Well here's my attempt to match names to face. I apologize if I don't get your name right, so please correct me.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P5250001.jpg

From left to right:

? , John Keen, John (Dauphin), Blastradius, ?, UmneyDurak, Big Sean, ? , briank, Nesdog, VMC, tprevost

I believe the far left is SVCommuter, and the yellow windbreaker is Vincent but dont know his screen name.

lok_hkcc (Enoch) is between Big Sean and Braink.

The gentleman in the yellow jacket, orange shirt, to the right of Blast Radius is Frogger.

Right, Sean. That's me (Brad/SV Commuter) on far left.

Naw...I wasn't sandbagging. I honestly didn't know if I could keep up with this group. You guys are really strong...hey you just knocked off a double a couple of weeks ago! And Sean probably added another 1000 feet to his day by going back for riders. And other with casts and fixies and tennis shoes. and good grief...newbies who never ride hills doing THIS route???

So, I'm pleased to have kept up at all! In any event, sure gave me some confidence of what I really can accomplish, so thanks for the thumbs up! Any time we come up here to visit, I'll bring the bike and see if we can get together. And, never thought I'd say this after yesterday's suffering, I'm up for doing OLH and Tunitas again! (but not too soon!)

Sheldon

Sheldon, it was a sheer pleasure riding with you. You are a strong rider. It was a tough ride, and you did really well. You are a climber!

I'm actually going to be in SoCal next weekend, doing the "Not Doing the Eastern Sierra Double" ride with ME, up Baldy, and possibly to the ski lifts. If you have time to waste for the day, you should join us. It will be a lot of fun!

Yup!
 

Hi Brian,

Yup, that was me Vincent/Frogger in yellow windbreaker and orange jersey. It was nice chatting with you, Alan, Wayne, and Tracy.

Thanks again to everybody for putting together this great ride.

Frogger.

So here's what I have:

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P5250001.jpg

From left to right:

Brad (SVCommuter) , John Keen, John (Dauphin), Blastradius, Vincent (Frogger), UmneyDurak, Big Sean, Enoch (lok_hkcc) , Brian (briank), Sheldon (Nesdog), Wayne (VMC), Tracy (tprevost)

Alright, I'm bummed I missed this ride. We'd done it before as a TnT training ride, so I know how nice it is. And I do remember Tunitas being pretty steep....

What came up that made me miss it? Welllll, a few TnT teammates twisted my arm to do a different ride, although we were close by. We did Redwood Gulch and then Jamison Creek/Empire Grade (we also started about 7:30, in an attempt to be done before dark). I'm not a great climber, and boy did I prove it on Saturday! I had to stop and take a break on each of those climbs. We ended up also riding about 80 miles, but we actually did more than 10,000 feet of climbing. Everytime I do one of these rides with these guys, I end up barely able to walk. Big Basin really is spectacular, though - that was the first time I'd ridden through there.

Sorry I missed it, and if the next one is after the Death Ride I'll make it for sure.

JB

Yellow Windbreaker/Orange Jersey = Frogger
 

Hi Sean,

Vincent = Frogger.

Thanks again for leading the ride.

Frogger

Wow, you probably saw my friends from Western Wheelers, Cheryl and Steve, Mike, etc ... they were doing the same thing. They called it the assault on Alba. Big Basin is amazing! I think next time I want to see Big Basin, I'll do it in a car, just to see how it is. Gotta give you kudos for doing that ride.

If you are interested, I am doing both sides of Old La Honda tomorrow.

...ok, right behind frogger..you can only see his helmet is andy..the nutty fixie maniac..and right behind UmneyDurak is still a mystery.

We did see a bunch of people all riding (fast) together - they blew by us before it even got steep. I think a few did have Western Wheelers jerseys on, too. That was really tough - some of the steepest climbs I've seen, and you don't get a break - a friend said you look forward to the 15% sections to recover. He was kidding, but I suspect there's some truth in it. I honestly don't know which is worse, Redwood Gulch or Jamison Creek. The (too skinny) people I was riding with just spun up both hills. Thank goodness for descents - where gravity is my friend.

I won't be in the South Bay tomorrow - a bunch of us are doing some hills in and around Oakland (starting in Lafayette, and going up Pinehurst to start). Nothing too serious, though - I have a feeling my legs will still be hurting. I grew up on the Jersey Shore - all this climbing is a new experience still.

JB

I went out tonight and thought..heck, I'm still fresh...until that first hill...yikes...legs were a bit tired...:D

Ah, they probably spent all their energy on that ride, and didn't have much left for today. That explains why I was able to hang in with them today.

If they did both Redwood Gulch and Jamison Creek, I'm impressed that they even got on their bikes today. The only thing I did with my bike was wipe it down. Some other friends were doing Mt. Diablo repeats this morning - no way I was joining them!

I have to admit, your friends were exceptionally friendly. Several slowed down and chatted with us for a few minutes, especially once they found out we were training for the Death Ride. Usually those big club rides blow through with hardly an acknowledgement that anyone else is there.

JB

thanks! :)

and now after looking at BigSean's motionbased and Spingineer's pics I figured out that I really took the long route -- looks like you guys all cut through Arastradero on the way back, I went back on the detour we came on. That's why I clocked 4 more miles than Spingineer.

Am I right? Do I get extra credit?

heck yeah! Congrats and EXTRA credit!

Tunitas Creek was a real mash for me. Stopped several times. Sorry, I didn't quite catch up with y'all. :rolleyes:

I double checked my Bay Area Bike Rides book and found it really said Tunitas Creek is a 6% climb. I think I'll return it for a refund.

Hey, I don't know where VMC is, but that's me second from the right (just left of tprevost)

So one more thing I wanted to mention.

I've been riding East Bay hills for years (with a long, long 20 year break of not riding, that's why I'm backinthesaddle) thought they were the most challenging riding around, but now I've seen what you guys on the Peninsula and South Bay have in your back yards for daily riding, well my hat's off to you! http://catcountry1067.com/Portals/0/Tip-Hat.gif

Perhaps that is VMC, because backinthe saddle is the one next to Tracy.

that's not VMC... he was wearing a white jersey... I don't think he's in this pic unless he's behind Umney Durak

that's backinthesaddle next to me (I think) :p

Well you did it. Now you know you can ride em too. If you ride em once a month it helps improve your climbing alot.