Originally Posted by bikingshearer;[url=tel:22282808
22282808[/url]]Welcome to Bike Forums and welcome to Livermore. I grew up there in the 60s and 70s and got into cycling there. Summer heat aside, it's a great place for road riding. Long, short, flat, hilly, a mix of hilly and flat - you can do any of it from your front door
If you haven't already done so, look on a map for any or all of these roads for good riding:
Mines Road,
Del Valle Road (be careful on summer weekends, especially in the late afternoon - drunk drivers coming back from Del Valle Regional Park)),
Tesla/Corral Hollow Road (the backside is steep);
Cross Road;
Patterson Pass Road (the Livermore side is steep, the Tracy side is stupid-steep with the mother of all false flats; even if you think you are prepared for it, you really aren't);
Flynn Road (includes N. Flynn, S. Flynn and Carroll Rds.- they all connect);
Altamont Pass Road (often quite windy west to east - it is pure joy doing the gentl descent into Tracy with the wind at your back, but much less so heading back west to Livermore)
N. Livermore Ave/Manning Road (for getting to other good roads);
Morgan Territory Rd (steep, exposed and hot on the Livermore side- be warned. It's best ridden north to south);
Highland Road (only on weekends - it's a commute hour shortcut that is far too narrow and twisty for the amount of too-fast rush hour traffic it now gets)
Collier Canyon Rd (gentle up from south to north, gentle fun down north to south)
I would avoid Vasco Road north of 580. It now has a pretty good shoulder, but it is a fast road and a commuter highway and as such is not a lot of fun. Ditto for Vallecitos Road. If you want to go to Sunol go via Vineyard Ave to Pleasanton and then via Foothil Road or Sunol-Pleasanton Road to Sunol (Foothill is prettier, Sunol-Pleasanton has better shoulders).
If you get ambitious, Highland Road and then Tassajara gets you to Blackhawk, Danville, and the foot of Mt. Diablo. Mines Road eventually gets you to Mt Hamilton, a long ride with a hard final several mile long climb - a ride to the county line or The Junction (with Del Puerto Canyon Rd) gets you into some lovely and remote country. Tesla/Corral Hollow, Patterson Pass and Altamont can be made into any combination of challenging loops; they're all 50+ miles long and they all involve at least one hard climb and/or, if you return via Altamont Pass, likely a nasty headwind.