A Ride with El Diablo

This past weekend, I drove home to Northern California so that I could spend some time with my mom for Mother's Day, as well as get out of Utah for a few days. (I'm still having a hard time with how cold the weather has been in Utah even though it is the middle of May.)
Being me, I had to take my bike home with me, even though I would only be there for three days. Just because I was taking a weekend vacation didn't mean I was going to be taking a break from training. My training plan had repeats of the climb up to Sundance for my ride on Saturday, but this wasn't going to be possible with my little get away back home. I decided the best substitute available to me back at home was the local mountain, Mt. Diablo. Despite its rather ominous name, Mt. Diablo's peak is only at 3,849 feet, which is nothing compared to the peaks I've been around for the past two years in Utah, but is still pretty impressive considering that the surrounding area is at about 500 feet. I wasn't entirely sure what the ride was going to be like, but I figured I could just start riding up the mountain until I found a road that was steep enough and then I would just start my repeats from there.
As I started up the mountain, I started to notice the number of bikers out on the mountain that day. Over my entire ride, I saw easily over 100 other riders. It was the perfect day for a ride. Sunny, blue sky. Temperature was about 65. Other then the strong winds, it was amazing. I'm not sure if it was all the hills/mountains I have been riding in Utah or the drop in elevation (it was probably a combination of both), but I quickly noticed that I was passing about every cyclist that I saw that morning. It was a nice change from all the times that I've had to watch Grant ride away from me as we started up Squaw Peak or some other insane climb that he loves to ride. I guess I just need to go riding with Grant a little more back here in Utah to put me back in my place when it comes to climbing.