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

Saturday: nice little jaunt up Highway 9. Stopped at the CDF fire station and met a few folks going the opposite direction on a 200k brevet. Carried on northward along Skyline and descended Page Mill Road, made my way back home via Foothill.

Sunday: out for part of my club's A ride up Kings Mountain. The ride was continuing on to West Alpine, but a buddy and I turned off and descended East 84 instead. Tired legs today, despite a relatively sedate pace for this ride :)

On Saturday, my wife and I volunteered to help with the Beat the Clock OLH Hill Climb. The fastest time was 15:46. After, we rode our singles from Alpine and Portola to Stevens Creek and Mt Eden and returned via Sand Hill and Mountain Home – 40 miles. We saw a number o people riding the Giro. On Sunday, we rode the tandem from our house to Peet’s Los Altos via Olive Hill and back – 58 miles. Chatted with some AV people at Peet’s.

Just did a short ride over Shannon/Kennedy and back to Campbell on Sunday evening before dinner. Nice ride, but at the end I somehow managed to strip the threading on my freewheel (yeah, it's an old bike) on the Los Gatos creek trail and had to skateboard my bike about a mile to get to the entrance so my wife could pick me up :( No damage to the actual wheel from what I can tell, the cassette/freewheel threading just let go somehow.

The fastest time was 15:46.
:eek: :eek: :eek:

I'd be lucky if I can make it up OLH in 30 minutes.

I did the Cat 5 race at Vacaville. Managed to avoid the crashes and finished in the pack so I give my self a B+. I was also signed up to do the 35+ 4/5 race, but that was immediately after, and riding up that little hill just kicked my butt so I had go sit down for the rest of the day. And then on the drive home I kept second-guessing myself. I suppose I could have started, hung on the back of the pack, and tried to finish just to the get placing for an upgrade to Cat 4, but I was so wiped I probably wouldn't have been a safe rider and that's not fair to the other racers.

Anyway, looking forward to Davis on Wednesday. I'm bringing Lucas' bike so he can do the kids' ride. I think he's almost as excited as his dad is.

Recovery ride on Sunday. Did a nice 23 mile loop, up Mt. Eden, onto parts of Saratoga then back. Needed that after the climbing done on Saturday. One of these days, I'll be able to climb hills, and be within reaching distance of everybody else.

Had to work on Saturday morning, so grudgingly missed the Giro ride. Rode on Sunday instead from Palo Alto to San Mateo via Alpine, Portola, Canada, Skyline/Crystal Springs then up to Ralston and turned around the same way, but stopped by Roberts Market and wolfed down a hot dog before continuing the ride. Went to Redwood City's Alameda de la Pulgas to go up Jefferson, then head back to Palo Alto, rode down Foothill all the way to Cupertino and back. Total ride ride was 5 hours and did 78 miles.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

I'd be lucky if I can make it up OLH in 30 minutes.

It should be mentioned that the 15:46 time was achieved by Ted Huang, who has superhuman cycling skills. And even that is still a minute or so more than Eric Heiden's mythical time of 14:20 or something. :eek: indeed!


I'd be happy to beat 20 minutes. Actually I'm happy being able to consistently beat 25 but now it's time to push the envelope a bit more :D

On Saturday, my wife and I volunteered to help with the Beat the Clock OLH Hill Climb. The fastest time was 15:46. After, we rode our singles from Alpine and Portola to Stevens Creek and Mt Eden and returned via Sand Hill and Mountain Home – 40 miles. We saw a number o people riding the Giro. On Sunday, we rode the tandem from our house to Peet’s Los Altos via Olive Hill and back – 58 miles. Chatted with some AV people at Peet’s.

I saw you two on Saturday when I was going in the other direction near the Stevens Creek Resorvoir area. I was heading home after going up Big Basin. I was going to yell out, but we'd pretty much passed each other. BTW, my best time up OLH is 28 min. Maybe that should be the start of a thread - everyone's best time up OLH.

Saturday I skipped the OLH hillclimb and did repeats on Mt Hamilton- the front, then the back side, then the top of the front again. That's about 63 miles and 8800' of climbing. I was kind of tired so I was a little off. Yesterday I should have slept in but I got my wife to drop me off in town so I'd have to ride back up the mountain to get home. I went up some of the short climbs in Los Altos, down page, through portola valley and up OLH, then a long ways south on skyline to get home. Saw the A ride headed the other way on Skyline. They probably wondered why an AV rider was going so slow, but I was just beat. I managed to make it home but it was a long miserable slog.

This weekend I went on a two-day ACTC club ride circling the San Francisco Bay, 100 miles each day, starting from Santa Clara (near San Jose) with an overnight in Novato and back to Santa Clara the next day.

On Saturday, we started out from Santa Clara, headed north up Foothill/Junipero Serra up Sandhill to Woodside and along Cañada Road. On Cañada Road our group passed by the PhotoCrazy guy, taking pictures for the Giro - I'm the one with the sleeveless red jersey w. the green chainring logo passing by at 10:07 am :) . We continued up Foothill and Hiway 280 through Pacifica - nearly froze in the fog! :eek: - but once we got onto the Great Highway the fog burned off and it was warm & sunny again. We went thru Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, over the Golden Gate Bridge, had a lunch stop in Sausalito, went on to Tiburon and along the Paradise Loop, past the Larkspur Ferry and through San Raphael, to our motel in Novato at the north end of the SF Bay.

Along the way we made a lot of stops for sightseeing & photo ops. When we finally reached the motel, we had a fun group dinner at the adjoining restaraunt and called it an early night.

I had developed a cramp in my calf muscle at around mile 85 and because of that I ended up pulling another muscle in that leg. Ow. It felt much better once I was off my bike for a bit, so I got a good nights sleep and hoped for the best for the next morning.

On Sunday, the route took us from Novato across bay along Highway 37 to Vallejo, over the Carquinez Bridge and down along the east side of the bay back to San Jose. I took some "vitamin I" before we set out, but the pulled muscle in the back of my knee made it's presence known as soon as I started pedalling. Luckily it was very flat for the first 20 miles or so of the ride along Hiway 37, so I was hoping the muscle would loosen up after a bit. But, no such luck, it wasn't bad while I was spinning along the flats but as soon as I put any stress on that leg, either from climbing or accelerating, it would start to hurt. And there was a bit of climbing ahead of us, so it would likely get worse. We had a SAG car on Sunday, so once we crossed the Carquinez bridge and met up with it at the 25 mile point in Crockett, I loaded up my bike and accompanied the driver (the wife of one of the participants) to Danville where we met up with everyone for lunch. My husband was able to come out there and get me so we hung out there with the group until they were ready to head off again, and he & I headed for home.

It was a really fun ride, and although I'm disappointed I had to cut the second day short, I'm glad I did, my leg was still sore Sunday evening. It's feeling much better today though. :)

Did a night ride on the roadie, posted about it here.

http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=316625

This past weekend I did a couple of rides along the coast, in order to escape the heat.

Be careful what you ask for. :rolleyes:

Saturday I went on an ACTC club ride starting from La Honda. We headed down 84 to the San Gregorio store, up the northern end of Stage Rd & back to the store for a regroup, then headed south on Stage Rd to Pescadero, then up Pescadero Road & Haskins Hill back to La Honda, for about 31 miles and 2300 ft. It was foggy & damp & drizzly for the entire ride. brrr. But it's nice to climb when it's cool out.



On Sunday I went on another ACTC ride. It was my first club ride at the "M" level (one level up from what I've been riding in the past). There were going to be some big climbs so I was kind of nervous beforehand. But I kept up!! :) It was a huge confidence boost for me.

We started near Natural Bridges park at the north end of Santa Cruz, headed up to Empire Grade, up EG and turned around at Felton Empire Road, and back down some of EG to Smith Grade, up SG to Bonny Doon, great descent down Bonny Doon (40+ mph descent, whee!) to Highway 1, North on Highway 1 to a bakery in Davenport. (These people have their priorities intact.)

After Davenport, we went North on Hiway 1 to Swanton Rd. Swanton was a big U so we wound up back on Hiway 1, headed south past Davenport, then back UP Bonny Doon (with 10 to 12% grade in parts). From Bonny Doon, we took Pine Flat to Martin rd to Ice Cream Grade (crappy descent on that, I'm suprised I didn't lose a filling or two - and no ice cream, even ! :p ), another short climb then a very fun descent back down Empire Grade back to the start.

It ended up being about 56 miles and nearly 6000 feet of climbing, whee. It started out foggy and chilly like Saturday, but by the time we were climbing Bonny Doon the fog had burned off and it was lovely out. I'd never ridden on those roads so it was a treat.

This was a lighter weekend, riding-wise ... Saturday, I did a portion of the ride with Western Wheelers ... went up Old La Honda, and saw how foggy and damp it was ... went back down OLH ... but since I rode from my house, it ended up to be 43 miles.

Sunday, I did the Stay Cool BF ride. Started from Half Moon Bay, down the coast to Stage Road, then inland up Haskins Hill, then back to the coast via 84. 48 miles.

Hey Ron, if your Saturday ride was the WW ride out to Half Moon Bay, if you stayed with it I probably would have seen you at the San Gregorio store - we saw a bunch of WWs during our regroup there.

Hey Ron, if your Saturday ride was the WW ride out to Half Moon Bay, if you stayed with it I probably would have seen you at the San Gregorio store - we saw a bunch of WWs during our regroup there.
Yea, I know ... but since I was going to be there on Sunday, I decided to bail. Besides, I didn't plan on going all the way, so I only had arm warmers with me. It would have been way too cold with only arm warmers going down 84.

It would have been way too cold with only arm warmers going down 84. That's for sure ! :p

Rode on Saturday in Marin with couple friends of mine. Started in Mill Valley, around Paradise Loop, up through Larkspur/Fairfax/Ross, out to Point Reyes Station, and back to Mill Valley via Highway 1/Stinson Beach. 72miles. It was a nice ride, cool weather and great views.

Did my marathon training run on Sunday, 20miles on Sawyer Camp trail.

River Ride on Saturday (54 miles), a few laps of the local park with my son on Sunday (3 miles).

Saturday was my standard Page Mill ride. This was a milestone however as I made it to the top without stopping anywhere for a breather. It took 56 minutes from the time of the first incline right after Alexis to HW 35 so now I have a ballpark figure to work with. I was spent right after the steep middle section going up to gate 4 but somehow I managed to trudge along and not pullover. It's just over 40 miles there and back from my apt.

Sunday was spent helping the lady at the Campbell's farmers market with her Jewelry booth and band practice so I was limited to a quick 10 mile ride around Sunnyvale.

Rode the MUP off of 3rd in Foster City on Sat (off 101 by the Seal Point dog park/Mariners Point GC). did a easy 20 mile loop with a friend that's new to cycling. So she was on my wife's old heavy GT mtb w/ slick tires. I was also pulling my daughter in her trailer.

The ride was nice and easy but we hit headwinds going into it. Thought it'd be cool with tailwinds coming back... WRONG! winds shifter and at times I felt like I was pulling a parachute instead of a trailer! haha!

But I need to get with you guys and do some climbing since I suck at it so badly! Although I will probably opt to leave my daughter at home since pulling a trailer up hills would definitely kill me!

Then sunday, my recovery ride was my softball game in the Daly City league. :)

Gary

Spent Saturday trying to find the quality singletrack at Quicksilver Park. Found out that such trails were few and far between, as well as that WTB Velociraptors + California weather does not equal good times. A few highspeed turns turned me into something which resembled a tumbleweed; and bent my skewers, hanger, bars, tweaked both tires, my rear hub, and cassette. 20 miles in all. I've since put on WTB Weirwolfs, and look forward to being able to turn my bike, in your dry climate, in the future.

Sunday was the true meaning of a recovery ride. A 35-miler with some Willow Glen people out to Helyer, and up to IBM, nursing my soreness and staying within the flat city.

The mini heat wave finally broke this weekend, and Saturday was cool but a bit windy. I took care of some family business and ran errands bu at about 4pm I finally had some time for myself and saddled up. I headed out east of San Ramon, and was soon into the rolling hills of west Livermore.

It was such a beautiful day that I just enjoyed being on the bike and wandering about aimlessly, and what was supposed to be a quick 15-20 mile jaunt ended up being 38.5 miles and close to 2,000 feet of climbing. It was just so nice out, I didn't want to stop.

The weather changed up a bit on the return trip as the marine layer came spilling over the hills, bringing with it cold ocean air and a steady wind. Temperatures dropped from the mid 70's to the mid 60's, and the wind was gusting pretty good - up in the 16-20 mph range. There were several miles where I had no choice but to go straight into it, but I was able to do a bunch of stair-stepping on the way home to mitigate much of the effect. Even so, I was pretty spent by the time I arrived home.

A few random pics, in no particular order:

Morgan Territory Ridge, just north of Mt Diablo:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/MorganTerritoryRidge.jpg

Highland Road:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/Highland.jpg

Which one's the boy? :D :
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/bull.jpg

Umm... I rode around my neighborhood. Maybe a mile and a half at most. Just getting my balance again! :D

Bigbossman... LOVE the signature!

I rode 64 miles, from San Mateo to Los Altos and back including Alpine to the gate (nice gentle climb, BTW) and Page Mill to Altamont. I like the mix of noodling along on a really quiet road like Alpine, where the loudest sound was the bugs in the trees, and high (for me) speed grinding along Foothill.

Yesterday was hill training day, so we aired up the tandem's tires and climbed Steiger Hill from Cantelow to Gibson Cyn, then back again, over Cantelow to Pleasant's Valley. We rode to 128, then through Winters to Putah Creek, back to Pleasant's Valley. We climbed Cantelow from the P.V. side -- first time on the tandem and were reminded of what 24% grades feel like. :eek: :eek: Then we went over Steiger again, and climbed Vine St. from Gibson Cyn. 45 miles, 3000 feet of climbing, avg. 16.1 mph.

For the rest of the day I wished we lived in a single story house. :cry:

Led a club ride and rode my Trek. By 24 miles, I thought my Specialized Alias saddle was made of carpet tacks, so I had to divert straight to home. Looks like it's "bent only" for a while.

Did a ride with Western Wheelers. Rode from my house in Santa Clara, and went over OLH, over to Pescadero then to San Gregorio via Stage Rd, then over to Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Return climbs went up Haskins Hill and Alpine. That's a tough couple of climbs. I'm sure someone has a nickname for that.

100.85 miles, 7152 feet climbing.

I did a solo ride from home, up hwy 9 then down the other side and into boulder creek, then up Bear Creek Rd to Summit to Old Santa Cruz Hwy and back home. 60 miles and 6000ft climbing. Ive been getting 10,000 ft of climbing each week for a few weeks in a row now. My legs are a bit tired.:o

I did a solo ride from home, up hwy 9 then down the other side and into boulder creek, then up Bear Creek Rd to Summit to Old Santa Cruz Hwy and back home. 60 miles and 6000ft climbing. Ive been getting 10,000 ft of climbing each week for a few weeks in a row now. My legs are a bit tired.:o
Time to take out the ice ...

Death Ride !!! 5 passes !!! Great Ride, brutal, but nobody died (especially me :D )

Death Ride !!! 5 passes !!! Great Ride, brutal, but nobody died (especially me :D )
Great ... congradulations!!! I don't suppose any pics were taken?

Death Ride !!! 5 passes !!! Great Ride, brutal, but nobody died (especially me :D )

Congrats. How was the weather? Any hail?

Weather was great!!! No clouds or the stuff that goe with them.... A bit hot in the afternoon, with headwinds from Woodfords to Picketts Junction.... 5 passes is definitely "earned", not given... I didn't take any pics... just rode....

Cheers !!!

I rode the Death Ride too. First time ever, completed all five passes. Had an absolute blast. Each pass has a personality of their own. That wind going up Woodfords to Picketts was brutal. We formed a freight train of a pace line and that helped a lot. The same pace line then took us up Carson to the crunch bars.

The support from the locals was fantastic. I loved going through Markleeville with everyone out there yelling, clapping and ringing their bells for you. I pretended I was in the tour for a brief two seconds.

Good stuff,

BR

Today I did an easy 30 mile recovery ride out to south San Jose and back home. Nasty headwind on the way back, slowed me down a bit. Had to keep the HR down for the recovery.:rolleyes: All in all it was a great weekend of riding.:D

Portola Loop from Newark. Up Alpine and back around.

Death Ride !!! 5 passes !!! Great Ride, brutal, but nobody died (especially me :D ) Congrats on finishing the Death Ride! Maybe I should ride myself into shape for it next year.

A few people from my cycling team also rode the Death Ride - one of them conveniently named "Death Ride Dan".

Rode with the Benicia Bike Club to Martinez and back - about 38 miles from my door. First time on this route for me - lotsa hills and I don't do hills well.

Friday after work I did my standard 30 mile ride with the middle point being Page Mill/Moody intersection. No ride yesterday, was up in San Francisco all day doing errands. Today I did the July 4th ride route since I need to get some pacing down for Highway 9. Made it up the long hill without stopping though I was definately feeling it the last part of the climb. I set out early to avoid the sun which showed up around the time I was descending Page Mill. Took the Moody detour and turned around at the bottom to come back up it. I couldn't remember the exact turns of the route at Arasterdero and the Freeway so I went down it to Foothill instead and back home for 46 miles total.

I would really like to ride the Death Ride next year. It will be a lot of hard work to condition myself but it's a goal I would like to achieve. There is a rider I always see on a purple Klein on Foothill with Death Ride socks.

Got the wife on the tandem for short rides on both Saturday and Sunday. She is enjoying it enough to agree to spring for new tires (20" front and 26" rear). After 19 years the gumwalls had eroded badly, leaving nothing but the carcass threads at one point. We are both cold climate people and the 90+ heat limited the miles.

[almost usual] "Spectrum" on Sat.
[almost usual] no ride on Sun.

Today was my second ride up Mt. Diablo. I rode it for the first time in March for my 50th. Today was different, I was with my 14 year old Son (his first climb on Diablo) and we were riding mountain bikes with 2" knobbies. We started late (11am) so it was quite warm but a nice breeze kept things under control. I had no expectation, we wanted to climb as high as we could. To our pleasure we made it all the way to the top in 2 hours. My Son was thrilled up there.
On the way down we opted for the trails instead of the road. Summit Trail goes down from the top to the Athenian School.
The trail is very technical at the top, single track with a steep slope on one side, then a nasty curvy and narrow section between manzanita and sage bushes that only has a thin section of dirt lines with stones (yes, I spilled when my front wheel got sidetracked into the stones). The trail is a lot better once it crosses the road, it becomes wider, but still bumpy, and allows for more thrilling speeds. We had a lot of fun on this trail and were back at the car in about 30 minutes.
Mt. Diablo is really a fantastic park for riding. Even in the middle of the day we saw very few cars. Bikes were plenty though, which is a great motivator.

Elmwood estates to Snowball gate loop of 2.7 miles 7 times at approx. 20.6 mph.

Up old tunnel road, down Skyline to Redwood and down Redwood to Skyline Circle all the way back and took Grizzly Peak down to Shasta Gate in Berkeley - 40 miles or so with lots of climbing. I'm Hungry!

Yesterday cgallagh and I took the tandem on the club ride. Half the club racing team showed up so the Gordon Valley loop we did was fast -- really fast. Our average over 45 miles was 19.6. Our legs hummed for hours.

Today we thought we'd do a recovery ride, but went up Steiger and Cantelow hills anyway. Legs screamed all the way. :eek:

So yesterday we rode as though we were half our age; today we rode as though we were twice our age. Day off tomorrow for sure!

I went from home to Sunol, over Calaveras then up Felter Rd (the easy side of the Sierra Rd. climb) and turned around after admiring the view from the Sierra Rd summit, it was very clear out. Then down to Ed Levin Park to refill my water bottles & back over Calaveras to Sunol.

I did the Three Bears for the first time. I was a beautiful day; not too hot in the 510.

Up Kings Mountain, then Skyline to 84W, up West OLH, down 84 to Portola, then the Loop. 70 miles door to door.

I drank 7 lbs of various sports drinks and STILL lost 5 lbs!

On Saturday I rode the Mt Diablo Hillclimb (44:00, 1 up from DFL) for my first trip up Mt. Diablo. Sunday I rode Mt Eden and Pierce to the Mountain Winery, and then had to head hom due to fading daylight.