Northern California - Tour for Woodside?

Not to rain on the Coastal Century parade, but is anybody else around here doing the Tour for Woodside tomorrow? I'll be there with my regular ride crew bedecked in my NorCal jersey doing the 55-miler.

Ran across this event on my little ride out onto Canada Rd. Looked like a nicely organized event, the rest stop looked well supplied at the water temple. Saw 2 or 3 SAG vehicles as well.. not bad. How did you like the ride?

I did alot of this route today with my club. 2 of us climbed up Kings Mtn Rd and saw the rest stop at the top. We hung for a minute, then bombed back down.

Same here - I ended up on and off the route. At the top of Kings Mtn, I was able to reassure one of the 55 milers that he had endured the worst of it.

It looked like a very well organized event. Those day-glow arrows on the roads will be there for MONTHS!!!

Interesting that this event is called "Tour for Woodside" instead of "Tour of Woodside". How much of the route is actually within Woodside? Woodside residents and town officials are, of course, notorious for harassing bicyclists in any way they can including banning bicycles from local parks, banning many charity bicycle rides from public roads through town, and buzzing bicyclists with their SUVs.

Alright, time for the full ride report.

Apparently, by "I'll be there with my regular ride crew", I meant to say "I'll be there and the rest of my crew will fail to show". Oh well, that only means I don't have to wait for them. :p

I arrived at Woodside High around 6:30 and got everything set to leave with a small peloton at 7 am. The first hill heading up in to Woodside itself was pretty congenial and uneventful; the pace was pretty moderate.

With the right turn on to Cañada, things picked up a bit and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a pretty brisk paceline, dropping a bunch of riders. Given that I have very little experience with these kinds of things, it was a pretty cool feeling, and I decided to hold on as long as I could before getting dropped.

I knew I was in over my head (just a little bit) when we crossed Edgewood traveling 34 mph as a group. Granted, we were bombing downhill, but that's something like twice as fast as I've done that stretch before. Somehow, I managed to stick with the group down the entire length of Cañada and up 92 most of the way to the turn at Crystal Springs.

The last hill before the turn, though, I got spit out the back faster than I could say "did I just get spit out the back?" It was fun while it lasted; going down Crystal Springs until the hard right on to Polhemus, I could see the group just out of reach, and I almost caught them again before losing them for good going up Polhemus.

I managed to find somebody to pace with for the rest of the trip up Polhemus and most of the way back down Cañada, and I was back in Woodside after the first 22 miles and scarcely more than an hour elapsed. We skipped the Pulgas Water Temple rest stop entirely.

Beginning the second leg of the tour, I downed a Clif Bar heading up Woodside Road towards Kings; I was preparing to get destroyed on the big climb. The climb started just shy of the 24-mile mark, 1 hour and 18 minutes in.

I found somebody to pace most of the way up Kings Mountain; we talked about California women and how nice it is to be a friendly biker with huge guads when the competition for the hot chicks mostly involves lazy guys and total ******bags. How compelling.

I don't know whether I was feeling inspired by the conversation or whether I was just ignoring my heart rate, but I set a new personal record for the climb, making it to the top in about 34:10. The rest stop at the top could not have been more welcome; they were incredibly well-stocked and had about 35 visitors when I was there.

The descent down Skyline and 84 was blissfully uneventful; looks like I topped out just north of 40 mph on Skyline. I noticed after the ride that all of this descending down 84 has taken a toll on my brake pads, though. I think this is five straight weekends I've been down that hill at least once.

I was back in Woodside around 9:45, feeling great but not really looking forward to the remaining 16 miles. I started meeting up with some of the 32-milers who had started later in the morning. Some of them were obviously not regular bikers, just giving their all for a good cause. I totally admire their dedication.

The third leg took me over to the Sand Hill / Alpine / Portola half-loop, clockwise. Sand Hill was great, though I was riding totally alone for that stretch, having left anybody I was pacing at the rest stop at the top of Kings. After the right turn on to Alpine, I finally got caught by a group of five guys I'd passed on Skyline. Turns out a 20-pound weight advantage going downhill is a 20-pound weight disadvantage going back up. Who knew?

I was about ready to give up by the end of Alpine, so it was good that the last rest stop at Alpine and Portola marked seven miles to go. I refueled a bit and straightened my back a bit and set back off to finish the ride, which I finally did at 10:43.

My total time without stops was 3 hours 20 minutes, with stops it was 3 hours 41 minutes. 16.6 mph average speed, 4512 feet of climbing. When I crossed the finish line, the principal of Woodside High School awarded me with my gift bag and congratulated me on a ride well done.

This was my first organized event, so I can't compare it to others, but I can't really imagine a more well-organized event than this. The Woodside High School people were a total class act, start to finish. There were a total of four rest stops, all themed after the major Tours (Pulgas was the Tour of California, Kings was the Vuelta a España, I'm assuming Pescadero on the century route was the Tour de France, and Portola Valley was the Giro d'Italia), all really well-stocked. I saw at least three different SAG vehicles.

Maybe by next year, I'll be strong enough for the century.

Ran across this event on my little ride out onto Canada Rd.

Me too!

Took me by surprise. I think I got my picture taken twice ;)

Alright, time for the full ride report.

Great ride report jimples!

The "for" as opposed to "of" in the title reflects that it's a fundraiser for Woodside High School (which is not actually in Woodside proper IIRC). The routes go through Woodside, but also PV and up into the hills (out to the coast for the century route).

I went and did the 55 mile route with a buddy of mine, since the 100 mile route looked like more work than either of us felt like doing. It was a nice route and a good time, since it stayed cool all day. I also rode to the start and back home after so I ended up with about 80 miles and 5k climbing on the day.