Best road for 55+ minute effort in the Bay Area
 

So I'm looking for a long climb, uninterrupted flat road with a small climbs and very short descends.

Basically I see two options:

• Mount Diablo South / North
• Polo Fields

Anything that can be used for long intervals? I know a lot of great 20+ minute climbs, but very few that lasts more than 50 minutes... And I know very few east bay roads, so I hope somebody can recommend something over there.

I'm confused. Are you looking for a long climb or flat road with small climbs or both? You already said Diablo, a ride to the summit is an hour plus, unless you are extremely fit. It can be used for any length interval, an uninterrupted stretch of road at a consistent grade.

I'm looking for a road that goes uninterrupted for 55+ minutes with no descends (longer than 30sec). It can be flat, or a road with a slight gradient or a climb. Descends would kill my power target.

Mines Rd. South from Tesla Rd. Livermore. Vehicle park on S. Livermore Ave. at Shopping Cntr or Library. Flat for 4-5 miles and then climbs about 20 miles topping out a couple miles North of the Junction at Hwy 130. At the end of the flat 4-5 miles Mines Rd turns hard left...don't keep going straight toward Lake Del Valle, that climb up Mendenhall ridge is too short for 55 minutes.

Del Puerto Canyon from Patterson I5 exit, tops out at the Santa Clara County line. Vehicle park at Jack in the box or Starbucks. (water at Frank Raines park & a spring farther up the hill.) There's a downhill section that might exceed 30 sec. about a mile beyond the first cattle guard, it's within warmup distance of the start. If you make the County line it's only a couple miles farther on to the Junction Bar & Grill at Mines Rd. Del Puerto Canyon Road - Jay's Essential Bike Rides

Mt. Hamilton. To avoid climb/descent from Almaden start at Joeseph D. Grant County Park. Or the backside from
Hwy 130 at the Junction of Mines Rd. Park outside the gate at the Junction Bar, (good sandwich/beer stop), water available at Lick Observatory. Slight downhill at start, again within warmup distance. Traffic is nonexistent on weekdays. There is a descent to a creek that might be within an hour of the start. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1838070

Check The Junction's days/hours of operation http://thejunctionbarandgrill.com/

Mt. Diablo N. Gate would be closer to SF. Arbolado Park is where I leave my vehicle for this ride.

Silverado Trail is 26.9 miles, with wide well-paved shoulder, trending slightly uphill, from the lights at Trancas St in Napa to the junction with Lincoln Ave in Calistoga. If you continue through onto Lincoln without stopping for the right turn, it's 28.4 miles by the time you get to Tubbs Ln, after which point you're climbing all the way to Robert Louis Stevenson Park and the summit of Mt St Helena at 34.7 miles. No descents where you should spin out on an 11, only one or two that last more than a quarter mile, no stop signs or stop lights, (except a permanently flashing amber at Deer Park Ave in St Helena which, if you time your approach well, shouldn't take more of a slowdown than a sharp turn would).

Basically, no reason to stop pedalling for the duration. If you can cover that in under 55mins, someone ought to be paying you to ride your bike. You could also swing onto any of multiple right hand turns which lead up 20-30 minute climbs.

There are 127 Strava users with Northgate-Summit times under an hour... out of more than 7,000 logs. Yeah, that's some elite company.

You can certainly do as many intervals as you need, but it's not the kind of profile I'd think of for testing thresholds or whatever you're doing.

OH wow. These are really good recommendations. I forgot about Mines Rd completely (never did it from Livermore). Silverado trail is a good one too.

Anything on the peninsula maybe I don't know about?

I think BarryVee may have meant "topping out a couple miles North of the Junction". In any case, there are a few short descents between Livermore and the Eylar Ridge summit (the high point between Livermore and the Junction). Then there are a couple of significant descents between there and the Junction. But it is about 23 miles of mainly flat to uphill from Telsa Rd to the top of the ridge, so it may work for you if you power through the short descents.

gw12 is correct. I did mean "North of the Junction".

Eylar Ridge summit? So there's a name for the top of Mines Road other than "The Top of Mines"? Nice to know.

I frequently use Eylar Ridge summit as a turnaround. If I have the time and the legs, and depending on where I started from, I go to the Junction occasionally, and sometimes either an out and back past the Junction through the San Antonio Valley or down Del Puerto Canyon if I have someone to pick me up in Patterson. In my dreams I'll someday be in shape to go to Hamilton and down the west side.

One or two of the few short descents between Livermore and the summit might take a little more than the 30 seconds of descent the OP wants to limit things to, but not much more than 30 seconds, and those are pretty gentle descents. The steepest of the short descents is at around the 8 1/4 mile point, and should be less than 30 seconds. I think the OP ought to try Mines to see if it works for what he wants.

More than there being a couple of significant descents between Eylar Ridge summit and the Junction, it mostly downhill, about a net 900 feet of descending and 200 feet of climbing over about 5 miles, with meaningful climbing being in the second mile south of the summit. Coming back from the Junction, it is the 300 feet climb in that last mile back to the summit that is sometimes the straw that broke this camel's back. If I don't have the legs for that, or the time, however, a ride to the summit is always a good ride.