Tony's story: Mt Diablo Challenge

BaseCamp athlete Tony Diablo shared his experience at the 2026 Mt. Diablo Challenge bike race in California.

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Participated in my 10th Mt Diablo Challenge on October 4th. This is a time trail type of event for approximately 11 miles and a little over 3,200 feet of climbing (it has a HC category). Everyone is assigned to a wave that consists of certain number of riders. The first wave (aka the elite wave) are for those fast riders who compete for overall podium while the rest of the waves are for riders who compete based on their time and then get podium positions based on gender, age, etc.

Wish I could say it went well, but the weather didn’t cooperate, and we got hit with a heat wave the day before the challenge. My ride can be broken up into three different phases. Phase 1 at the bottom of the mountain was a “compete” phase, thinking about maybe getting a PR or at least a better time than last year. Phase 2 was at the halfway point and realizing that the heat was going to affect me more than I anticipated. This was when I switched into a “complete” mindset and backed off my pace in order to make it to the top of the mountain. Phase 3 was probably the scariest phase. Not long after that halfway point, we could hear sirens and a helicopter buzzing around near the summit. This phase turned into a survival phase for me, just making sure I didn’t get any heat-related issues, as well as staying out of the way of the first responders going up the mountain. Turned out someone did have an issue (not sure what, although I’m pretty sure it was from the heat) and had to be airlifted off the mountain.

Quite an eventful day. After finishing, we are grouped together and follow a pace car down the mountain. On the descent, I was amazed at how many people were suffering still coming up. So many people walking, as well as stopped on the side of the road in whatever shade they could find. I’ve never seen anything like that in all my previous challenges.

I didn’t stop at any point, but it turned out to be my slowest time for all the challenges I’ve done. I did cramp up a little bit on the way back to the car.

As far as results: Overall was 628/822, Gender was 532/697, and Age Group was 20/32. A little disappointing because of how well I did on the training rides in September, but being able to finish without stopping was a plus for me. I believe that my fitness level is what got me to the top. I have Coach Brian Hammond and BaseCamp to thank for getting me there.