LeMond, Lance, Leipheimer, Riley

America's past and current cycling greats have all scorched down the flat valleys
and raged up the massive grades of Napa and Sonoma counties, so it was only natural that I followed in their skinny tire tracks, right? OK, so I almost tipped over at 4 mph going up the 15% - 17% Oakville Grade, but at least I did it! Up and down Oakville Grade and Dry Creek Grade and Chalk Hill and on and on, this is climb-'til-you-puke terrain here, with sustained, unrelenting half-mile to two-mile grades of 12% to 15% seemingly everywhere out of the valleys, with extended sections steeper than that! Compare that to our fabled Mount Washington climb that averages 14% for over seven miles(with a short section of a couple hundred finishing feet at 22%), and you'll see that these are serious climbs indeed. An Exeter, NH, transplant who now owns the bike shop in Calistoga explained that the lack of snow allows them to run the roads right up the hills, almost without regard to grade. Great!

If yer not a bikie then skip this paragraph, cuz it contains stupid bike talk. For your bikies out there, I luckily switched to a 50/34 compact crank this season, and I'm running a 12-23 cassette in the back. That gives me gearing that is plenty comfy for long days with grades up to 9% or 10%, but there is so much of that 9-10 stuff here, and plenty of climbs with much more, that I wish I had a couple extra gears for the long days. The shops say everyone except the pros out here use a 12-27 or even a 13-27 with a compact crank. And, there are more triple cranks here than I've seen in a long time. I think a 50/34 with a 12-27 would be just the ticket for most of us, and that's what I'll slide on the rear wheel when I return!

I rode 102 miles one day, and a few of those miles were with "Kathy," a local I caught up to on the way to beautiful Sonoma Lake.
She was about my height, riding on a vintage early-seventies Schwinn Paramount! How can I say this gently... ummm, she was NOT a youngster when this bike was made. She is way past retirement age, and still rides all over, and none too slowly I might add.
What an inspiration! Her hubby keeps this old bike, and a couple other vintage specials, ready to roll.

I also rode a beauty of a climb up Berkeley's Mount Diablo,
rising 3,849' above the not-far-away sea level, at the recommendation of my almost-world-famous cycle racing b-in-law Stephen. Warm, sunny, and dry, with a great view of San Francisco Bay, it was a cycling highlight if you like a good climb.
and the neighboring clean 'n' green wind farm (take that, Fat Ted Kennedy!)
There are hundreds of electricity-generating windmills on the hills across the water... note how they do not exactly blight the landscape, and they're about as far away from me as the proposed Cape Cod wind farm would be from the shore. Get with it, Kennedy, or keep buying oil from the Arabs... your choice!