Day 3: E. San Jose to Livermore; 76 miles
 Giovanni on Mt. Hamilton - Giovanni, Marco's older, fatter brother, "screams" up the approach to the summit of Mt. Hamilton. A half hour later, I was on the pavement at the base of the backside of Mt. Hamilton, where I left part of my backside and shredded the bib shorts Kai Yu let me borrow. Today, I am Giovanni Pantani, Il Pirate Grande, the big Pirate. I emerged from my tent in full Mercatone yellow, to many photographs. Today, I feel like a rock star. Though admittedly, I didn't feel great. A slight lack of sleep and a nervous tummy, so I was a bit slow getting out of the gate. But once we started to climb toward the top of Mt. Hamilton and I got into a nice cadence, I think what little cycling instinct I have kicked in. Not long after starting up Mt. Hamilton Road, I had a fine Pantani moment. I was climbing well, passing other riders, when I was overtaken by a dump truck. The truck passed me on a curve, and thus slowed a bit to do so, so I jumped in behind it, and suddenly went from 10 mph to 18 mph riding in the truck's draft. I was able to do this for close to a mile on the windy road and had a blast, diesel exhaust fumes aside. Helped me get to the first rest stop, which was approximately 10 miles from the summit, in a sweeping, green valley. Mt. Hamilton isn't that hard of a climb. Just long. I was able to do 9 or 10 mph, most of the way, dropping closer to 8 the higher I got. The temperature was perfect, so I didn't overheat, nor was it too cold on the way up. Left the rest stop a minute or two ahead of Kai, Trey and Peter Fencik, and hoped to stay that way. Then after a few miles, Kai came blasting past me, followed 30 yards behind by Trey, who said as he passed me: "I hate when he does that." But Kai needed to get to the top ahead of me because he has the digital camera and he wanted to take a picture of me summiting Hamilton wearing his clothes. So as I got within about a half-mile of the top, I took off my helmet (yes, this is an infrequent thing for me to do), because that is how Pantani climbs, came around a curve and proceeded to ride through a 100-yard cloud of gnats. They were everywhere, on everything. Then I came around another curve and saw Kai at the top of the hill, camera in hand. Now, I wanted to play this up as much as possible, so I shifted up a couple gears, then shifted into my big chain ring and got out of the saddle and accelerated up the hill. And Kai got one absolutely fantastico shot of me, looking every bit like Marco's older, fatter brother. Hopefully it will be posted on www.greenbelt.org soon, maybe Wednesday. If not, I'll get the digital file from Kai and email it later on. It was classic. He tried to take others, but apparently, I was going too fast for him to get another good one of me. Imagine that, me climbing too fast at the end of a 20-mile, 3,600-foot climb. This is just about everyone's favorite day, at least among Tour veterans. And with good reason. The wildflowers on the way up are exceptional, and the views from the highest accessible point in the Bay area are phenomenal. I took some great panoramic shots from up there. Hopefully, I can find a way to post them some day soon. I want to go back up there just to hike. It's incredible. The descent down the back side was just as stunning, until I got to the last curve at the bottom of the hill. A rather tame looking thing which ends with the road dumping you in a valley with a trickle of a stream and a carpet of yellow and purple wildflowers. Except, this time, the road simply dumped me. Yes kids, I planted today. The first time ever. I could just hear the voice of Phil Liggett in my head (after I stopped screaming): "Oh, and Pantani is down! Pantani is down! Wait, Pantani is back up and he's picking his skin off the road!" Mom, dad, if I didn't talk to you before you got this, don't worry, I'm fine. And will continue to be. I must be living right, because despite the fact that I went down while going in the neighborhood of 30 mph, the worst thing I did was get some nice road rash on my right cheek. Um, butt cheek. I also have a scraped right leg and upper arm, and a bit of a sprained shoulder. But basically, I got back up, made sure everything worked right, on me and my bike - which it did - and got back on and rode the nine miles to our lunch stop. There, Jamie, one of our compatriots, who also happens to be a pediatrician, flushed my wounds with water (which stung nicely) and got some bandages from the first aid kit of the volunteer fire station we happened to be stopped next to. Then I got back on my bike with the other boys and rode the last 31 miles to Livermore at a surprisingly strong pace. I rode most of it with Peter and Roberto, after we were dropped by Kai, Trey and Ken. The six of us got to Livermore H.S. quickly enough that we beat the gear truck, so we went and found somewhere to have a beer and some pizza, then Roberto and I rode to the Urgent Care Center. It took at least 2.5 hours, and I was getting pretty cranky by the time I left. But the shoulder x-rays were negative (and I don't even have any arthritis in the joint!), the wounds were cleaned, and then I went to get the prescription for the antibiotics filled. Mostly precautionary, but I didn't get the vicodan filled. Last thing I need. So it's almost 11 p.m., and my shoulder hurts a bit more, but I think it will be fine. I fully intend to continue on tomorrow and probably climb Mt. Diablo with the small group of other nutballs, like Ken and Pete and probably Roberto, but that's it. If we do it, it will turn an 89 mile day into roughly a 115 mile day. That would be pretty epic. I actually feel pretty good as far as the riding goes. Not too tired at all. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Matt ended up with what seems like a case of food poisoning after the end of Day 2 and went back home to recuperate. He'll probably join us again on Friday in Santa Rosa, which would be great. But I think it's time I shuter down and got some sleep. I'm staying in a hotel tonight, which I'm happy about. Hopefully I can get some solid sleep, tho' I am enjoying the whole tent community thing. And I love my new Mountain Hardware tent. Very easy to put up. So anyway, I bid you ciao! Hopefully, more tomorrow, with less crashes and more fun. Bye! Go to Day 4: Livermore to Fairfield; 83 miles, give or take a few 
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