TrojanHorse

Yep. Huffin&Puffin wants to head up at 7:30 - I'm amenable to that and it should help a skosh with eventual temperatures. (supposed to be partly cloudy and cool-adjacent tomorrow).

I know I preferred 8 when i was going to ride up there from my house but I chickened out, so any time works.

PhotoJoe 

So 7:30.

TrojanHorse

We should get a mod to edit the thread title.

7:30 am it is! I think that will help beach grad out too since she has an 11 am commitment elsewhere.

PhotoJoe 

Done. I know people who can do that.

Beachgrad05

That it does. I was actually thinking of getting up there and rolling by 7:30 regardless...figured you guys would eventually catch and pass me. Not sure which bike I will be on. The Trek is still on the trainer. So I could be on the steel Bianchi.

Erwin8r

7:30 it is. I'm hopeful I'll make it to the shack, and may turn around with Beachgrad there.

TrojanHorse

Sweet! Bianchi-Break in time.

I just spent 15 min. re-tweaking my front and read derailleurs - I think I'm good go to for tomorrow. Can't wait.

Beachgrad05

Trek is off trainer. Likely riding that as I know how it handles on the downhill plus it has certain other accessories I prefer to have along (power meter and other)

HuffinandPuffin

On the road.

Phil

RIDE SAFE

Erwin8r

I made it! Lol! It was great to finally ride with the group, and they were instrumental in helping me get to the shack--no pressure, let me ride my pace, and encouraged me when I needed it.

I just can't believe I made it to the shack! Woo hoo!!

iTrek

Erwin8r, CONGRATS on making it to the shack!

Erwin8r

Thanks, Mark! It was a great ride, and there's no way I would have made it without the gentle encouragement from TrojanHorse, PhotoJoe, Huffin, and BeachGrad. They were all awesome, with the way shown by BeachGrad, TH and PJ hanging back with me, and Huffin coming back to help coach me up. The ride down was very fun, albeit a bit cold (it gets chilly flying down hill in cool weather after a good sweat--lol).

The ride wasn't easy, but not as impossible as I once thought. Definitely will be on the next ride.

tunavic

Well done Erwin and everyone else!

I couldn't make it but hopefully we get a good turnout at next weekends Tramway ride. I'll be riding that one!

jsigone

AWESOME!!!! congrats on tackling that hill

Ursa Minor

Dang I wanted to go but have a bad cold right no. O well.

Charlie

TrojanHorse

I hope this works... trying to see if I can use google plus to share photos instead of whtaever other method I was going to use.

Here's the view from partway up the road - we started down beyond that dam, and worked our way up the swithbacks.

Here's PhotoJoe and Erwin8r cruising up GMR

By the way it was 45 degrees and I was dressed for 80 degrees. Oops. Cold. It did warm up and HuffinandPuffin and I continued all the freaking way up to the ski lifts:

TrojanHorse

In case it was NOT immediately obvious from the previous post, we had 5 participants today - BeachGrad05, Erwin8r, PhotoJoe, HuffinandPuffin and me. We all rode to the shack (great job Erwin!) and then Beachgrad and Erwin decided to head down to the parking lot because of prior commitments.

HP, PJ and I headed up to the village, got some water and decided we should try to make it up to the vaunted ski lifts (the Tour of California finished at the ski lifts 2 years ago - if a bunch of skinny pros can do it, surely we can as well?) So after 25 miles and about 3400 feet of climbing, what's another 5 miles and 2,200 feet? Some obviously gifted cycling ladies in the village were talking up the road and giving us tips (you can recover a little bit in the switch backs. no really , the grade drops from 15% to 13% for about 7 feet. What a recovery!) I actually walked the last 200 feet and Huffin rode the whole thing on his quad equipped Cannondale.

Cruise back down to the village for lunch and while we were wrapping up, some asian gent stopped by our table and asked if we could help him with his tire - he had a leak, apparently, and was concerned he'd run out of CO2. I don't think any of us are quite clear on what the issue was but we helped him get his tire reinstalled & inflated and then left - we offered to ride back down to the start with him and he took us up on it in case he had further issues. That's our good cycling karma deed for the week.

My wife and kids started panicking about 4 pm that I hadn't contacted them and actually started driving up to Glendora to find me and scrape me off the road. No cell coverage up there to speak of, so when I called them from the bottom of the hill they were pretty freaked out - in case any of you are wondering that's why I bolted and didn't stick around. Le Sigh.

Beachgrad05

I tweaked my lower back the weekend before lifting a heavy box of kitty litter and the chilly temps meant I needed to keep riding as my back started to stiffen up. I felt bad for bailing and going off the front (sort of as H&P aka Phil was ahead...he came back as I was still climbing to provide support and encouragement...KUDOS Phil!).

As a result of my needing to keep going...I came within 2:23 of my PR from gate to shack.

https://www.strava.com/activities/123080414

There was a photographer up there too...and pics can be found here:

https://glendoramtnroad.blogspot.com/...gmr-today.html

Beachgrad05

The NO RECKLESS DRIVING sign that some sports cars were completely ignoring as Erwin and I were descending. Good thing we were paying attention and not flying down...as these idiots were cutting the corners using our lane. They might end up with a cyclist hood ornament....could be really bad.



TH and PJ


Erwin


Road ahead


Looking toward civilization


Low moisture laden clouds...it got damp the higher up not to mention chilly


Looking at switchbacks below....loved seeing the flowers along road


Selfie with overcast background


More of the low clouds


Shack is over in the distance as this is the last climb before you get there.

Beachgrad05

Looking ahead at the next big turn...knowing that it is NOT the one that leads to the descent before the climb to shack


Looking back after a switchback getting closer to the one that turns to the descent


PJ, TH and Erwin at the shack


THUMBS UP Erwin


Photographer was up on GMR and got these shots of me

PhotoJoe 

That was one of the hardest rides of my life yesterday. I'm out of shape. TH gives me a hard time about no rides posted of Strava, and for good reason. I haven't had many rides to post on Strava. Anyway, I should have called it at the shack, but didn't. I actually had delusional ideas of making the lifts. Mrs. TH was freaked out because TH was so late getting home. Yup, that'd be my fault. I'm not normally a fast climber, but yesterday was a joke. TH - if it makes you feel any better, I got home to a nuclear winter myself.

I actually rode on with TH and Huffin past the village thinking that my 240 lbs, 34/28 gearing and no conditioning was going to have a chance of the lifts. It only took about 2 miles (well before the "hard" part started) for me to come to my senses. So, I returned to the village and waiting for the guys to return.

I was so tired by time the climbs were done that I didn't even enjoy the decent. By the end of the ride, the only thing I was enjoying was the company. That will teach me to let myself get that out of shape. Aaargh!

Yet....I got some PR's. So confused:

https://app.strava.com/activities/123336137

BG - where did you find those pix?

TrojanHorse

Yeah, I made a joke about it this morning and got dirty looks. Too soon?

Link to the photos here: Glendora Mountain Road: Took photos of cyclists on GMR today.

If you look at the photos, you'll notice there's a pretty good cross section of people on that road to the shack (most of whom passed us at some point)... young people, old people, thin people, clydes and even one little kid.

OMG, the lifts killed me. HuffinandPuffin called it the tortoise and the hare, which was funny. He caught up to me on one of my 400 breaks and kept going - I'd get going, pass him and when my HR threatened to redline, I'd stop... HP would catch up and keep going, then I'd get started again. I almost wiped out twice trying to clip in on a 13% grade. The highlight of the ride up to the lifts was a car full of young ladies that drove by cheering us on. Actually, we got a lot of that sort of thing from passersby, it was nice. It was VERY SATISFYING to get those pics of Huffn and I at the lifts.

Next weekend I'm meeting Huffin and tunavic in Palm Springs to ride up the Palm Springs tramway (featured as the finish of stage 1 of the tour of california last year). We're starting there, not finishing there and as far as I can tell, it's actually WORSE than the lifts.

I thought a 32 tooth cog would be the winning ticket for this sort of thing. I think I need about an 82. Do they even make such a thing?

Beachgrad05

Tram road was finish of stage 2 last year

Beachgrad05

So glad to finally hear from you @PhotoJoe was worried

I want to ride to village again but yesterday was not the day for me due to obligations with my team.

TrojanHorse

Oops, you're right. I just remember all those skinny, seasoned pros literally falling sideways off their bike at the top. Of course, it was 115 degrees and that was the end of a hard 100 miles or so but still.