Our Wednesday ride was cancelled due to the incessant rain. Many of the Wednesday riders still needed their hit of caffeine, pastry and great socializing.
VeloRaptors Still Need Coffee
Category: Uncategorized
The 7 Riders that fought the cold – and won!
Seven hardy riders braved the initial cool temperatures today and had a very nice ride. We actually had 8 total participants, as Rob did a short ride, but Mike M. came along to take his place. Chris S. gets honorable mention for showing up at L’Cajou to cheer us on.
We encountered a light sprinkle as we left Orinda and enjoyed sunshine all the way back.
Great start to November!
Tour of Alameda – Saturday, Oct 29
Join us for a ride around Alameda Island on Saturday – Oct, 29, in conjunction with Oakland Rotary. This ride is designed for those who may want a bit of exercise followed by a good beer. If that is you, then come along on Saturday.
Two options are planned
| A 13 mile ride starting at Faction Brewery at 10:30. This will be a loop that gets back to Faction about noon when there will be a food truck there https://www.factionbrewing.com/visit#food-trucksHere is the route; https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41286192 For those wanting a longer ride, meet at the Lake Merritt Library at 9:30, we will then rendezvous with those at Faction at 10:30. That will make a 40 mile ride. Email Veloraptors@gmail.com if you plan to ride. |
Marin Headlands Ride – 2019!
Nineteen VeloRaptors did the Marin Headlands ride on January 12! We met at the foot of Market St, and then rode along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf.
We made a stop at the Dolphin Club to look at the vintage boats, and watch the hardy Dolphin members emerge from the chilly water.
Then it was on to the beautiful Marina Green with fabulous views of SF Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge
Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge is always an exhilarating experience, due to being on this fabulous structure, crossing the Golden Gate, and the speeding cyclists, rookie cyclists on electric bikes, going in both directions, as well as the bridge maintenance equipment. Once across, most of the group made the long slog up the Marin Headlands, and posed for our annual picture at the top.
Then comes the truly terrifying descent down to Ft Cronkite. The scenery is fabulous, but the road is STEEP and NARROW with several sharp CURVES.
It was then on to Sausalito where the group splintered. Several riders caught a ferry back to SF. A few others cycled back over the GG Bridge, or cycled out along the headlands for a closer look at the ocean.
Six of us (3 Steves along with Paul, Kevin and Dale) pedaled our way to Tiburon and took a ferry to SF from there.
It was a fabulous day for cycling and riding ferries on SF Bay!
Celebrations! VeloRaptor Christmas Party and 20 Years of VeloRaptors
From Rob:
Hi Everyone –
I hope you are getting in enough cycling to work off all the extra calories that we ingested at the party Saturday night!
For those who couldn’t make the party, we celebrated 20 years of the Veloraptors, and took some time to thank the people who have made it possible.
Click this link to see a list of people that have made the club what it is today:
In the spoken remarks, Rob forgot to mention a few things, that are important to highlight including:
1. Tom Willging’s work with Bike East Bay: Tom devotes a lot of time to making Oakland a better and safer place to cycle. He updates us on important bike infrastructure projects and ways we can support cycling. Tom especially wants everyone to know that all cyclists are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO JOIN AND SUPPORT BIKE EAST BAY.
2. Big Sur Trip – May 13-16 – 4 days of cycling: When talking about our wonderful cycling trips, I forgot to mention that there is one coming up in May! This will be a chance to spend a long weekend cycling the Big Sur area without having to plan or do a thing other than show up. Black Sheep Adventures will be running the trip, which we hope to fill with people from our club. Many of us have travelled with them before and they always arrange a fantastic trip.
3. Paul Lattierri: I forgot to mention the enormous amount of time and effort that Paul has spend collecting and curating photograph. Many of you have spent time looking at the beautiful slide shows of Veloraptor rides that he has created.
4. A special thanks to all the important people who I’ve still forgotten to mention!
Happy Cycling!
VeloRaptors Ride For BORP
VeloRaptors have participated in the BORP Revolution ride for the last many years. This year we had a team of 13 riders, and raised over $18,000 for BORP. Steve Blair put together a brief video:
VeloRaptor Jerseys – Right, Left and Center
The VeloRaptor annual meeting was held June 3 at Sibley, and was well attended! Lots of riders toiled up Tunnel Road from Montclair, escorted from behind by Chris S. (who drove as she had to leave early). Two Steve’s went off the board and Kathy and Charlie were added.
Incredibly, all three of our jerseys appeared. On the right, Kevin has his keepsake original ‘VeloRaptors/Royal Grounds Cyclists’ jersey (a very rare item). On the left, Rick has the second generation jersey. Smiling in the center, Kathy brings us up to date with the latest version!
VeloRaptor Update – May 2018
VeloRaptor News!
VeloRaptors looking good – Russ leads our pack, and he looks the part, with his new bike and matching outfit. Here he is on a recent Sunday ride!
Always a good idea to stop at stop signs, especially if it is a New STOP sign. Found this one along the Carquinez Scenic Byway on a recent 4th Saturday Ride.
A few of us attended the Bike East Bay Pig Roast fund raiser and ‘goodby’ to Rene Rivera, BEB director who is leaving. Not shown are Howard and Steve G. who also enjoyed the festivities. https://bikeeastbay.org/
The hills are green and riding in Marin is fabulous right now. Here is Fred, rolling through a meadow on Chileno Valley Rd. We also saw some bovine action along Hwy 1 between Tomales and Pt. Reyes Station.
Finally, we had a Wednesday Outlier ride in Livermore in mid-April. Here is a pic from the top of Tesla Rd. Post ride lunch at Garre’ Winery was fabulous.
VeloRaptors Comment on Road Diets in Oakland
Recently the East Bay Times published a commentary disparaging Road Diets. Below is a link a reply to the commentary, put together by 3 members of the VeloRaptors .
VeloRaptor Fun – OFF the bike
The VeloRaptors have hatched a subgroup of golfers. This group (termed the HackoRaptors by Kevin M.) had a great day of golf at Chardonnay in Napa, playing in the Orion Fund Charity Tournament. This tournament was founded by our own Pam H. and supports college students that are in a health crisis. The group pic shows our trophy, and bottles of wine awarded to us for having the most fun! Randy and Steve were named co-captains, for no particular reason.
