FROM THE SUMMIT

The SJMN finally got around today to reporting last Saturday's Webcor Sierra hill climb times. The fastest man up the climb was Bay Area pro cyclist David Rodriquez (I think he's on the BMC cycling team) with a time of 20 mins 30secs.  The fastest woman was Christine Thorburn (2004 Olympic cyclist and local rider, according to the SJMN) with a time of 23:26.  The fastest female CEO was Leslee Guardino in 36:25 and the fastest male CEO was Andy Ball (Webcor's CEO) with 29:44.  That answered one of my long-standing questions on why Webcor is so enthusiastic about team sponsorships; their CEO is a big cycling fan.  Top local politician was Sam Liccardo (SJ councilman), at 26:49, which is doing very good. 

Nice to see so many highly placed folks in the bay area that are stronger supporters of cycling.

As to our Wednesday outing on top of Patterson Pass.
A group of us -- Mike Williams, Neil Michelfelder, and yours truly....departed from the Albertson's in Livermore, which also happened to be right on the race course route and the site of a sprint prime.  We were on Patterson by 11am and at the top by 11:30am, right on schedule.  We met Don Fujino at the top.  There was no wind at all and the view into the distance of several hundred windmills showed none of them moving, except maybe 2-3 far away.  It was not cold, but it was overcast, with the sun breaking through every once in awhile.  The crowds on the pass were not like the chaos of Sierra last year, but there was a big group, as big as could fit on the very narrow road.  We found a viewing spot up on the cliff that overlooks the road.  Unlike last year at Sierra, the wait was not long.  I learned later on that Lance Armstrong was riding in the Discovery Channel car with director Johan Bruyneel.   At 12:45 the first rider -- Will Firschkorn of Team Slipstream crested the summit and scored the top KOM points,  beating out Jurgen Van De Walle of Quick Step.

Less than 5 minutes later the bulk of the peloton was over the top...and I think everyone was over with 10 minutes or so.

After the race and the long caravan of support vehicles, police cars, motorcycles etc. came all across the summit, Mike, Neil and I departed the summit heading east -- the opposite direction of the race -- to avoid the mess of traffic still continuing down the other way, and to also get in a nice bike ride.  We descended Patterson which is a total blast, and turned left onto Midway, which by the way, was also part of the race course as Mike reminded me.  We then turned left on Altamont Pass Rd and a peculiar thing happened.... the absolutely calmness of the air gave way to a wind tunnel blast in our face, and the windmills in this area were cranking away.  Maybe the wind had just kicked up in the afternoon... but whatever, it was fierce.  Anyway, we made it back safe and sound with a nice 37 mi ride and great day of race viewing under our belt. 

Brad Baldwin

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