Started at base of Sierra Rd. Took me 31 minutes or so to summit. Got to the Calaveres wall at 51 minutes. Fought a strong side wind into Sunol which I hit at 1:45. The cut over to Mines road was down wind and I easily held 22-24 MPH. I got really lucky with a tail wind up Mines Road and it took me 1:38 or so from the DMD Mines road rest stop to the Junction. This would have put me in the 12:30 DMD finishers range so clearly, I was feeling good and I had a nice tail wind. I managed to hold 15.11 MPH between Mines rest stop and the Junction which was pretty insane. I never saw as many hard-core red necks in CA as I saw in the Junction today. I am sure they appreciated my spandex. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the bridge at the base of Hamilton and 45 minutes to summit Hamilton. This time was also in the 13:00 hour range of finishers for DMD. My pedestrian descent of a bit less than an hour to Crothers was no where near the top guys. Not surprising there. I ran in as hard as I could to the car holding 20-24 for most of it. What a ride. I could hold with the top tier of the DMD if the ride was 107 miles. What happens when I have to ride 100 more miles? We shall see.
One cool thing was it took me 3:15 to ride from the beginning of Mines road to the Summit of Hamilton which is about 46 miles or 14.15 MPH. The views at the top of Hamilton were amazing, especially when cranking Hendrix live jams. Managed to hit his Star Spangled version jam and got insanely happy for a few minutes. I had a fit of happiness as I descended Hamilton ;)
Nobody will believe this, but I was not passed ONCE by a car from the Junction to Alum Rock Road. 40+ miles and not one car passed me. I saw cars going the other way, but avoided getting passed that whole way. Cycling nirvana.
6:50
107 Miles
15.66 Moving
10 minutes or so off the bike
9300 feet of climbing
One cool thing was it took me 3:15 to ride from the beginning of Mines road to the Summit of Hamilton which is about 46 miles or 14.15 MPH. The views at the top of Hamilton were amazing, especially when cranking Hendrix live jams. Managed to hit his Star Spangled version jam and got insanely happy for a few minutes. I had a fit of happiness as I descended Hamilton ;)
Nobody will believe this, but I was not passed ONCE by a car from the Junction to Alum Rock Road. 40+ miles and not one car passed me. I saw cars going the other way, but avoided getting passed that whole way. Cycling nirvana.
6:50
107 Miles
15.66 Moving
10 minutes or so off the bike
9300 feet of climbing
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