(Nov 14, 2009)  Doug Folsom Fondue, 75 miles, 15.0 avg, 7050’ climbing. w/ Doug, Jay, Ward, Dave, Jack, Stephen, Christine, June, and A handful of good riders from Doug’s new club, Revolution Cyclists.

Ride report by Jay (w/ Doug’s permission) all graphs, captions and photos by Ward.  Alternative HunterThompsonesque version of ride report with additional/ enhanced photos at Pumpkincycle Blog.

Doug, who was exiled to Sacramento a few years back, was one of the club’s Double Triple Crown rookies in 2005.  Known for being super friendly, and always ready to encourage yoga and a diet of vegetables,  we’ve run into Doug a few times on organized rides this year, and we talked about a club ride in the Upper Gold Country.   So Doug organized a climbing metric out of Folsom (elevation 275’) up to Georgetown (elevation 2650’.)   Most of the Diablo Cyclist bonus mile riders  joined in—coupled with a handful of riders from Doug’s new club,  Revolution Cyclists.  We wound up doing loads and loads of attention getting rollers (and a few long hills) in the Upper Gold Country where there isn’t 25 feet that remains flat.

Malcolm Dixon Road-Tin Man Mailbox

Marshall Road-Christine

Marshall Road-Serious Jack is Serious

Doug, in the spirit of split loyalties, wore the Revolution Cyclist jersey and the Diablo Cyclist shorts.  Otherwise everyone (except for one Death Ride rookie who doesn’t own any Diablo Cyclist wear) was in their respective club kits.     Because of the drive Jack had requested a 9:30 start, which was good as it got a little warmer.  The  rest of the day would be strange.   Within an hour wouldn’t need a vest in the lowland around Placerville and wouldn’t need it on the climbs.  But later at high elevation there was a chill in the air, and it was cold on the afternoon descent from Georgetown.  But in the Gold County the air is much dryer than in the Bay Area, and made it feel warmer than it really was.

Going out to Georgetown was a series of uphill rollers punctuated by a couple of real climbs—and we all rode cooperatively and hung together.   Loads of well paved main roads surrounded by isolated homes, mom and pop stores, oaks and pine (In the middle of a Placerville subdivision was a private airport where folks land between houses and hills.)  —but we must not have been far from population centers (Auburn) as though traffic wasn’t steady the roads were busy with aggressive cars/ pickup trucks.  At one point I signaled to a car and they rode alongside as we discussed Nietzsche. For about 25% of the ride we’d get off a well traveled road and suddenly be on a back road—which usually meant more rollers.

Our second regular stop for the day (there were a few flats) was Georgetown, at the top of our route; an isolated small town near nothing else and we took a long breather on “Main Street.”   The return trip would feature downhill rollers and cooperation went down the toilet.  At the start of the ride  our Country Line Sprint man, Stephen, was caught napping when the County Line suddenly appeared  just 1/8 mile out of Folsom and he was stuck in the back.  Stephen correctly determined that on the return trip we’d come close to  Placer County (we did come close but never crossed over) but we started looking for Placer County and there was the original El Dorado line to be first to.   Coupled with no one really being sure where we were, there was a series of sprints, attacks, regroups (who knows the route?) and repeats.    After a series of false starts—and being faked out by other “green” signs, there was a mad dash when we were closing in to the start—and————there was NO county line sign in the return direction!

Marshall Road-June

Conversation over-We can relax now

So we were back in Folsom @4:00 with the low setting sun casting long shadows.  Jack had said we’d return 1:33 ahead of sunset (how did he get those 3 minutes) and I should have ran a stopwatch upon returning to check this but didn’t.  Another great Club ride, and great riding with Doug again.