My hardest ride is tomorrow.
 

I think I'm ready for it. Yes, BART is involved, but I can only ride around the east bay hills so much. I'm in "exploring mode" right now. Last week I did Morgan Territory with 50 other miles afterwards. That sucked but I felt awesome all day. The day before I whipped out 75 miles on a route that had 2000 feet of climbing. Needless to say, I "spun" through that.

Tomorrow however, requires at least a little preparation. Concord BART to Morgan Territory, down to Livermore, through Pleasanton/Dublin, up to the peak of Mount Diablo, and head home via Walnut Creek BART. 81 miles in all and I learned 2 hours ago I'm going solo. Bummer, but I'll have the tunes rockin!

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...23787206418549

It looks like a pretty badass route with 2 good climbs. I've hit Mt. Diablo at mile 40, but never this late in a ride. My main goal is to do this route, and follow it with a 40 mile recovery the following day. Can't wait for it! $20 says I won't get a flat! Any takers? HAHA! I NEVVVVVVVER get flats. Yeaaaaah, that's right.

Side note: If it weren't for the Garmin 705, I'd never be able to do rides like this. God bless that fine machine!

Nice route - let us know how it goes. The weather should be awesome.

You'll like this ride. To cut off some miles, you can turn right at the bottom of Morgan Territory onto Manning, right again onto Highland, then right onto Tassajara, and a final right onto Blackhawk (to get to Mt. Diablo). This will still give you a good, hard 60 mile ride. FYI cell phone coverage seems to have improved, but there are lots of dead zones back on Morgan Territory - make sure you have everything you'll need to fix flats, food, etc!

JB

YYYyyyyyeah. That ride sucked. Mainly because my 705 decided to not track the route correctly so it turned into an even longer ride. I was solid up to mile 60ish.... then I had to go up Mt. Diablo. Didn't bonk though, pretty stoked on that.

Congrats - sounds like an epic ride. Was it windy at all today?

You do of course realize that you were doomed the minute you posted this:

Long hard rides are more fun as part of a group - you should tag along on one of the many rides posted here (Marshall Wall on Saturday; B&B slow pace group on Sunday). Give it a shot!

JB