Northern California - Pleasanton rides and routes

I'll be moving to Pleasanton from Oakland for eight weeks this summer, and I'm looking for some during the week evening intensity rides. I go to the port ride in Oakland pretty regularly, and would love to find something like that in Pleasanton/Livermore. Also, if anyone has any favorite routes for intervals, or just any good 1-2hr routes at all, that would be superb. A google didn't turn up many clubs in the area, but maybe my search was deficient. Thanks!

Start with the Valley Spokesmen club, they have lots of routes on their website, and offer rides for all different levels of riders. They also have racing team that you can train with.

JB

Start with the Valley Spokesmen club, they have lots of routes on their website, and offer rides for all different levels of riders. They also have racing team that you can train with.

JB


Thanks! I'll definitely check them out.

Depending on what you want,a few thoughts:

Short and relatively flat (with plenty of barf-up-a-lung interval potential):

Down to Sunol and back. There are two roads for this. Sunol Blvd (closer to the I-680 freeway, further away from the hills) is pretty flat. It actually ends at a three-way stop sign a mile or so east of Sunol proper. Foothill Road (further away from the freeway and closer to the hills) is rollier, but still not hilly. It ends up in blink-and-you'll-miss-it Sunol.

Out Tassajara Road and back. Again, rolling but not hilly - plenty of interval potential. Less vegetation, more direct sun that the roads to Sunol - probably not what the doctor ordered on a July afternoon.


Longer rides:

Palomares Canyon. Go down Foothill Road to Sunol, jog left over the RR tracks, turn right and take the ramp onto west Niles Canyon Road/Highway 84 (believe me, Sunol is small enough for this to be sufficient direction). Go west on 84 for 5 miles, give or take. Turn right onto Palomares Road. (It's just past an underpass under some RR tracks, it's a steep right turn, and if you aren't prepared to downshift quickly, you'll be grossly overgeared.) Palomares is one the best roads in all of NorCal. About 5 miles of climbing (nothing too outrageous) through a neat shady canyon that opens into a nice little valley, followed by a glorious 5 mile descent that starts out at about 8% and flattens out at the end. Turn right at the T-intersection, then right again just before you go under the I-580 freeway. (These two truns are obvious.) Take Dublin Canyon Road (a freeway frantage road -sorry) about three miles or so gently up and two miles gently down. Dublin Canyon Road ends at Foothill Road right next to the 580-680 interchange. Most of this ride is realy pretty. Traffic on Highway 84 can be heavy, somewhat less heavy on Foothill. Traffic is not an issue on Palomares.

Highland Road - Go out Tassajara Road. About 5 miles or so north of I-580, turn right on Highland Road. From there, you can turn right up and over Collier Canyon. or go straight into a nice little valley or continue on into downtown Livermore. A nice ride would be up Tassajara, right on Highland, right on Collier Canyon (a half-mile or so climb here, followed by a gentle and fast downhill), left on Carneal Road, right on Manning Road, left on Highland Road, follow Highland back to Tassajara, left on Tassajara, and home.

Calaveras Road - Take Sunol Blvd to the three -way intersection just east of Sunol. Turn left. In a mile or so, the road goes under teh 680 freeway and becomes Calaveras Road. Go out as far as you feel like, and then come back. Calaveras is flat at first, and then climbs up past the dam that holds back the Calaveras Reservoir. Once at the top of that climb (never worse than about 5%, if memory serves) the road becomes a beautiful rolling jaunt along the reservoir that follows the conturs of the hills. Eventually, the road becomes pretty narrow. Not to worry, as there isn't usually much traffic


There's a lot more you can do (like Mt. Diablo to the north or Mines Road south from Livermore) on days when you have more time, but this should be a good start.

The Fremont Freewheelers race team might have some training routes in your area. Ask them.

http://www.fremontfreewheelers.org/RaceTeam/index.html

Palomares Road

http://www.inl.org/bicycle/palomares.html

Thanks everyone for the info, all great stuff.

Bikingshearer, thanks for the detailed info, I'll be out on those routes for sure.

Just a word of warning on Tassajara or Highland Rd. Those roads can be very hairy on a weekday mornings and afternoons. I don't know about weekend afternoons, I try to ride them on early weekends.

BR