OK .... so here is the scoop on the L'Etape.
I got a call that there were some spots available if I wanted to do the ride. About the only organized rides I do anymore are double centuries with maybe 100 riders, so doing a ride with 800 or so cyclists sounded like fun.
This is a ride that appeals to a lot of people, as we follow the same course that the Tour of California will do next week. There is a lot of climbing ~11K in 74 miles, and some of the grades are challenging.
There is a wide variance in rider experience and skill. Many ride it like a race, as it is timed. For others, the goal is to simply complete the whole course. And with the ski lift climb at the end, completing it is not all that easy. I saw a LOT of people walking bikes in many places along the course.
So we headed up from the start in Upland up Mt. Baldy road. It was a gentle consistent ascent, and the vehicular traffic behaved themselves. Mt. Baldy road has some steep sections on the way to the Village ... some short sections in excess of 10%. Once we got to the Village, we turned onto Glendora Ridge Road to ride up to Cow Saddle. The weather was perfect. I didn't even bring a jacket or armwarmers, and that is rare for me.
From there, GRR is up and down, but mostly down, and it was a beautiful descent. The views of the San Gabriels are amazing.
We rolled down East Fork to Camp Williams, and from there, along Highway 39 to Duarte. The reservoir was nearly full. I've never seen it like that!
The descent down Highway 39 is almost always headwindy (one of the reasons I'm not fond of it), and Sunday was no exception. All the same, we scooted down to the bottom in pretty quick order. Next up was a short climb to the base of Glendora Mountain Road (GMR).
Molly and I were riding together, and she was wondering what it might be like to ride a bike with lower gears. Since our inseam is the same and we use the same cleats, we both had a great idea ... swap bikes! OMG, was that strange. As I thought, her seat height was fine, but what a different stance on her bike. She seemed to like mine right away ... I think she needs a bigger frame.
GMR is a terrific ascent, and it is one that we often do early in the day. But today, we would be doing it in the heat of the day. Frankly, I thought it was perfect. Enough to get you perspiring, but a cooling breeze.
We stopped for a break in the shade.
This is where a lot of people pooped out. And unfortunately, it is where people needed a lot of water. There was one water stop about 1/2 way up, but it was out of water. We soldiered on to the next rest stop at the top of the GMR climb. Unfortunately, THEY were out of water too, which made for some unhappy people. It wasn't the volunteer's fault ... the organizers were't as prepared as they should have been for the heat of the day.
Someone dug up a small quantity of water, and I managed to get 1 water bottle filled, and turned down any more. 1 bottle was all I needed until we returned to the lodge.
There are some nice shady sections along here.
And now the hard part. From the beginning, Molly had no intention of completing the entire ride ... she is still riding herself into shape. But I cajoled Molly into completing the ride to the ski lifts with a Coke from the Mt. Baldy Lodge. It's a nasty steep, unrelenting climb, but Molly was pretty chipper most of the way up.
And little by little, we finally got there to get our medals and some pretty yummy food. We eschewed the ham sandwich and went for a good old american burger. Yum.
We took a group photo too ... check it out.
So how hot was it? Someone took a pix of me at the end of the ride after cooling off. Yikes.
