Northern California - Who's ready for the Mt. Diablo Challenge?

My time was 1:02:59. You can get the pics and results from here:

http://www.savemountdiablo.org/Bike%20Challenge/MountDiabloChallengeHome.htm

Here I am stopping the clock in all sorts of pain and anguish:

http://www.photoreflect.com/prbin/prpv.dll?photo?s=0&i=0031009H000128&p=&e=

Last year my time was 1:15, so hopefully next year I can get under an hour.

Well, I met Ritterview...

Nice meeting you DiabloScott.

I got a 1:04:39.6 (an improvement over last year's 1:10:37.9). My dang chain came off on a downshift, and then got stuck, and I had to get off to fix it. Garmin says it costs me one minute. So, nowhere near a tee shirt, but the mandate is clear for 2009.

My poor little truck was stuffed to the top... including the cab.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_hSZo5vjiPmQ/RwmNtRX-vpI/AAAAAAAABgU/t_3cPKfETtY/s400/truck+small.JPG

Scott,

I never thought they'd get all that stuff into the sweats vehicles. A big thank you to you and all of the volunteers. It was a great event! The finish line spread was fantastic. Plenty of Jamba juice, cookies fruit, bagels, etc. :D

I plan to be back next year.

PM

Scott,

I never thought they'd get all that stuff into the sweats vehicles. A big thank you to you and all of the volunteers. It was a great event! The finish line spread was fantastic. Plenty of Jamba juice, cookies fruit, bagels, etc. :D

I plan to be back next year.

PM

Well I hope you would be there to defend your crown. I see you won the race.;)

Congrats on a great climb.

PizzaMan: I'm amazed, and congratulations!

My official time was 1:01:49. Sooooo close to one of those ugly yellow t-shirts that I so coveted. And good god, did that hurt.

But a great, great day for suffering on the Devil's Mountain!

86
Chris DawsonSacramento40
194
1:01:49.0
10.5MPH


And a picture of me when the suffering finally ended.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0031009H000195&po=195&c=

Congrats to all! Scott, thanks for all the hard work too (sorry for snubbing ya :o I wasn't feeling too good at the top).

At the start I saw Caloso (I think) and BenRidin. I couldn't find any familiar jerseys at the top though... must have been all the jackets covering them up. Smoooth rolled by about 2/3 to the top and said hi. In between my panting I think I managed to say hi back... sorry if I wasn't conversational.

My official time was 1:02:40 (228th overall and 20th in my age group). I didn't reach my goal and I think I have a good idea why. Next year I will eat right the days before and train a little harder. I have a new found respect for this climb.

I couldn't find any photos of me at the finish. There's a couple at the "elbo" though. It was a lot of fun.... when it was over. :D

rydaddy: That was me saying "nice jersey!" at the start. Great ride. HARD. Very hard for a flat lander like me. Next year: try to be 5 lbs lighter, warm up better, and bring a 27t cog for that demoralizing last 100 m.

What a great day! The weather couldn't have been better.

Scott it was good to me you and Thank You to you and all the volunteers who made our lives that much better at the top.
Chris good to meet you. 1:01, :beer:

overall I was the 435th person to cross the line at 1:10:09

Next years goal, keep riding through the winter, cut back on the beer, 1:00 next year.

rydaddy: That was me saying "nice jersey!" at the start. Great ride. HARD. Very hard for a flat lander like me. Next year: try to be 5 lbs lighter, warm up better, and bring a 27t cog for that demoralizing last 100 m. Flat Lander?:rolleyes: I live at the base of this Mt and rode up to the top 6-7 times this summer (correction, just looked at my journal and it was 11 times:o) and you still beat me by 8mins. :eek:Your flat lander status has been revoked!

I need to adjust my goals for next year. To finish 5 mins behind Chris instead of 8mins.

On Saturday, I played in the High School Alumni Water Polo game (we won 10 to 9), so I think I wasn't quite recovered for Sunday. My legs just plain hurt.

At Monte Vista as I started to get ready, I realized I left my packet at home, so I had to deal with it at the problem desk. This curtailed my warm up a bit. I just made it back in time to drop my bag off. Then I found a place at the start where I spied two Jersey's: Rydaddys and Caloso. Said hello to both.

This is such a fun event, I just love it. Especially at the beginning. It was amazing to see everyone take off, head down the "Paris-Robaix" section and then start climbing. I narrowly missed running over a nervous rider here.

Climb I did, but I couldn't find any rhythm. Long story short, I finished w/ a time of 1:07:05. Good enough for 362 overall and 160 in the hardest age group of 40-49. My goal this year was a modest 1:05, so I fell a bit short.

That's cool, there's always next year.

BR

rydaddy: That was me saying "nice jersey!" at the start. Great ride. HARD. Very hard for a flat lander like me. Next year: try to be 5 lbs lighter, warm up better, and bring a 27t cog for that demoralizing last 100 m.

When I saw you in the Norcal jersey I was trying to determine who you where. I figured we'd meet at the top. We actually crossed paths a couple times on the way up. Great job climbing. I slowed down considerably near the top. I decided killing myself was not worth breaking the hour mark. Even then I still felt pretty miserable for a while. As a fellow flatlander, I could have used a little more climbing work to get ready for this.

This was my first Diablo Challenge. I trained for it by riding Diablo on each of three prior Sundays, and after managing 1:26, 1:33 and 1:29, I set my personal record yesterday of 1:24:29. It was a great event, and my goal for 2008 is 1:20 (you read it here first ;))

This was my first Diablo Challenge. I trained for it by riding Diablo on each of three prior Sundays, and after managing 1:26, 1:33 and 1:29, I set my personal record yesterday of 1:24:29. It was a great event, and my goal for 2008 is 1:20 (you read it here first ;))

Congratulations! Look forward to seeing you there next year.

Congrats guys.

Looking over the race results I see a six year old as the youngest participant. Was that really their time? Seems awfully fast for a six year old??

I'm thinking that most of those kids came up on a trail-a-bike attached to Dad.

I'm thinking that most of those kids came up on a trail-a-bike attached to Dad.

I find five kids under 10.

The one-year old came up in a trailer but Dad isn't listed so he must be a scab.
963 Alejandro Sanchez Aptos CA 927 1 1 M 1- 1 2:21:44 4.57MPH


http://lh6.google.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/RwrOBRX-vrI/AAAAAAAABhM/z68x8Pg5W3s/s800/Alejandro.JPG

Here are the others with some relatively interesting predecessors.

802 Robert Buckley age 48
803 Katherine Buckley age 5

596 Jens Hillen age 41
597 Peter Hillen age 6

912 Trey Holtean age 7 (kid in the front of a tandem?) (edit, a kid in the middle of a triple)
913 Gordy Holterman age 41



Zach McClendon appears to be the youngest solo rider at age 9.

862 Andrew Scott age 32 time: 1:43:07
863 Zach McClendon age 9 time: 1:43:27
864 Michael Kyle age 50 time 1:43:35 (lost a sprint to a 9 year old!)


I modified the file to make it sortable in Excel.

Congrats guys.

Looking over the race results I see a six year old as the youngest participant. Was that really their time? Seems awfully fast for a six year old??

Here is the 5 year old.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/OrderPage.aspx?pi=0031009M000087&po=87&c=

PizzaMan: I'm amazed, and congratulations!

My official time was 1:01:49. Sooooo close to one of those ugly yellow t-shirts that I so coveted. And good god, did that hurt.

But a great, great day for suffering on the Devil's Mountain!

Thanks. So close is right. Ugly t-shirt? I think it's beautiful, but my wife agrees with you that it's ugly.
I'm sure you'll get one next year. :D

Here's to everyone who made it to the top! http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u245/cphippsrun/beerchug.gif
I hope you all meet your goals for 2008.

rydaddy:and bring a 27t cog for that demoralizing last 100 m.

SO TRUE!! I had switched to a 53/39 the day before this ride.. and I PAID THE PRICE! I will probably stay with a double, but I'll drop down to a 50/34.. I'm thinking 5 less teeth may make a big enough difference, at least it wont be 1:21:21:eek:

Actually, looking at my last post in this thread.. Thanks to Diablo Scott for hauling our LUGGAGE! up the hill. The volunteers/sponsors/park employees were all great. It was a well run event, I only saw a couple of knuckleheads on the decent, but for 1200 people... 2 isn't a bad ratio, I'd rather it be none, but hey, you can't have it all. I am for sure doing this event again, and I've actually started recruiting people to ride with me for next year. I promise, I'll spread the word about "minimal" luggage for the top :)

Actually, looking at my last post in this thread.. Thanks to Diablo Scott for hauling our LUGGAGE! up the hill. I am for sure doing this event again, and I've actually started recruiting people to ride with me for next year. I promise, I'll spread the word about "minimal" luggage for the top :)


Think about recruiting volunteers too - we could have used a couple more trucks or vans. Some riders had 20 lbs of gear in those backpacks!

SO TRUE!! I had switched to a 53/39 the day before this ride.. and I PAID THE PRICE! I will probably stay with a double, but I'll drop down to a 50/34.. I'm thinking 5 less teeth may make a big enough difference, at least it wont be 1:21:21:eek:

Man, I feel like a loser riding with a triple.... You guys are strong!

SO TRUE!! I had switched to a 53/39 the day before this ride.. and I PAID THE PRICE! I will probably stay with a double, but I'll drop down to a 50/34.. I'm thinking 5 less teeth may make a big enough difference, at least it wont be 1:21:21:eek:


Last year I road Mount Diablo with a 53/39 on the front and a 12/25 on the back. I road the the Death Ride for the first time this year, so I switched to using a 50/34 on the front and 12/27 on the back. I kept that gearing on for this year's Mount Diablo Challenge, and I think the lower gear selection helped me because I prefer to be able to spin compared to mashing. For me, on a 53/39, the last 100m is hard to do and I have to stand a lot more which sends my heart rate through the roof. This year, I was able to do 1:02:59 compared to last year's 1:15. But I attribute that to doing a lot more climbing/training this year and using a power meter.

Geez you guys ... without my 52/42/30 (emphasis on '30'), I would have rolled backwards :o

I'm curious what gearing Pizza Man was running.

I'm curious what gearing Pizza Man was running.

When he won the San Bruno Hillclimb he reported this:

"34-21 when sitting, 34-16 or 34-17 when out of the saddle. "
Also reported his vitals as 5'9" and 138 lbs

I had visions of posting a YouTube of the winner but I didn't push the right button on my camera when he came by (still camera with video mode). I did get the #3 guy but he's probably the only one who would watch it.

As for me... 39x27 and sometimes I can stay in the saddle but usually I'm standing and my tongue's dragging and heart's pounding and guad's burning.

The Challenge goes up the Summit Wall on the side normally used for coming down - mostly because otherwise the riders coming down would cross the paths of riders going up. I always thought the down side was easier since it's a little longer but my buddy reported it's the same grade with one little flattish section thrown in.

When he won the San Bruno Hillclimb he reported this:

"34-21 when sitting, 34-16 or 34-17 when out of the saddle. "
Also reported his vitals as 5'9" and 138 lbs

I had visions of posting a YouTube of the winner but I didn't push the right button on my camera when he came by (still camera with video mode). I did get the #3 guy but he's probably the only one who would watch it.

Hmm. According to Sheldon's gear calculator, 34x21 = 42.5 g.i., and 39x25 = 41 g.i. So, as the saying goes, it's not about the bike. I'm beginning to think the 30 lbs fewer he had to lug up the hill might be more significant than his gearing. :)

Think about recruiting volunteers too - we could have used a couple more trucks or vans. Some riders had 20 lbs of gear in those backpacks!


DONE!! My wife really wanted to watch the event, but didn't know if she'd be able to sneak around on the course. I guess if I let her drive my truck up she'll be able to watch, if she doesn't want to ride. Even then I'll find a member of my family that will drive my truck to the top. Its only a chevy silverado but its one extra truck bed in the end. This will rock.. she can haul my stuff back down too :-P!!

DONE!! My wife really wanted to watch the event, but didn't know if she'd be able to sneak around on the course. I guess if I let her drive my truck up she'll be able to watch, if she doesn't want to ride. Even then I'll find a member of my family that will drive my truck to the top. Its only a chevy silverado but its one extra truck bed in the end. This will rock.. she can haul my stuff back down too :-P!!

Super! No backing out, I'm saving this to my e-mail so I'll remember. Yes, drivers can haul extra stuff for special riders! She can haul YOU back down after as well.

I'm going to talk to the organizers about how they manage the stuff... it was kind of a clusterfûck this time.

I'm curious what gearing Pizza Man was running.

My usual 50-34 11-23 combo that I've been using for the last 2 years. I was in the 34-21 for most of the climbing, but did use the 23 quite a bit.

Next year I'll be moving up to a standard 53-39 with a SRAM 11-26 cassette.

No worries Scott.. I'm glad you'll be there to remind me :)

I just don't want to tote my backpack back down the hill. The decent is fun, its the payoff for the ride up! But she can always tote another BFer down to the bottom if they are a little too blasted to make it safely.

sweet.. already getting stoked for next year.

What are the stats on the San Bruno climb?

What are the stats on the San Bruno climb?


The climb is about 1,000 feet in 3.5 miles. The first 2 miles are gradual, then it gets steep in the last 1.5 miles. The race is New Year's Day and there's a $300 bonus for breaking the course record of 14:42.

Got this nice e-mail from the SMD folks. (Moonlight on the Mountain is a gourmet dinner and speaker series targetting high net-worth benefactors)

On behalf of the staff and board we cannot thank you enough for all that you contributed to make our 2007 Moonlight on the Mountain and our Mount Diablo Challenge two of the most successful events of the year. We could not have done either of these events without the help of so many wonderful volunteers like you.

Save Mount Diablo's largest fundraiser, Moonlight on the Mountain, raised $270,000 for our organization. The Mount Diablo Challenge was another fantastic event raising $70,000 benefiting Save Mount Diablo's land conservation efforts to preserve natural lands in an increasing urban part of the East Bay.