Northern California - weekend ride reports - where'd ya ride?

I finally did Mt Diablo. It was actually a pretty easy ride. Great views and really fast decent..

I rode the Portola Valley loop starting from 92 and Canada. Weather wasn't that great but the sun was trying to break through at the end.

I just did my hill route today. Somewhere around 4000' in 9.5 miles up into the low pine forest.

I had a really nice ride in and around Utrecht on a rental bike with my friends Harmony and Ivo on Sunday. I think we did somewhere between 25-30 miles, haven't fully mapped it out yet. More pictures and details here (http://paularickert.net/thumbnails.php?album=32&page=2).

Unfortunately, the combination of 13.5 hours stuck in the middle of a row at the back of a plane, followed by all the riding around on a poorly fitting bike, ended up with me having pulled a hip flexor. :( so a bit of time off for me.

http://paularickert.net/albums/userpics/29-Paula_bike.JPG

What is that place? It looks like some kind of medieval architecture. Anyways, looks like a very scenic ride.

Sorry to hear about your injury. Heal properly. That injury can take some time to heal.

Great photo! I was in Holland last October and my brother and I rented bikes in three different places (Amsterdam, Maastrict, and Texel Island) and we had a blast. It's amazing how efficient those bikes seem for only having three speeds and how heavy they are.

heavy can be plenty fast when it's flat :)

heavy can be plenty fast when it's flat :)

And even faster downhill. :D

I did the Knoxville Double staff ride yesterday. There were about 34 of us who braved the elements for 201 miles. We had rain most of the day. We did get to finish by moonlight since the skies had cleared. Since so much of this ride is in the middle of nowhere, you could really see the moonlight. We only had one DNF - a guy who crashed on Howell Mt. road when his front wheel washed out. He rode on to the next rest stop at Berryessa. But his shoulder was really bothering him when he stood to climb. The roads were pretty slippery. One corner actually looked like it was sheeted with ice.

The cold and the wet really made this a hard ride.

Veronica

Did my first weekend ride since the collarbone incident today (second long-ish ride).

My house to Robert's Market in Woodside and back.

Route: Alameda de las Pulgas, Crystal Springs, 35, 92, Cañada to the end, and back the same way.

Stats:

Distance: 29 miles
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph
Ride time: Just over an hour and a half

Feels good to be back :)

- Marco

Congrats on your successful return!

Thanks!

Did you end up going on the Coastal Century?

No unfortunately, while my hip flexor is feeling much better I thought that might be pushing it, especially after having been on planes for 16 hours the day before. I did take the Duc out for a bit of a spin though.

I broke my collarbone in a bike crash many years ago, I remember how much that sucked. Glad yours is all better now.

Did my first weekend ride since the collarbone incident today (second long-ish ride).

My house to Robert's Market in Woodside and back.

Route: Alameda de las Pulgas, Crystal Springs, 35, 92, Cañada to the end, and back the same way.

Stats:

Distance: 29 miles
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph
Ride time: Just over an hour and a half

Feels good to be back :)

- Marco


Seems like you were never off the bike :)

I've fallen into a really happy weekend routine: Saturday I do the River Ride, just over 50 miles door-to-door. Sunday I do a loop of the neighborhood with my son, Lucas. He's been riding without training wheels since early June and already he can "ride his age" without any trouble. This week we went tractor-spotting. We saw 3 backhoes, 2 bulldozers, a grader, and a roller. Good times.

My house to Woodside via the Alameda, Crystal Springs and Canada, up Kings Mtn, 35S to 84, 84 W to OLH, up West OLH to 35, 35 N to 84, 84E to Portola, Portola to Alpine, Alpine to Arastradero, Arastradero to Foothill, Foothill to Junipero Serra to the Alameda, Alameda to 84, 84 W to Woodside, and Woodside back to San Mateo via Canada, Crystal Springs, and the Alameda.

70 miles, 4:46, 6000 some feet of climbing (says Routeslip). 14.7 mph average.

This was the first long ride on the Battaglin (you know, that lugged EYE-talian steel fram I built up? Don't make me post the pictures again!), with serious climbs and serious descents. It climbs okay - after all, it IS 21 lbs of bike - thanks to the 12-28 cassette. But it descends like a dream! I'd been mentioning in another thread about my poor descending skills, mostly due to lacking confidence? Let's just say the Battaglin inspires confidence! The Bianchi does great once you commit to the corner, and lean it. The Battaglin doesn't have that feeling of hesitation.

I think I'm in love.....

My house to Woodside via the Alameda, Crystal Springs and Canada, up Kings Mtn, 35S to 84, 84 W to OLH, up West OLH to 35, 35 N to 84, 84E to Portola, Portola to Alpine, Alpine to Arastradero, Arastradero to Foothill, Foothill to Junipero Serra to the Alameda, Alameda to 84, 84 W to Woodside, and Woodside back to San Mateo via Canada, Crystal Springs, and the Alameda.


Sounds exactly like one of my rides! I live near Alameda and 24th Ave in San Mateo.

I live near Hillsdale and Alameda. I find the Alameda and Crystal Springs make a great warm up before the climb up to the dam.

18.2 mph? That's a bit faster than I do that route in!

I live near Hillsdale and Alameda. I find the Alameda and Crystal Springs make a great warm up before the climb up to the dam.

18.2 mph? That's a bit faster than I do that route in!

I did less than 1/2 of your ride.

Hillsdale and Alameda:

You're lucky you don't live just a bit further south down Alameda. You would have to go up that short but steep 20% wall at the end of your ride. :eek:

Yeah, every so often I see some poor sod trying to go up that bit. Sheesh! For a couple months after we moved in, I kept smelling what I thought was overheated electrical insulation. I eventually realized it was from the brakes of the cars coming down the Alameda and stopping at Hillsdale!

If I lived up there, I'd trade gradient for distance, and go up Fernwood instead. We have a friend who lives out past the end of 42nd Ave - If that pitch between 37th and 39th is 20%, these streets must be AT LEAST 25%!

37-39th is 20%

http://graphics.stanford.edu/~lucasp/grade/alameda.html

Was in LA for the weekend. Too bad it rained all day Saturday. Did a short 40 miler, into the hills above the Rose Bowl. It was awesome, since the rain cleared the air up.

Yeah, every so often I see some poor sod trying to go up that bit. Sheesh! For a couple months after we moved in, I kept smelling what I thought was overheated electrical insulation. I eventually realized it was from the brakes of the cars coming down the Alameda and stopping at Hillsdale!

If I lived up there, I'd trade gradient for distance, and go up Fernwood instead. We have a friend who lives out past the end of 42nd Ave - If that pitch between 37th and 39th is 20%, these streets must be AT LEAST 25%!

I've done that bit a couple of times, now I don't feel so bad for struggling so much on it!

Am I the only one who sits on my butt all weekend? Sure I do a little maintenance, a little soldering, a little dremel work ( http://ahpook.vox.com/library/post/bike-hacking-weekend.html ) but rarely bike beyond a few miles, to WG farmer's market or the coffee shop or whatever, with the kid in his trailer. My main riding is all done M-F on my commute, Campbell to Palo Alto and back, with some hills for variety if I can escape work early enough.

Genejockey, Ms Incredible, and others local to San Mateo...

We should get together for some rides (in between the big organized/BF rides) since we are all nearby.

It's nice to not have to take the car, bike rack, etc.

Good idea! My usual long ride day is Sunday, but I'm flexible.

Am I the only one who sits on my butt all weekend? Sure I do a little maintenance, a little soldering, a little dremel work ( http://ahpook.vox.com/library/post/bike-hacking-weekend.html ) but rarely bike beyond a few miles, to WG farmer's market or the coffee shop or whatever, with the kid in his trailer. My main riding is all done M-F on my commute, Campbell to Palo Alto and back, with some hills for variety if I can escape work early enough.

For some reason, your blog doesn't work well with Firefox. :(

Yeah, every so often I see some poor sod trying to go up that bit. Sheesh! For a couple months after we moved in, I kept smelling what I thought was overheated electrical insulation. I eventually realized it was from the brakes of the cars coming down the Alameda and stopping at Hillsdale!

If I lived up there, I'd trade gradient for distance, and go up Fernwood instead. We have a friend who lives out past the end of 42nd Ave - If that pitch between 37th and 39th is 20%, these streets must be AT LEAST 25%!

You guys ever try to ride up Hillsdale from Alameda to Hwy92? That's a good workout. I used to do hill repeats on that one :eek:.

Coming down is especially fun. I went 52mph down there a couple of times - then I regained my senses and stopped trying to kill myself :o.

Genejockey, Ms Incredible, and others local to San Mateo...

We should get together for some rides (in between the big organized/BF rides) since we are all nearby.

It's nice to not have to take the car, bike rack, etc.

Sounds good to me!

yeah it's pretty hard.

Going down is fun until you have to slam on the brakes at Alameda!

Woo! Rode from Elk Grove through Sacramento and out to Davis and back as planned on Sunday (70miles RT). Felt really good when I rode into Davis so I thought "I'm not turning around until I hit 50.00".
I took Yolo County Rd 98 when I left Davis to get those extra 15 miles (30 actually). The 50-mark was an orchard over the I-5 at the exit just north of main street in Woodland. Man! Those 30 miles were really boring. Rode back on the exact route with the exception of taking 160 to Meadowview and just taking Franklin all the way down from 2nd avenue. I ended up getting to my house at about 99.2 for some odd reason so I rode around the block 2x and walked in my front door at 100.2. Not one drop of rain which was nice. Clouds were flirting with me all day.
A friend from Davis suggested that I should have just stayed on Russell for the remaining 15 miles and the ride would have been much more scenic.
It was fun. I pounded out 15 miles on my new trainer last night to keep my legs loose. Feels good baby!

Any way to make this a sticky?

Anyways, this weekend, I was in San Luis Obispo and did the Lighthouse Century, along with some of my friends from SoCal BF. It was nearly perfect weather, and winds weren't that bad. Only bad thing is it wasn't even 100 miles, but it definitely was a fun ride.

On Saturday I did the Ring of Fire ride listed on the Palo Alto Bicycles website. Coming down Page Mill from Moody there was some sort of accident near the bottom turns. An ambulance was there and I saw some Alto Velo riders, hopefully no one was seriously hurt. Stupid me was not paying attention after coming down Golden Oak to Alpine and I rode right by Los Trancos. After a few miles on Alpine I knew I must have missed the turn but at this point didn't want to backtrack. I did the ride reverse, up Joaquin and then down the three steep hills. Being the very stubborn person that I am as soon as I got to Alpine I turned around and rode back up Los Trancos, Ramona and Vista Verde. Just under 52 miles there and back from Sunnyvale.

I was in Paso Robles. My wife and I met some friends down there for a wine event. They drank, I rode. I started out west on 46 but decided to get off the highway and explore some back roads. Lots of up and downs, a bit of wind, hardly any cars. Just beautiful.

Yesterday I rode from my place in Foster City to San Carlos, down Alameda to Edgewood, over to Canada, then to 84, up Kings Mountain to Skyline, down Page Mill to Arastradero and into S. Palo Alto.

Then I met up with a friend (brand new rider) to help him try out his commute between Palo Alto and Foster City. It was good I was nice and tired by then. ;)

Total about 67 miles, 4500 ft. Nice weather yesterday!

... Coming down Page Mill from Moody there was some sort of accident near the bottom turns. An ambulance was there and I saw some Alto Velo riders, hopefully no one was seriously hurt. ...The rider, a friend of ours, was not seriously injured, thank goodness! A kid in a pickup truck made a left hand turn in front of her and she was not able to avoid it. She was knocked off the bike and, I understand is pretty sore, but no broken bones or serious injuries from what I have been told. Her bike was totaled, though. My wife was on the ride and the crash happened behind her. She didn't find out about it until she called one of her friends on her cell phone to find out where they were.

Saturday, October 6: Low-Key Hillclimb, Kings Mountain. Fair-to-middling time of 27:something-ish. Saw lots of friends out there and it was a beautiful day to ride, temperature was perfect for a hillclimb.

Sunday, October 7: Pilarcitos Cyclocross race @ Sierra Point, Brisbane. My first CX race. Man, that was fun. I was going along pretty well until I pinch-flatted, probably from jumping a curb. Still probably ended up okay as I was able to pass a lot of the guys that passed me while I was in the pits (Men's C category...). Big fun, I am going to do more of these.

Was right near the low-key hillclimb yesterday, went mountain biking at skeggs pt. That's the first time I've been there and it surely won't be the last, the rolling single track was awesome.

It was a lazy weekend for me. Took Caltrain into the city, and rode over to downtown Sausalito, and back. Also, had the Blue Angels flying in the background, so that was some pretty nice scenery.

Friday afternoon I got to take 4 new road bikes for test rides on Alameda and Crystal Springs. :D

Today and tomorrow I'm on my Ducati instead, I'm back at Thunderhill.

Oooh, new road bike in your future? Excellent!

soon...very soon

soon...very soon

What are you leaning towards?

An Orbea Onix

An Orbea Onix

:eek:





















:D

Did you go to Cyclepath?

I rode with a friend that is relatively new to riding (only about a year, she's a runner).

I started from my house, and we met up at the intersection of Skyline/Crystal Springs.

We rode Skyline -> Cañada -> Mountain Home -> Portola/Sanhill -> Alpine -> Sandhill -> Whiskey Hill -> and back.

45 miles for me 35 miles together. Easy pace... avg 14 mph. Although I did take off on some of the hills and waited at the top.

An Orbea Onix

OMG, that is one awesome bike. '07 or '08?

I did a solo 35 miler yesterday. I rode from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto hoping to go up Old La Honda. I went through Junipero>Old Page Mill>Arastadero>Alpine and got as far as Portola but fell short because of a previous engagement in an hour. So I made up for it by doing intervals on the way home down Foothill all the way to Grant then down Mary Ave. I hope I recover enough before the Calaveras-Palomares ride.

Did you go to Cyclepath?

Yep! I had my fitting from them a couple days before, they were really helpful.


OMG, that is one awesome bike. '07 or '08?

'07.