Mount Palomar

July 26th - It was a day to visit the Gods up on Mount Palomar which is located a bit North of San Diego. This climb is compared to climbs in the Tour de France such as Alpe d'Huez except it's longer, 11.8 miles compared to 8.6.

We started in the parking lot at Harrah's Casino and right from the beginning we start climbing after only a few blocks. Not much of a warmup.

To our advantage was the weather which wasn't over the top hot. I think we didn't see anything north of 95 and at points there was a slight breeze. Don't get me wrong, we all still lost plenty of fluids on this ride.

Our first support and gear, SAG, was at the split off highway 76 to South Grade. This was at 8 miles into the climb. I'm already down a bottle at an hour on the road. Yep, it's a slow climb.

There is no real group riding at this point. You find your own pace and ride. Some like to stay with others and chat but for me, it's time to ride by myself and reflect.

There are some beautiful views and you slowly make your way to the top. You look to your left and right and can see for miles back down the valley. But one challenge is the motorcyclists who love to ride these roads at break neck speeds. One of our riders was clipped by one on his way down. He stayed upright but his ankle was swollen. The motorcyclists didn't even stop.

Unfortunately one of the XX1090 radio contestants was injured on his way down as well, Alex Hamlow, when his front tire blew out. As you can see by the picture, Alex is still in good spirits. Check out Alex's blog for more details and to hear how he's doing in the contest: http://qmdc2009clyde.blogspot.com/

I snapped a few pictures of some of the radio contestants before we started this Saturday. I'll work on getting a group shot next.

Aug 4th is another Elimination and we reduce the group down to 10 participants. Tune into the Scott and BR show on Tuesday next week to here who is left in this contest.