Specialized : Riders Club

Concept Cyclery's Journal

Stage 3 Riders Club Ride: The view from the top!

posted by at 11:17 PM on February 25, 2008

Once our riders and world champions embarked on their journey toward Sierra Road, Bruce, my friend Alicia, five month-old Chaya (we like to start them young) and I finished loading tents, chairs, coolers, gear, and enough food and drink to support a small army into our two "official" vehicles and hit the road. The plan was to get up to Sierra early enough that the roads were still open so as to avoid any hassle and ensure a flat spot roadside to set up. We were not quite that lucky. Shortly after turning onto Sierra we were stopped at a CHP blockade, but quickly waived through after Bruce convinced the officer that we were official Specialized team support vehicles...kind of true...good thing we were wearing our Specialized Warm-Up jackets! Hopped back in the cars, drove up the road a bit, and encountered another CHP blockade. Bruce tried the same story to no avail, this officer wasn't interested in making friends. After about ten minutes of negotiations and my franticly trying to think of a plan B, Bruce hopped in the car and waived to us to follow. From my understanding, Bruce convinced the officer to let us up the road to unload because Alicia and I were "a little girl and a pregnant woman who could not possibly carry all the gear". Not quite true, but I'm not complaining.

Up, up, up we drove, until we reached a spot where the road leveled out. Since none of us had been up this particular climb, we had no idea where we were, and elected Bruce to keep driving to check it out since his car was small enough to at least have a chance at turning around. I hopped out of the car to take pictures of the awesome view and promptly slipped in the mud. Awesome. Also of note was the cow skeleton in the field next to the road...I'm sure a welcome site when suffering your way to the top. Turns out we had another mile and a half to drive before we got to the top. Ouch.

Once we got to the summit we were pleasantly surprised to find that Bruce had already made friends with some rangers that were parked at the top, and they had offered to park their trucks in such a way as to hide our vehicles in the event the CHP officers came up looking to make us drive back down. I thanked them profusely and offered them all the snacks they could eat!

We set up our little camp and settled in to wait. The Toyota Fan Support vehicles came to visit, bringing cowbells, thunder sticks, and chalk. I killed the time by writing a note to Tom Boonen (sadly, he didn't answer). Each rider that reached the summit was cheered for like they were pro, and the cowbells got plenty of warm-up before the big boys rolled in. We made sure to save some food for our Concept Cyclery/Rider's Club riders, and handed them their warm clothes when they made it up. It didn't take long to get a pretty good group up there!

Reports on the racers trickled in from those lucky enough to have cell service, and their general location was evident by the helicopters hovering overhead....I counted six at one point, along with a small plane flying circles. Once they came through the screaming/clanging/clapping was nearly deafening, and the gaps in the field allowed for plently of picture sharing and repositioning. My unique "sit in the street" photography style ensured I got lots of pictures of racers looking back at me, so of course I will be telling my parents/friends/pretty much anyone who will listen that they are close personal friends of mine. Naturally.

Once the procession of cyclists and team cars made the trip down the other side of the climb, we traded warm clothes for cycling clothes with our riders, refilled their tube supply, saw them off, and packed up our camp. All of the food and drink had been devoured at this point (right down to the ice in the coolers and Bruce's private stash in his car...should have unloaded from that Costco trip!), so the heavy lifting was minimal. We hopped on the freeway, made a pit stop at In-N-Out, and got back to the shop in time to download pictures and meet our riders.

I had a great time, and am overjoyed to hear that others did as well!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Ian, Peter Reid, Rebecca Rusch, and all my riders for showing up on a rainy Wednesday morning to watch the Tour of California with us!!!! We hope to see you again next year!!

Thanks for reading my post!

Amy
Concept Cyclery

Come by and see us soon!