The Wednesday group is growing! 22 riders today. Big turnout, even though it was a little cool. Here we are at the top of Little Pinehurst, 21 plus the photographer.
Twenty Two (22) Riders on Wednesday!
Category: Uncategorized
Palomares Rd in Spring!
We recently took a Wednesday outlier ride on Palomares Road and sixteen riders showed up to to enjoy springtime in the East Bay Hills. We actually saw water in the creek and several areas of damage to the road, giving evidence of the recent storms.
Happy New Year!
Ride On for 2024!
Joe Shami’s Legacy – Mt Diablo Bike Turnout Project and a Bench on the La Morinda Trail!
Tragically, on April 14, 2021, Joe Shami, “The Legend of Mount Diablo”, was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in Lafayette, CA. In honor of Joe’s efforts, spirit, and inspiring demonstration of life fully lived there are now two wonderful remembrances of his life of cycling. The California State Parks Foundation has dedicated the Bike Turnout Project on Mt. Diablo to Joe and a bench has been placed along the Lamorinda trail near his home. In addition, Joe’s passing was also noted in a recent issue of the MIT News which reads as follows:
Although he is not with us today, Joe left a special gift in his will of $123,415.61 to California State Parks Foundation to fund additional Bike Turnouts on Mount Diablo. Read more about Joe and the Bike Turnout Project at this link https://act.calparks.org/a/biketurnout .
Here are pics of both Joe at the top of Mt. Diablo and few VeloRaptors at the bench dedicated to him.
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If you find yourself on the LaMorinda trail you will find Joe’s bench near the birdhouse village as shown below.
VeloRaptors Support BORP Revolution Ride!
For several years the VeloRaptors have supported BORP, an organization which provides sports, recreation and fitness programming for children, youth and adults with physical disabililities and visual impairments. On Saturday, May 13, BORP held its 21st annual Ride, Roll and Stroll in Santa Rosa. We are proud to say that 11 VeloRaptors participated and collectively raised $23,600, smashing our goal of $15,000. The ride this year was a memorial tribute for former team member Dennis Cathey. The team, headed up by team captain Randy Mellin, had several prodigious fundraisers on it, including one of the top 5, Steven Goldenberg. Altogether the team inspired 103 contributions to BORP.
You can learn more about the BORP organization at their website:
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.
