Originally Posted by mschwett

i have to agree with terrymorse.

fly from the UK direct to SFO. take bart or an uber into the city, grab dinner and a room, crash for the night. get up early and go to sports basement, rent a decent road bike. from there, go across the golden gate. ride up hawk hill and down conzelman, possibly the most scenic and epic descent in the west. then ride north through sausalito, mill valley, etc etc to fairfax. stop and grab a bite. then ride up into the hills, past alpine dam, and up to ridgecrest, which is an equally epic series of rollers that is familiar to many from a thousand car commercials. if you've still got a lot of gas left, hit the top of mount tam. either way, next comes a buttery smooth descent through the redwoods back into mill valley. back over the bridge, return the bike, take an uber to SFO, and you'll be in vegas in two hours.

there are other very amazing rides around the rest of northern california, especially the hills down the peninsula, but for epic vistas and completely unique rides, going north from SF is unbeatable.

in january there's about a one in three chance of some rain.