Northern California - March Challenge- Ride from Home

We have all of March, correct?

Hopefully I will actually be home for the last week of it.

Maybe I could start a new category, riding from a hotel room instead of home. ;)

Maybe I could start a new category, riding from a hotel room instead of home. ;)

Repeats up the fire escape on a folder?

Repeats up the fire escape on a folder?Too much work! Up and down in the elevator would add lots of easy climbing!

We have all of March, correct?

Hopefully I will actually be home for the last week of it.

Maybe I could start a new category, riding from a hotel room instead of home. ;)

Yup- finish before midnight on 4/1.

I'll consider this a near miss. For now.

Here's where I got to in 1 hour riding today.

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn384/RDW5980/BFChallenge1.jpg

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn384/RDW5980/BFChallenge1b.jpg

Been off the bike all week due to being sick - so really wanted to get out again this weekend. Had my plan to rush up Wildcat Canyon and complete one of the other climbs up to the ridge to put my marker down for the 1hr challenge, but found that my cold hadn’t really left my lungs and came up short of breath at the top part of the Wildcat Canyon. Figuring that this would be an aborted attempt I pulled over to inspiration point after 27mins to catch my breath. After a couple of minutes rest, I figured I’d descend back and do a lower intensity loop instead. So I made my way back to Rheem, made the climb up Rheem without much problem, looked down at my computer when I get to Moraga Road and see that I’ve had bang on 1h riding time.

Unfortunately, I am Garmin-less for now, so don’t know what time I crested Rheem. Given that I had a couple of mins stop time at Inspiration Point I can’t in all honesty submit this time to Chief Challenge Arbiter ROJA. I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to repeat this one deliberately and crest Rheem before 1h total time is up.

Bikely says, 2182 ft elevation, YEGMV (EG = elevation gain).

Watch this space for a repeat. Anyone else doing this by bikely-feet gained?

The unofficial "from a hotel room" entry: 990 feet on a folder. Not bad! :)

(Beaker, that was by Bikely feet as I don't have a GPS and there is no cyclocomputer on my folder.)

First attempt (and given my schedule for March, probably my last) and I was able to do 2012 from my house in one hour. Looks like I can't even win my own challenge!

Approx. Breakdown (using numbers from my Garmin Edge 305, not MotionBased):

14 minutes- ride from home to Tunnel Blvd lookout (climb ~500 ft)
17 minutes- climb Tunnel/Sklyline to Grizzly (climb ~750 ft)
10 minutes- descend to lookout (descend ~750 ft)
17 minutes- climb Tunnel Skyline to Grizzly (climb ~750 ft)

The problem is that even if I were faster, at the end of the hour I am at the top of a hill, so I would either need to descend again or ride downhill to another hill.

It might have been better to do Claremont, because I can descend much faster on Claremont than on Tunnel/Skyline.

The unofficial "from a hotel room" entry: 990 feet on a folder. Not bad! :)

(Beaker, that was by Bikely feet as I don't have a GPS and there is no cyclocomputer on my folder.)

Great job! I think this definitely counts as an entry. Heck, we can have a new rule- if you are away from home for more than x days in March, you are allowed to start from a remote location (so long as you don't choose the remote location just for the purpose of winning the challenge)!

We have a leader in the F category and in the folder category!

\14 minutes- ride from home to Tunnel Blvd lookout (climb ~500 ft)
17 minutes- climb Tunnel/Sklyline to Grizzly (climb ~750 ft)
10 minutes- descend to lookout (descend ~750 ft)
17 minutes- climb Tunnel Skyline to Grizzly (climb ~750 ft)

It might have been better to do Claremont, because I can descend much faster on Claremont than on Tunnel/Skyline.

That could work - it depends how long it takes you to climb Claremont though - Claremont does at least starting from a lower elevation. I imagine that you'd need to have a greater elevation gain for Claremont compared to Tunnel to make it worth the switch. I guess you could try and ride up Grizzly Peak towards the little trains to add a couple of hundred more feet if you had time to spare.

The other option for your original route (if you're feeling nuts) is to add the little "Hiller loop" by the bottom of tunnel. I'm pretty sure that would give you an extra 2-300ft of climbing, although at the risk of turning your quads into jello.:thumb:

I headed up Empire Grade from Bay St and High St (UCSC main entrance). I made it to Empire Grade and Alba in about 58 minutes (about 60 minutes from home), for about 2400 feet in climbing. The last couple of minutes or so before Alba and the first minute or so after Alba were downhill, so the Alba intersection is a good endpoint.

Empire Grade works pretty well for this challenge, since there are no stoplights or stop signs, and only descends about 200 ft before Alba.

gpliu- nice work, that is a pretty sweet climb! I tried a different route this evening and increased my total for the hour to 2200 ft (Garmin figure), but I think you are still the leader!

Here's an entry for me (bikely elevation used)...rode the Orbea from home up Pescadero and Alpine towards Skyline.

Didn't quite make it all the way up Alpine in an hour (there's a nice personal challenge for me) but I did make it 8.9 miles, 3175'.

Doing sustained 10-12% climbing in the first 2 miles is hard! I need to get in better shape. :o

^^ :eek:

Oh well, looks like we might as well just pack up our bikes, guys and learn to accept our 1hr climbing suckiness.

Justin, you can get ready to engrave the trophy now I think.

Oh well, looks like we might as well just pack up our bikes, guys and learn to accept our 1hr climbing suckiness.

It's not skill, it's my geographic advantage. ;)

Well shoot, I was going to post the 160 feet of climbing I did in riding an hour from my house, but... :(

I don't think this counts as it was (a) from work, not home, and (b) 2 hrs. But here's montebello from last Thursday. The asymmetry is because I forgot to punch the 'start timer' button until a couple of miles down!

Here's an entry for me (bikely elevation used)...rode the Orbea from home up Pescadero and Alpine towards Skyline.

Didn't quite make it all the way up Alpine in an hour (there's a nice personal challenge for me) but I did make it 8.9 miles, 3175'.

Doing sustained 10-12% climbing in the first 2 miles is hard! I need to get in better shape. :o

Most (or maybe half) of that comes from going up the backside of Haskins, right?

Most (or maybe half) of that comes from going up the backside of Haskins, right?

Most of the climbing is on Alpine, but the first two miles "warm up" is the backside of Haskins.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Loma-Mar-Alpine-out-back

^^ :eek:

Oh well, looks like we might as well just pack up our bikes, guys and learn to accept our 1hr climbing suckiness.

Justin, you can get ready to engrave the trophy now I think.

Yup- only a few days left in March and we have a strong front runner!

Today is your last day to try the challenge! Please send me your final results by tonight (or let me know if you need more time).

Or parking garages! :p

Don't laugh. I trained for the Mt. Diablo Challenge in the Music Circus parking structure.

Not practical for me as it's a lot of long red lights and 7.3 miles from home to base of Montebello/Stevens Canyon or 7.4 miles from start to Moody/Altamont intersection.

Same here ... about 7 miles to Montebello ... but I wouldn't be in contention anyways .... such a slow hill slug!

Today is your last day to lose! Please send me your final results by tonight (or let me know if you need more time).Fixed. :P

Hmm, I got 4000' on my commute home today but that took 3 hours and went to my house, not from it. Consider me disqualified this month!

Couple entries for me depending whether we're going with the one way option or round trip, both starting from home. Not much riding during March due to flu but here goes:

#1: 3/9/09, 15 Miles round trip from home to Mt. Diablo South Gate Kiosk, Total Climbing: 1600 ft, Running Time: 61 Minutes

#2: 3/30/09: 10.7 Miles One-Way from home to Mt. Diablo Junction/Ranger Station, total Climbing: 1870', Running Time: 58 Minutes

Definitely not the most impressive but maybe qualifies for the 40 yr. old category :)

Never got to do the Mission Peak climb but by my estimate would've got less than 2500 ft. Takes 5 min ride before starting the climb, about 45 min to climb ~2300 ft, and maybe a few hundred more doing a loop for 10 minutes around the peak.