfort. Since it was nothing bad, I ignored it.

Unfortunately that is where the fun stops. On the ride down Ebbetts pass, I started having serious problems with my stomach and, well, think of a waterfall but while riding. At the lunch spot, I sit there until my stomach calmed down and then I continued the ride. Unfortunately my stomach was acting up for the rest of the ride. At the bottom of Carson’s pass, they had showers for the riders, which felt really good, but in retrospect was a bad idea. I continued the ride up Carson, but got caught in a hail at the Picket’s junction. This together with me being cold at this point and not being able to ride fast to warm up because of my stomach, pretty much put a kibosh on the ride. I stayed there hiding under the trash can cover and a in the warm van until the hail and rain stopped and then hitched a ride part of the way down the mountain. I had an ok time that evening but I started getting sick again next day and the day after.

So, what caused all this mess? Who knows. It may have been Subway or cantelope that I usually don’t eat. I also tested a bunch of goodies at the expo. Perhaps it was the pasta dinner. Or maybe something I had during the ride. It might have also been elevation, heat, rapid decent, rapid ascent… Or finally it could be a combination of all those factors.

However, taking all this into account, I would still not miss it for the world! The sights are phenomenal, the roads are great, and support was out of this world. Looking forward to finishing this next year.

Tags: California,Century,Cycling,sickness
Categories: Biking, Random, Travel
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I usually don’t do this in a public forum, but I have an announcement to make. I am coming out. Out of being a quiet fringe person!

I am a CYCLIST and I am proud of it!!!

Since I moved to CA in June last year, I rode bike to work every day but 3 times that I drove and couple of times somebody else drove me.

My shortest commute is about 6 miles. That means in the year since I came here I probably spend more than 3000 miles commuting (or about 136 gallons of gas with 22mpg). You can do a simple math to see that my $400 single speed commuter bike is more than payed of. But its not about the money. It is about you. And I mean YOU personally. You benefit from me doing this. So does anybody you know. Except perhaps if you know people working for the oil companies or car industry.

Also, since carbon is such an enemy (though I love my carbon bike), according to EPA, a gallon of gas burned in the car produces about 19 lb of carbon (1), so I saved about 2584 lb of carbon in the air. Maybe a bit less because I breathe harder when cycling. To be super conservative, that is about 2000 lb. Each tree in the forest can take somewhere between 2 and 15 lb of CO2 per year (2). That means I could plant anywhere from 133 to 1000 trees and get the same effect.

And of course, do people really like to be stuck on the 101, 237, 280, 880, 80, …?

So, let me ask you this question:

What can we do to persuade you to bike to work or take public transportation to work every day?

To close this e-mail, let me quote some of my favorite bicycling related philosophers:

“… You may say that I’m a dreamer; But I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us; And the world will be as one…”
“… Look at us we’re beautiful, All the people push and pull but, Let’s just go out and ride, Talk about the things we’ve tried…”
“… Lets take a ride, and run with the dogs tonight In suburbia; You cant hide, run with the dogs tonight; In suburbia…”

Finally, when you are biking to work and a person on the bike next to you smiles at you and/or waves at you, please do me a huge favor. Smile and wave back!!!!

Tags: Bike to Work,coming out,Cycling,math
Categories: Biking, Environment, Rants, Travel
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Have you ever done something that was so crazy you thought at the same time: This was awesome!!!! and I am such an idiot!!!! Well, I did that on the way from the ride. It turns out that I got so excited that I totally forgot how to ride a bike… SAFELY!!!

But first thing first. This weekend I did an awesome bike ride organized by San Francisco Bicycling Coalition called Seven Hells of SF (Steepest Hills of SF III) Tour. There were about 20 to 30 people of various skills. The leader gave us a ride sheet and disclaimer. Something about gruesome death and dismemberment.

So we started the ride and soon we were at the first climb. One cool thing about that climb. On the way to it, some surfer dude from a jeep pulled half of his body out of his truck and asked if we are doing that climb. Upon confirmation, he exclaimed: YOU GUYS ROCK!!! In a surfer dude lingo.

So, since the first climb was super tough and I wasn’t prepared for it, I lifted the front wheel and the bike turned quickly, so I had to step off the bike half way up the climb. But I quickly jumped back on and finished the climb. Next climbs went without incident, but I did have to repeat one, so that the ride leader some photos of me.

Awesome ride and SFBC did a great job organizing it.

Ok, so the crazy thing. On the way back, I was having way too much fun riding over the hills of SF. I was going up and down roads and avoiding the stopped traffic. Do you know you are way faster on the bike in SF? Anyway, on one of the downhills, actually on the flat section in the middle of one of the downhill, the guy in front of me made a quick stop. This caused me to squeeze my break, but unfortunately I squeezed the front one a bit too much… This was a bad idea, since it caused my rear wheel to lift. For some reason I was still moving, but I was propped up on the front wheel. I knew I was going to die, but I enjoyed the moment anyway. It was, for the lack of better word, AWESOME!! Some strange luck or supreme being’s intervention caused my bike to fall back on both wheels and I was able to ride away with nothing but a slight whiplash. And I had a huge grin on my face. I am talking the grin that would shadow the sun. I just did a front freaking endo with my bike and recovered. I figured out that the people behind me are probably still washing their pants.

Ok, that is it… I escaped sure death on Saturday, which means I will probably get ran over by an ASSUV today.

Tags: Cycling,Safety,San Francisco
Categories: Biking, Travel
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Last year on June 9th, I entered California. On today’s day I started working here.

Bye New York

Happy Anniversary California!

Tags: California,Move
Categories: Random, Travel
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All I can say is yeehaa!!! Sequoia Century, 112 miles plus ride from home and back; 130 miles (or 6.2 English Channel widths (at the shortest point); 43 Mont Blancs; or 24 Mount Everests) and 9000 feet of climbing (or 8.5 Eiffel Towers; 3.4 Burj Dubais (after completion); or 26 football (soccer) pitches according to SensibleUnits.com). Century a month all the way…

How many times do you have opportunity to zip at 25 miles per hour down the coast with phenomenal views or down the hill at 50 miles per hour with nothing to protect you but your bike and your helmet. And finally, have you ever drafted a house?

During the ride, we were passed by a truck with a trailer driving a house at almost exactly 35 miles per hour. At that point one of the riders from my group pushed the pedals faster to catch the truck and draft it for the next five to ten miles. When we finally saw him again, he had an extremely large grin on his face. He said he was pedaling in the highest gear with almost no effort.

The climbs in the second half of the ride were challenging, but nothing I could not do. On the ride guide the second half of the ride looked like a steady climb over 30 miles, but in reality it was a long series of short steep climbs. It was especially hard on a relatively steady climbing section, where the route arrows pointed towards a country road that was super steep. But at the top of the climbs there was a rest area with refreshments.

Also, toward the end of the ride, I realized that my leg warmers I showed in my pockets fell out somewhere during the ride. That means I unintentionally littered the gorgeous California hills. Sorry…

I feel bad for people who missed this ride. It was well supported, great roads, perfect weather, and finally, great group of cyclists.

Tags: Century,Cycling
Categories: Biking, Travel
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