Ground floor · rolls out before dawn
Six years of Strava tell the whole story: first logged rides in 2020, the dawn-patrol 7°7 club from 2024, a first century that June, and a January 2025 peak where the longest ride, the biggest climbing day, and the fastest hundred miles all fell in a single morning-to-dusk effort. Then a hard season. Then the line in the log that started this chapter: the long road back. This year the road is being repaid — with interest, dry, and before breakfast.
On the fifth of August, on Tioga Road in the Yosemite high country, I was bombing the descent west off the pass when the bike and I stopped agreeing about the road. The last clean reading the computer took was 43.3 mph. The elevation profile further down this page stops exactly where I did — that is not a rendering fault, that is the ride.
The damage report is the best one available at that speed: nothing broken, everything still where it’s supposed to be, and the whole bill settled in road rash. Tarmac is an expensive teacher and gravel a worse one, but as invoices go this is the cheap one. Skin grows back. It is the only item on the list that has to.
So the room is dark for a while. Everything below this notice still stands — the ledger, the segments, the 126.9 miles this whole year was aimed at. The comeback is postponed, not cancelled. The record has been sitting there since January of last year; it can wait out a few months of gauze.
“Crashed hard. See you in a month or 3.”— the ride title, typed that evening and left to stand
Palmarès · all-time, from the ledger
Comeback status: longest day this year 119.6 mi · gap to the record ~7 mi · currently on the bench · morale intact
Five rides, drawn from their own telemetry
Glacier Point Road out of the valley and back — then, in the same file and fifteen hours later, a separate plunge west off Tioga Pass. The gap in the line is real, and the line stops where the ride did.
One rider, one mountain, and — per the log — the best descent of my life coming down Mine Road.
One climb, taken whole: from near sea level to the summit in a single unbroken line, then the whole thing given back.
The comeback’s longest day, and nobody to sit behind. Seven miles short of the benchmark at the top of this page.
A hundred and twenty miles that never climb above 753 feet — and never stop climbing. The coast collects its toll in small change.
From the ride log, verbatim
“Most elevation, longest ride, and fastest 100mile, and the best pace lines.”
“It’s a long road to get back to where I was before.”
“Last ride before the rain comes.”
“So many best efforts here. The best descent in my life was Mine Road. That was epic.”
“Overwhelmed with euphoria, gratefulness, and complete relaxation as we cross the bridge.”
The parish
Every time below is my own, pulled from the ride it was set on. Tap one.
Times are from the rides linked inside — not lifetime bests unless it says so.
The days themselves
Abstaining from alcohol for the duration of the campaign — the Cellar understands, and the legs are grateful. This month’s running totals live on the Daily Programme.