Beaker

I’m in the mood to ramble, so here goes. I’ve been trying to check off some of the many signature climbs in the bay area, so today I played hookey and got another two off my list. Sierra Road from Milpitas and Welch Creek Road in the Sunol Wilderness.

It was a perfect day to start out from Milpitas – below average temperatures but with clear skies and a gentle breeze. It was in the mid 70’s all afternoon, when it wouldn’t be unreasonable to be expecting upper 80’s to 90’s on these climbs.

I had a couple of miles warm up before hitting Sierra – which I’ve been wanting to try since I saw the ATOC ride it in '08. Sierra climbs 1800ft in 3.55miles, with an average grade of 9.7%.



All in I was actually somewhat surprised – it didn’t seem as bad as I was expecting. Most of the grade is below 15%, and I was able to pace it up in my 34x26 and 34x23 without killing myself. The nice thing about Sierra road is with all the twists and turns, there's a constantly changing landscape with views across to the peninsula hills, to the south to Hamilton etc. That made the time pass quite quickly. The legs felt pretty good, but sunsceen mingled with sweat running into my eyes in the last mile was excruciating. I reached the top and felt pretty good – I was glad to have got it done, but it wasn’t quite as satisfying as I was expecting, maybe I needed a bigger spanking?

Top of Sierra Road



I popped a hammer gel and a couple of endurolytes before heading on to Felter and then Calaveras Road. Beautiful vistas of Calaveras reservoir – very different from 3 1/2 months ago when I rode past there on the Primavera century, from green and lush to the brown, parched landscape we get for half the year here. The reservoir was noticeably low as well. This was a nice stretch of my solo ride and it was refreshing to take in the scenery with little traffic to speak of, I think I was only passed by 3 cars during the whole ride. I also met a turkey, a vulture and a cow in the middle of the road, along with more squirrels than I care to see diving in front of my wheels.

Calaveras Reservoir



I was feeling pretty good after climbing Sierra, so was committed – I will do Welch Creek. Welch Creek is well known as one of the nastiest climbs in the bay area, so I'll confess to a little trepidation when I turned off Calaveras to start the climb. You can see the profile below, it climbs 1860ft in 3.9miles with an average grade of 9.0%. However that’s deceptive as unlike Sierra it comes at you in waves of >15% climbing interspersed with more reasonable 5-10% grades – at least for the first half. That wasn't so bad - stretches of steep I can handle. The second half is where it gets down to business though.

If you see this, just keep going






This was 34x26, grinding up, mostly seated just trying to keep the cranks turning. I’d stand from time to time, but occasionally I’d catch myself almost taking too long to push the crank down and have to push harder, there were a couple of moments there when I thought I might just grind to a halt and put in a clipless fall. Honestly, I though this would never end. If that wasn’t enough, I was being constantly swarmed with bugs. Perfect.

I had decided to switch my Garmin away from speed, cadence heart rate and track my progress by elevation. I figured I’d top out at 2000ft or so, but when 2000ft came and went and I was still being presented with >15% grades, I was starting to feel truly demoralized. Please, make it stop. I was also starting to feel tightness in my back – I’m used to steep grades, but not that go on for so long. I finally got to the top and was treated to – a closed gate, a road the peters out to a dirt trail and scattering of houses with a variety of junk lurking in their lots. Not a bad view, but not a huge pay-off.

View from the top of Welch Creek



Thing is with a dead end you’ve got turn back round and descend. Did I mention how narrow this road is? I did meet a couple of cars coming down, but they slowed right down as I went huffing past – the idea of coming across a fat SUV while heading down at speed wasn’t good. I now worship at the church of Swiss Stop Green. Feathered the brakes, let the speed build where I had a clear sightline with no cars and could see how sharp the turn was. The descent finished a darn sight more quickly – I'm glad to have this one in the bag, but don’t feel the need to go back again for a while.

The rest of my ride was a steady pace back up Calaveras then down to Milpitas. During which time I avoided the aforementioned cow, more squirrels and the first hints of cramps with about 2miles to go.

Obligatory bike pic



Here’s some stuff that seemed relevant to recent posts:

My gearing – I was running 50/34 and 11-26 – seemed OK, I don’t think I’d have been able to spin a 27 or 28 any faster, I think I’d just have gone even slower

Hydration/nutrition – 3 bottles (I stuffed a bottle of water in the jersey), 1 perpetuem and 2 HEED. 1 Hammer gel and 2 endurolytes at the top of each climb. Popped an extra endurolyte on the way back to the car as I felt my hamstrings twinge – seemed to do the trick. I tried some Naked juice + protein as a recover drink, but it didn’t hit the spot. I’ll probably stick with Recoverite for now.

Climbing technique– suffering, mostly seated, cadence was 50-60rpm seated or standing >10% grade, and significantly lower for >15%.

Garmin stats: 46.5miles, 6100ft elevation gain, 3h 43min ride time.

That is all. If you reached the end of this post, then you know how that ride felt.

icyclist 

A terrific report. Yeah, I'm out of breath.

Take me with you the next time you do something like this!

deepakvrao

Nicely written and you are right - I almost know how that ride felt. What do you weigh [if I may ask]?

Beaker

If you're in the bay area sometime, you're on.

Actually I was referring to the length of my ramble. I'm currently 152.

KiddSisko

Ouch! Those gradients! Why do you hate pleasure?

Beaker

That would take an even longer post to address.