Me: What the heck are you doing to my bike John?
John: Er, you know you have a crack on the rear rim, right?

That was Tuesday afternoon and the dirt and bike had been parked in my living room since the Fleche. Oh crap, now I have to go looking for a new rim and I knew the Mavic 517 I had were discontinued long ago, I think what replace them was the 717; the hunt was on. John offered a 26" Mavic 238 rim he had in storage, he does not own 26" wheeled bikes anymore so it was mine if I wanted it. We drove to Oakland to get it and in the process had some good Thai food.

The 238 was also silver and somewhat similar to the cracked 517 but I figured that I had a couple of days to look for a cosmetically better match. Went on line the next morning and found nothing in the shops that would be able to deliver in two days, emailed Gabe at Box Dog Bikes, he did not have any, sent an email to the sfrandon list asking if anyone had a 517 or 717 in silver and got many offers to borrow their wheelset for the 400k but that was not what I needed. I had other wheelsets I could use it's just that this is THE wheelset I use for brevets.

Wednesday afternoon I stopped at Roaring Mouse in the Presidio and found the 717 in Silver, but decided to give a little more time for a response from the people I had emailed before. Thursday morning it was time to get that rim I had found. John picked it up for me and that evening I started swapping rims. in one of the holes I lost three nipples that would never come out no matter how much I shook or probed the rim with a thin wire, they would be buried inside for now. At least no noise from them was heard.

Went off to bed early and could not catch any sleep until very late and then when I finally was feeling happy asleep the alarm went off.
Lazy bum inside my head: I don't want to go...

Friday morning before the Saturday start I woke up to the email news that the third member of our team could not ride the Fleche. Brian K. and I had the choice of finding a new team member in one day or ride for "no credit". Fleche Teams must have at least 3 bikes (tandems count as one bike). Since I have never cared about getting "official credit" or not for the events I ride but more about riding them, I was good to go and so was Brian K.

Brian drove up from his place on the Peninsula and parked at our place in San Francisco, we had breakfast and we left a few minutes late. We arrived at our starting point, the Marina Safeway in San Francisco, on time but the long lines at the register had us starting at 8:07 instead of 8:00. Brian was team captain and route designer, I followed him on familiar roads and trails to the great hwy and then Hwy 1. We could have climbed out of Pacifica via Planet of The Apes but chose to go Hwy 1 aka., Devils Slide, not bad.

Weather had been great so far, clear and not cold. We arrived to Half Moon Bay, our first control, 15 minutes behind schedule according to our inaccurate average speed estimations on the cue sheet, oh well. The meanest climb of the ride was just a few miles away. Purisima Creek trail is a lovely fireroad that starts very gently wandering around a forest and soon turns steep steep. There were muddy sections of the way up and eventually...

What the heck! four extra pounds this week alone? Wine consumption had been the same but I definitely had a few extra treats earlier in the week and spending one night at Pt Reyes did not help, you know, pizza for dinner and Bovine bakery pastries for breakfast. Not much riding the week before except a very nice, but hard ride celebrating Gabe's birthday. He took us on a pain-fest ride in the mountains South of San Francisco, we left around 9 am and arrived home about 12 hrs later tired and hungry.

But that was last week, now it was time for the SFR 300k, a route I don't like but do every year. At 6am ~100 riders and I were leaving the Golden Gate Bridge headed towards Marin and Sonoma counties. Did I mentioned I do not like this route? I don't know why I keep coming back every year. It has 2 very long and extra boring sections of flat and straight riding that always attempt to kill my intention to have a nice ride.

I rode to Fairfax with the second group, the leading guys were probably 10 minutes ahead of us. Knowing I was hauling extra pounds of uncooperative body weight I was going to ride slow. I got to the top of White's Hill right behind Greg B and another rider that definitely had the legs to breeze through the valley on the other side. I tucked behing Greg but then they proved too strong for me and...

So I had decided to cancel the original July 3rd date for La Ruta Loca Randonnee 200k mixed terrain as most riders (including me) had expressed concern they where not ready for it. Yes this is a ride you need to be commited to in order to even start. This year has been a hard one for me and deciding to embark on a big ride required a lot of determinacion, something I felt was lacking from most riders at the beginning of the summer. My goal with this ride has always been to provide a fun and challenging ride to all, one that most of us want to finish, not a ride that is a drag. La Ruta Local Randonnee must be fun to do.

After a hard summer that did not see much long or difficult rides, I started thinking it was time to get this thing going again. After a few emails sent to the San Francisco Randonneurs most riders agreed the first week of October was the best time to do it. Many loved the idea and were almost sure they were gonna do the ride, October 3rd was the final date.

At 6 am, as usual, we meet at the Marina Safeway in San Francisco, only Brian C. had confirmed the night before, he was there with Ricardo M whom I had met/ridden with during...

Another year of brevets start for me. About 30% chance of rain which is the threshold I had set earlier in the week, any more chance of rain and I'll be rolling back over in bed to sleep. After getting ready and eating an unusual (for me) breakfast that consisted of a bagel and a few spoons of uncooked oat meal with orange juice, I left home with plenty of time yet I managed to arrive at the bridge just in time to barely chat with friends. Greg B., John P., Brian K., Brian C., and I were at the front of the 83 riders crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The pace was brisk but doable for me. We got to Camino Alto hill along with a few other riders and they proceeded to climb ahead, I took my time and was feeling a little fatigued already. Something is going on with me, probably need to eat more veggies as people tell me but you know what I say about that, veggies are for bunnies. I need to be more bunny like...

A hard year 2011 has been for me, but I have always wanted to participate in a DART event. A few years back I suggested that our club, the San Francisco Randonneurs (SFR) should expand our ride offerings to do new events that had yet not being offered. Randonneuring is a great sport, but riding the same events over and over, year after year can get boring after a while. When talk of doing a DART mixed terrain route started in the sfrandon mail list I was interested in joining the team. Heath A. became team captain and with the help of Nick L, Brian K, and others he mapped an ambitious route. After the route was set we settled on the final roster of team members, Heath A, Nick L, Brian K, Sean C and I (I was the last to join).

We started at 6:00 am at the Strauss statue at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south on city streets crossing San Francisco and hugging the coast as much as possible until we got to Pacifica where we went inland on what used to be Hwy 1 decades ago. This section now call Planet of the Apes (PoA) is a narrow, ~6 feet, path of broken pavement and dirt that climbs steadily for a few miles and then descends onto the current Hwy 1 right before Montara, the whole PoA is beautiful and highly recommended. We continued on Hwy 1 South to our first control at the Safeway in Half Moon Bay...

Yes Monica next year I won't run a marathon every month and will make sure I will not start a brevet if I am not rested and in shape for the challenge. It was not fair to John. Weird enough I am not that tired today (Monday), I was able to get some work done till the lack of sleep on the weekend caught up with me.

Hey John! Oh good to know you're fine. So you came just a few minutes after me. Yep, I went straight to the Strauss Statue so we missed each other when you rode straight home. At the bridge I saw Ian K-B and his dad and we chatted for a while. He sounded very exited about the 600k next week.

Thanks for picking me up Monica, I was not looking forward to riding home from the bridge. I am glad all this is over, don't want to even think about another 600k! no senor, I am done with this crap!

Thanks for coming to meet us and the pizza and junk food Greg. That Pizza was good ah? Yep I have not seen John since we splitted up somewhere in San Geronimo Valley. He wanted to take the scenic way starting at the Nicasio intersection I was too tired for the longer but prettier route. I thought I would be seeing him in San Anselmo ...