That name?

No riding yet this week, though we plan to spend some time on Mt. Tam tomorrow.

I've been meaning to explain where the name, winnicycle, comes from. I suppose it could seem to be simply an obvious combination of my name and the fact that I'll be doing a whole lot of cycling in the (very) near future.

Nah.

It's about my unicycle. I figure every time I feel a teeny bit challenged on the big ride, I can just think how much harder it would be on the unicycle.

I've done the Mt. Diablo Challenge a few times now & I plan to do it again this fall. I don't suppose I'll ever be as strong again as I will after this summer, so my chances of improving my time are about as good as they will ever be. What does that have to do with unicycles? That question shows you've never been out there. Quite a few people actually ride that one-that 11 mile, 3500'+ climb - on unicycles. Big ones, that somehow manage to have a place to rest hands. No gears, though. They're sort of the fixies-squared of the event.

So one year, a unicycle passed me fairly early in the day. Another rider asked the guy about the descent. The unicyclist told him it's even harder than the climb - they have to control the cadence all the way down. 11 miles. The next year I managed not to see any unicycles until I was within a couple of miles of the top. Then one passed, and a bicyclist, a guy of roughly my age who happened to be climbing at about my pace, groaned, "I was hoping I wouldn't be passed by a unicycle!"

So I have a lot of winnicycle memories to help me keep things in perspective.