Club Member Spotlight
on Garry Birch and a Photo Essay by Brad Baldwin
Race Team Ride #1 by G. Birch
Happy Monday All
A good turnout yesterday for the inaugural 06/07 race team rides.
Mike Z., Richard, Jason, Jorge, Keith Kruse, Carlos, Brian Meirers and myself represented the team, and most gratifying was the number of guest riders, both from within the club and prospective club and team members. Strong woman Kim Wick joined (more of Kim's adventures later) plus Ted Chen, Daniel Miller, Keith Jordan and Edward Falsken.
We started from Niles about 10 minutes late, but nobody was seriously offended. Once on the road we made a nice pace along the canyon to Sunol and headed south on Calaveras to the turn around at the base of the hill at Geary road. These early rides have no major climbing on the route sheet, I want to keep the rides together as much as possible. On the return we instigated a rotating paceline and we swept past some riders who attempted to join the line but soon found even our moderate pace too hot to handle. Then as we approached 680 a mini disaster struck Kim, who had a double catastrophic deflation, both front and rear tires shredded on some steel plates covering some temporary construction trenches. Everybody else avoided the offending sharp edge.
So Kim, who only last Wednesday was telling me how she never get's flats had to contend with two flats, two badly cut tires and a lesson in the use of co2 cartridges and 'boots' to provide a barrier to tube blowout. After repairs Kim and Mike Z went directly back to Fremont and the rest of us continued on to Sunol Pleasanton road, Happy valley road, Sunol Blvd and to Bernal. Jason nearly caused a minor wreck when he swung over to take a natural break, but that was the height of excitement until the ride pace was deregulated on the Poggio. Several attacks, first from Jason and then our guests latched on. Carlos followed wheels with Jorge in tow, with me a bit further back. RB blew, a chain was shipped and Carlos was away, with Jorge chasing and yours truly closing fast. Carlos took the KOM, and I passed Jorge 10 meters from the summit (it's all about timing).
A quick regroup at the railroad station, a consensus about going up Palomares and off again. RB and Ted swept on to Fremont and the remainder turned on to Palomares. Again we deregulated the pace and Boner (Brian M) twiddled off the front. Keith J and Jason followed and the rest of us struggled up at our own pace. Keith J gained the second KOM, well done. And there was Mike Z waiting for us, he rode home and collected the baby, strapped her in to the baby seat and took her to the top to meet us. Most excellent.
A final plunge in to Niles and a stop at the coffee shop for a frothy one and then home.
Thanks to all those attended, especially RB who now lives in Los Gatos and better luck next time Kim
The 5th Annual Mt. Hamilton Loop Ride
106 miles -- 8,000 ft of climbing by B Baldwin
In mid-October, a group of 25 intrepid riders headed off to tackle Mt. Hamilton. I decided to chronicle the day in photos, taking 120 photos during the adventure. It is always difficult to edit down, but here are just 12 of them.

A group comes up the first pitch of Mt. Hamilton Road -- San Jose is in the background. The morning was cool and overcast -- perfect climbing weather. The cloud cover is a high ceiling.
Joe Trabucco on the climb. |
Jim "Ti-Man" Marsh chugging up the climb. |

The riders break through the cloud cover near the summit -- the rest of the day would be clear and beautiful. The rider seen here in the distance is Ken Nishimura.

Group shot
We missed a few guys in the group shot...here are the rest (Nick wanted to be in this photo too). Missing is Jim Marsh, already on the descent toward the Junction Cafe.
The feed zone with one of the smaller telescope domes in the background. This was the turning around point for some of the riders as time constraints had them turn back to San Jose, but I think about 18 continued on. Judy Huang and I volunteered to provide support to the riders -- I would do the full loop, and Judy would plan on meeting up with us at the Cafe. During the descent toward the Cafe, the support came in handy -- not for the riders, but for three crashed motorcyclists. Two of their bikes were un-rideable. With no one available to help out in the lonely outback except yours truly, I sagged in two of the cyclists to the firehouse, the third was able to still ride his motorcycle. The motorcyclists did not want an ambulance, or worse, a helicopter ride, because (we learned later) their respective mothers would have been very, very upset!! Apparently, they were novice riders and had been goofing around. The injuries were only to one rider and were not life-threatening, but he did fracture his foot. After being checked out by the paramedics at the station, we were able to transfer the riders over to Judy's car and have her descend down the mountain to one of the friend's of the injured rider, and I could then stay behind with the lunches and snacks for the riders.
Ok, we're back on our bikes, heading north on Mines Rd. toward Livermore. This is the first of two unmerciful hills to climb just north of the Junction Cafe. Just because you've done the Mt.Hamilton summit, doesn't mean you are done with climbing! In fact, there's at least 3,000 ft more of climbing after the summit. From right to left that's Kim, Dennis, and our mystery rider.
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Judy offers snacks to the riders in Sunol. Earlier, Judy also handled a much appreciated snack stop at the bottom of Mines Road. |
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