East Bay Dirt Classic

I got wind of a brand new mountain/cross bike event, the East Bay Dirt Classic, sponsored by the Crocker 510 bike club. This was a pretty epic ride, with 25- and 45- mile versions. We got a group together to do the 25-mile version, which was no walk in the park, boasting over 3000′ of climbing, mostly on the steep fire roads of Redwood and Anthony Chabot parks.

Me, Yu and Dragon joined up, and impressed everyone at the start line. They let us have a 25-minute head start, which was cool because we got to see the other riders, rather than just being dropped out of the gate and riding alone the whole time. Some of those folks are super-fast; I don’t know how long it took them to do the course, but the leader caught me after less than an hour of riding, meaning he was going about twice as fast as I was.

Yu graciously let me pace him for a while before dropping me and not looking back. Dragon got behind us because he felt the need to go play on some skinnies, and then he got lost down by the lake (I told you man, if you get to the lake you’re going the wrong way), so it took him longer but he said he had a fun ride. It was one of the hottest days of the year and I was in survival mode by the end, having been passed by almost the entire 25-mile crew (I think I beat one guy). I still got an appreciative round of applause at the finish line.

Because it was a race I didn’t get any photos, but there were some event photos. Can’t believe Yu was still smiling at the end.

Full set of photos

The only shot I got was of the party at the end, where I won a bottle of Gran Patron Platinum tequila in the raffle–that’ll cover the entry fee!

Overall, the event was a huge success; C510 raised over $46,000 for the Alameda County Food Bank, and as far as I can tell, no one died.