Sunday Morning Climbing Clinic

The Friday hill-climbing series is close to celebrating its second anniversary.  I've always wanted these rides to feel welcoming and supportive of anyone who is interested in improving their climbing skills.  But I can see what's happened: over time, as the 'regulars' have kept at it, the rides have become a bit faster, longer, and more challenging.  Newer climbers get spooked and decide not to participate.  Not quite the outcome I had in mind.

So.  Back to basics.  I'll lead an 8-week Intro-to-Hills climbing clinic in January and February.  Sunday mornings.  Launching from Winters.  We'll start out easy (Steiger Hill) and build up our climbing time and effort each week.  No ride will be longer than 30 miles.  The goal will be a field trip to climb Mt Diablo at the end of February.  By the end of the series, I hope we'll have been able to cover topics important to becoming a more confident (and safe) climber/descender: gearing, shifting, cadence, sitting, standing, steering, cornering, blah, blah, blah.

I have complete faith that if you (1) stick with the program, (2) are able to make some time to 'practice' during the week, and (3) can adopt a 'no struggling' approach when things get challenging, I will see you at the summit of Mt D on February 27th.  Be warned: hugging will probably happen!

As I write this, nearly 30 people have expressed interest in participating.  (Yowza!)  Not everyone will be able to make every Sunday ride, and I expect we'll get weathered out on occasion.  So, I've created a 'Google Group' that I strongly encourage you to join if you are planning to participate, or just want to follow along with what we're up to.  The intention is to be able to get information out about each week's ride, and to create a forum to discuss pertinent cycling/climbing topics without wasting our Sunday morning ride time or cluttering up the DBC listserv.   The link to our Google Group (DBC Sunday Climbing Clinic) is here.

Get ready to be in great shape for March Madness!