The view north from the very peak....
Most of the climb looks like this, steady roads with beautiful scenery...
A typical view from the lower slopes of the south side ascent....
Sunday was the Wente Criterium held in Livermore. The field was sold out, so 100 racers in my field. All of the Nor-Cal teams were present and the field was super stacked. It seemed every team came with their "A" list to fight it out on course. The pace was very fast, I think we averaged 29 miles per hour for the entire Crit. The course was flat and 1.2 miles long. As the race progressed it looked as if the high speeds were going to lead to a mad sprint in the end. I did my best to get into a position for the finish, and had to dig deep to have a chance for a good result. It was all about bar banging and elbow knocking on the last lap. It really was a crazy sprint for the win with so much jostling for wheels that crashes happened in the group. It really was extremely hectic.
I managed to finish a solid 7th place on the line. It was all I could do to battle it out for a good result. There was so much speed and so much horse power from the other teams, my 7th place was very respectable. Only 6 guys beat me and there were many, many big named riders who were behind me at the finish. I am only going to improve on the road racing scene as the year progresses. So this was a very good experience in my progression on the road.
After the race I went to ride MT Diablo for a cool down. Mt Diablo is the best mountain to climb in this region. It is 13 miles of great climbing and 3500 vertical feet gained. And best of all the entire road to the top has been freshly re-paved. I was climbing slow after my long weekend of riding, but it was a great feeling to climb the mountain at a easy pace.
I did 5 hours and 70 miles for the day and I am now ready for a rest day!
