Maybe I should stick with cycling photography instead of cycling itself.

Since I’ve been sick this week, I decided to trade in my bike for my camera for Week 4 of Low-Key Hillclimbs up the southern slopes of Mt. Diablo. Last year, we rode up the north side, where I experienced a spectacular collapse in blowing up after the first two miles. Completely unintentional, it was also a incredible and cagey move, seeing that I snatched the lead in the Endurance Category. Yes everyone, there is a competition in the back of the race… where loyalties are tested, injuries are faked, and fitness is a four-letter word.

By sitting out this week, I took advantage of the opportunity to see what fireworks were happening in the front. I keep seeing this name Tim Clark at the number one position week after week. Who is this man? What powers him? What motivates him to make everyone else feel like they’re riding for second place? Armed with my camera, I set off to discover the answer to these burning questions. Let’s check them off:

• Zero body fat… check
• Strong and defined musculature… check
• Well-conditioned cardio-vascular system… check
• Nice bike… check
• Color-coordinated outfit… check

No wonder why I’m always competing for the Endurance Award. I lack all of what makes Tim Clark numero uno this year!

Thanks to Ron Brunner, I had a front-row seat at all of the action as we drove up Mt. Diablo in Ron’s car. He did his best impression of Dirk Demol, while I played the role of Graham Watson. I’d definitely like to try riding on the back of a motorcycle one day. How do those guys stay on the bike? Harness? Strong quad muscles to grip the side of the motorcycle?

It’s been some time since I’ve done any cycling photography. My panning skills were in sore need of a refresher course. Practice makes perfect, and I got better as the ride went up. It was a blast photographing the final 250 meters up to the summit of Mt. Diablo. Great expressions by everyone going up that final hill! I could get used to this cycling photography thing, but next week it’ll be back to our regular scheduled programming: me struggling to keep up with the gruppeto on Highway 84 and West Old La Honda!

Here are some of my favorite shots from yesterday’s ride. Ron has some more photos on his Flickr page, with HD video coming soon!

Check out the rest of the photos from Mt. Diablo on SmugMug. Hope you like them!

Bohlman-On Orbit. The name alone sounds daunting. I was dreading it last year when it was rained out, and I was dreading it last week. The climb certainly lived up to its reputation.

Following a late night at my Stanford Class of 1997 10-Year Reunion party, I woke up on Saturday morning bright and early. Earlier in the week, I had made the decision to swap pedals from Rae’s bike to mine. Her Trek has the magical triple chainring and two extra gears that I felt I need to ascend Bohlman. Sadly, even before I could get started riding, I had an accident! While working the pedal wrench, I slipped and cut my right hand on the chainrings. You know when you’ve cut deep when the wound starts out white and quickly turns red. I walked briskly to the bathroom for some band-aids. Despite the band-aids, my fingers continued to bleed throughout the day, a result of lengthy periods of gripping the handlebars.

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10 years have already gone by! Where’s the time going?

Don’t have too much planned this weekend aside from the Class Party on Friday night. What else is everyone else doing?

For the second week, the Low-Key Hillclimb Series tackled King’s Mountain. In all of my years of cycling, I’ve only climbed King’s Mountain four times, and all of them were done this year. People typically have a favorite between Old La Honda and King’s, and it’s been clear over the years that OLH has been my choice.

Earlier this year, Jorge, Richard, Derek, and I double-dipped on King’s, climbing the 4.3 mile, 1540 foot ascent twice in one day to prepare for the Death Ride. We took it relatively easy back in March, and I didn’t bother to time each ascents. Fortunately, I had the results of Jorge and Stephen’s ride up King’s last Tuesday. Jorge mentioned that it took them about 32 minutes riding at 90% capacity. 90% is 100% for me, so I figured my finishing time would be about 32 minutes.

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Now that was much better.

The Low-Key Hillclimbs are back for 2007! Once again, the series began with a return visit to the slopes of Montebello Road last Saturday.

In last year’s ride, I suffered greatly, having went out too fast in the beginning with the misguided intent of wanting to keep up with the main pack. I finished in 48:54, a far cry from my previous best of 39:30. I hadn’t cycled that much during the year, and my poor form allowed me to runaway with the Low-Key Endurance Award.

This year, I’m aiming for the Most Improved From Last Year Award. In the first half of 2007, I was cycling more often. I did a number of long rides with significant climbs, culminating with my triumph at the Death Ride in July. Fellow Low-Key riders, Jorge and Stephen, also succeeded in completing all five ascents of up the passes of Monitor, Ebbetts and Carson.

Following the conclusion of the Death Ride, I’ve been running and swimming more than cycling. Whenever I have gotten on the bike, however, I’ve been riding with solid AirFree tires. After several hundred miles, I’ve come to the conclusion that my AirFree Tires are good for training but not racing. My average speed was 2-3mph slower with the AirFree tires than with my a standard clincher. This wouldn’t cut it for me if I wanted to have a good showing at Low-Key, so the night before Montebello, I peeled off the AirFree tires and put on a brand new pair of Michelin Pro Races and tubes.

The new tires definitely made a notable difference yesterday, as I felt much better while climbing. Although my heart rate jumped up quickly beyond my LT, I never felt completely wasted on the ride. Montebello is a climb that features a really tough initial two miles (to the school), followed by a flat section of one mile and a finishing climb of another two miles. By going too fast in the beginning last year, I was too cooked to push it on the flats. This time, I resisted the urge to speed up at the beginning and was thus able to conserve some strength by the time we reached the school. I hammered as best as I could before the finishing climb. I was very happy with my time of 42.45, a good six minutes faster than last year and only three minutes and change from my personal best!

Now, if I could only lose a few more pounds, I could seriously challenge my goal of breaking 39 minutes! I’d still have a ways to go before I am riding with the big boys though. The fastest time up Montebello was posted by Chris Phipps. He shattered the previous course record by last year’s Low-Key Champion, Tracy Collwell, finishing in 26:05!

Next Up: King’s Mountain

This year’s Low-Key features nine climbs instead of seven. We actually only did six climbs last year, as the fearsome Bohlman-On-Orbit was cancelled due to rain. Tomorrow’s ride will take us up King’s Mountain Road. In training for the Death Ride, Jorge, Richard, and I did the Double King’s Mountain. I’m happy that we’ll just do it once this time around!

Photos and Week 6 Photography

I forgot to bring my camera, but John and Ron have posted their photos up on Flickr. The photo above of Jorge, JT, Stephen, Jeff, Sean, and me was taken by Ron.

This year, I’m coordinating the Week 6 ride up Welch Creek. I’ve organizing the members at my camera user group to help document the ride. I don’t know if we’ll have motorcycle pace vehicles, but I promise we’ll have some unique footage from the event to share!

The October meeting for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

Agenda

19:00-19:30: Sign-in and mingling period
19:30-20:15: Smugmug DGrin Glacier Shootout
20:15-21:00: Cycling Photography and Welch Creek Road
21:00-21:30: Monthly Assignment: COLOR

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