I road up up pierce, mt.eden, to montebello and through the dirt to pagemill and then decended hwy 9. I'd drawn up the route on routeslip a while back and finally said what the hay and gave it a shot. That's one of the more difficult rides I've ever done. Montebello road is no joke, just seems to keep going up and not nearly as gradual as Mt. diablo.
Edited to throw in that this was on Saturday morning and I was wearing my Sweeeeet NorCal BF jersey