Britpower

Anyone else riding this event on April 17th?

cccorlew

MyLilPony insists we do this, as we've done the first two and she likes the organization.

I feel bad because i kept mailing them saying they should do a jersey based on their cool logo. They did. But it's ugly, so i won't be getting one.
Maybe I should have sent them a design too.

Anyway, we'll be there!

For inspirational purposes, Here's a photo from one of the years we did it.

Tricia on Morgan Territory Road, Diablo Century by ccorlew, on Flickr

DiabloScott

ME!

Planning on an early start and hoping for warm weather.

I've been getting a lot of cramps lately... gonna pack a lot of eCaps.

bikingshearer 

I'm doing the 100k version with a friend.

I plan to start slow and then peter out altogether.

c0lnago

Anyone have a link to more info?

cccorlew

https://www.ccjcc.org/articlenav.php?id=276 (google is your friend)

and, more importantly
https://ccorlew.blogspot.com/2010/04/...tury-2010.html
and
https://ccorlew.blogspot.com/2009/04/...tury-2009.html

Britpower

See you there.

bikingshearer 

Add MarkoPolo and bigbossman to this contingent. We're supposed to meet at the check -in at 6:45, which means we should all be there by 9:00.

DiabloScott

That was fun!
A little bit harder than I was expecting.
Saw Cowboy Curtis and Trish at Morgan Territory rest stop.
Sunol was a bit of a beast with some serious headwind.
One guy I talked to called it the "Oy Vey" century (benefits Jewish Community Center)
"Oy vey, another hill"

Hey...were those ham sandwiches at the lunch stop?

overthere

Cycle17 and I were there. That climb was a bugger for this flatlander. Cycle17 cussed his way to the top, lol. The wind buffeted me around a bit on the descent, but the view and roads were beautiful!

cycle17

Here's the picture from the MT Diablo ride yesterday... the climbing was brutal! Sigh...

bikingshearer 

Bigbossman, MarkoPolo, my friend Carl and I did the 100k, minus the "junk" miles through the housing tracts of San Ramon and Danville. Carl and MP went up Morgan slowly. BBM and I went up reeeeaaaally slowly. We were afraid the wind was going to kill us on Highland, but it wasn't as bad aw we had feared. Total mileage, about 55. Total climbing, something around 3,000 feet. A good time was had by all, except that my back is not feeling the love today for some reason. The legs feel fine, but the back is acting like it wants to seize up or something.

Oh, and DiabloScott, isn't it a bit blasphemous or something to ask for ham sandwiches near Passover?

cccorlew

diablo century 2011 by ccorlew, on Flickr

With minimal long-distance riding this year, Tricia and I were a might concerned about tackling a ride with the 100-miles and 6800 feet of climbing. We weren't really worried, just concerned. We'd been bike commuting in the rain, but that same rain had kept us pretty much away from anything over 30. We'd had one or two "real rides" but that was it.

But this ride went well. Though we both had low spots — mine climbing up toward Castro Valley into an annoying headwind — the overall experience was reassuring. We can still ride!

The most exciting moment was after cresting Morgan Territory and descending "the plunge" — a very steep downhill that's challenging for me on even a normal day. We'd been in sun and nice weather. The plunge dropped us into a wet road hidden in fog. It was somewhat harrowing until we dropped out of the cloud and flew toward Livermore. Yea tailwind.

Canyon is still beautiful. Rolling into the redwoods is still like magic. And what's with car drivers in Orinda? They all drive with such a sense on entitlement, honking, backing up without looking, honking again at cars and honking at more bikes and behaving in a generally clueless manner. Do really expensive cars make you weird, or do the weird feel compelled to buy them?

Tricia, for inexplicable reasons, decided to count road kill.
Her tally: 1 squirrel, 1 bird, 3 snakes, 1 of creature undetermined species and one guy annoyingly zig-zagging up a steep section in front of her.

The Walnut Creek Jewish Community Center puts on a good ride. It's well marked and generally well organized. They did have a couple of flaws this year that i hope they'll correct next time around.

1. I stood way too long at check in. I'd prepaid, so it shouldn't have taken the 30 minutes it did. They really need a couple more volunteers at peak check in.

2. Last year the lunch stop at the school had us using the school restrooms. This year we were told to use the port-a-potties at the Sunol train station. When we came out we were accosted by an angry train engineer who was not happy we'd used their facilities. Apparently we could use one outside the fence, but not the ones inside. The ride organizers hadn't made that clear, and we got quite an ear full from the train people.

The Diablo Century had a jersey this year. The photos were really ugly, but it turns out they actually did a much better job. The photo was just a mock up. I didn't get one and now I think I should have. Maybe next year.

Here's the RideWithGPS map

DiabloScott

I didn't want one, I just thought I saw some there... just kind of ironic for a Jewish fundraiser.

She's a keeper! I saw that undetermined thing too - like all fur with no identifiable features.


1 - YEAH!
2 - YEAH! Lunch was at a school with perfectly fine restrooms but they were locked - bogus. I went by the train station and there was a big line so I kept going and found an outhouse at an open space staging area about a mile up the road... pretty gross.

DiabloScott

Oh no! I fear this is the end of the Diablo Century.

Walnut Creek Jewish Community Center set to shut down Friday
By Elisabeth Nardi
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 12/15/2011 09:56:49 AM PST
Updated: 12/15/2011 09:56:50 AM PST


The Contra Costa Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek is closing as of tomorrow, according to a letter sent Wednesday to users of the center.

"At an urgent board meeting last week it was determined that we are not at a point where the current offerings and corresponding fundraising activity cannot guarantee sufficient cash to cover the programs at the Tice Valley facility," according to the letter from Robert Rich, JCC president. "Given this, the only course to take was, and is, to suspend the activities of the (adult day program), the JCC preschool and all other on-site programming."

The letter goes on to say that the employees at the center will be laid off and the property sold.

In 2008, the JCC won the rights to develop 2.6 acres next to their Tice Valley center so an 80-unit condo complex could be built. It was a controversial approval, but JCC leaders said the development was necessary to raise money to help pay for a $40 million expansion planned for the center.

Check back for updates to this story.

Philipaparker

Thanks for the update as I do most my riding in Marin I usually start the year off with the Wine Country Century around the second week in May I think I'll do this one as a tune up.

DiabloScott

Well, the update is that this ride is probably not going to happen in 2012.

cccorlew

I'm bummed. We rode every one of 'em. And now I'll never have a Diablo Century jersey. As I said upthread: "The Diablo Century had a jersey this year. The photos were really ugly, but it turns out they actually did a much better job. The photo was just a mock up. I didn't get one and now I think I should have. Maybe next year."

Now, maybe not.

That organization did a lot of good work too. Heck, they did Christmas presents for poor kids. That's right, the Jewish Center did Christmas. You don't see lots of Christians doing Passover for poor Jews.