Diablo Challenge 2022
 

I'll be the backpack hauler again this year.
I'll have my cowbell and other noisemakers on The Wall - come say HI.
And MY defined segments are the gold standard for Strava purposes.

https://www.strava.com/segments/7967598
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7edc2f4158.jpg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...64d82348ff.jpg

Nice!
Yesterday my brother and were talking about climbs in the east bay when we were kids. Mt Diablo, Lawrence Hall of Science, Miner Rd in Orinda...50 years ago.

https://mountdiablochallenge.itsyour...amin=0&amax=98

700 riders and the winner is
Quinn Felton 20 year old male from Belmont, CA
Chip Time 00:45:09.4
Average Pace 4:01/mile

I'll just note that he looks like a climber.
4:01 per mile... I can't even do that on the easy parts.

There were a lot of eBikes this year - I don't know how they categorized them. But the FIRST two people up The Wall were on eBikes and they had registration numbers but weren't even going very fast so I suspect they bypassed the official start somehow.

Quinn was still 4 minutes slower than the Strava KOM Amgen 2014 stage winner Rohan Dennis.
https://www.strava.com/segments/16142858

It was perfect weather and there were some big time gaps in the leaders.

:eek: Holy Toledo! That's just the tiniest hair under 15mph!! As John Madden used to say: I couldn't do that when I could do that.

It's crazy because Rohan Dennis is a strong rider, but he's not a climber in the pro peloton. And it was at the end of a very long stage, probably 100+ miles and several thousand feet of climbing previous to Diablo. If a truly elite pro climber participated in this event, without being at the end of a long stage race, I'm sure they would easily be under 40 minutes. Under 40 min to the NG JUNCTION is a respectable time, and this segment is from the school, so it's SG + a few minutes of rollers before the start. It's truly remarkable how fast the pros are.

Starting in San Jose, it was a big group with Wiggo in yellow pulling the whole Mountain, and it was practically a pack sprint up the Summit Wall.

It was also FREAKING hot that day... and I was there! I think my sub-40 Junction times are behind me now though.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9540818ebc.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9706b2c996.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e9f4e5badc.jpg

Did the Diablo Challenge this year and as my first ever supported ride of any sort, I had a bunch of fun. If you saw a guy wandering around with a yellow and blue SPAM jersey, that was me. The Spam jersey garnered quite a few comments from people, someone even wanted a picture of the Spam burger on the back.

Managed to make it to the North Gate junction in roughly a half an hour and got to the bottom of the Wall in 59 minutes but didn't make it up to the top until a couple minutes later, so just outside of an hour. Next year I'll get it though!

My brother put in an impressive ride too. 1 hour 6 minutes in an 80's steel Specialized Allez with Suntour Superbe 2x7 drivetrain. I think he was the first down tube shifter bike to the finish, not like there was much competition there though.

As for the weather, I agree that it couldn't have been better. It was great fun getting a view of the sea of fog coming up and over the cloud layer.