bikingshearer 

Another lovely ride with MarkoPolo and bigbossman in our ongoing series of rides centered around fun places to stop and chow down. BBM and I drove down to the South Bay and met MP near the Lexington Reservoir. From there, up to the ridge top, over to Soquel-San Jose Road, and a truly fun descent into Capitola and a stop at Gayle's, a sinfully good bakery/sandwich place. (Crowded, but they are efficient and the line moves fast.)

From there, down to the beach where we researched the, ummm, wildlife. Yeah, that's it, the wildlife. We are just crazy about spotting local fauna with exotic plummage in their native surroundings. We're very scientific about it. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it.)

From there, onward to Corralitos (via some unpleasantly steep but blessedly short pitches) and a lunch stop at the town park. The midday repast consisted of tri-tip sandwiches from the Corralitos Market across the street, featuring wonderfully tender and tasty tri-tip.

Afterwards, up Eureka Canyon to the ridge top, over some rollers and a drop back to the start point. A great ride, done at our usual pace - we stop a fair amount, but make up for it by going slow when we ride.

55 miles, somewhere between 4500 and 5000 feet of climbing, lots of riding-through-the-woods kind of cycling, great weather, good friends, yummy eats . . . a really fun day.

bigbossman 

^^^ And, it looked something like this:

milliron

Nice! I've yet to get any points.

Red Rider

We drove to Hellyer to participate in a Beat the Clock Fundraiser at the Velodrome, wherein road bikes were allowed to take to the track (our pursuits were separate from the track bike races). We met sarals, dauphin87, loopybunny, Hermes & Velodiva, as well as a couple non-BF cyclists (whom I know from Twitter & Facebook).

It was our first time on the track. It's so freakin' fast! And that was just the warm up! Oh my gosh, the concrete was grippy and the Diva really loved those banks.

I rode 5 races: Flying 200 (took 2nd), 500m (2nd), kilo (1st), 2K (3rd), and 3K (2nd). I rode the new Fuji TT bike we bought Friday on the 3K. It was exhilarating -- my last lap (each lap is a kilo) was :30.

That was so much fun I may have to do it again.

cccorlew

I saw some photos of you on Facebook. You look totally cool in your outer space aero helmet.

loopybunny

Thrilled to finally meet you an honored to share the track with you for a couple of events!

alwayshungry

Went to Tahoe intending to do only dirt with a friend training for Leadville- guess she brought me along as an anchor. Heard there was much snow up high, so drove over to the Reno side of Mt. Rose to do a couple laps around Galena Park when a frozen disc brake piston ended my day as far as dirt was concerned. MTB left at LBS and a rental road bike under me, did nice out and back to South Lake over Spooner Ridge from Incline about 50 miles total- what a gorgeous day and traffic amazingly light midafternoon. Next day back to the dirt on the Flume trail- snow at the top, about 5 minutes hiking through it; a few leftover snowbanks and downed trees (one perfect bunny-hop height), and a 20-meter water crossing made for an adventurous ride.

spingineer

Had a fun time in Malibu, doing the Grand Tour Highland Double Century ... rode it with my friend Steve, who completed his 100th double century. We had a party on wheels for the whole 200 miles. For once, I finished the double century in daylight ... started just before 5 am, and finished just before 8 pm.

Ride report at https://sevencyclist.wordpress.com/20...rty-on-wheels/

Red Rider

Thanks, Curtis! It's really hard to get on but I swear, between that and the new TT bike, I'm slicker than snot.

Weirded out that my voice echoes in the helmet, so I sound much louder than what I'm projecting.

Red Rider

Same here! Meeting and riding with you was totally cool. Props to you for showing up and riding! Lesser beings stayed home -- and the Big Dogs came to play.

4score

(to: Freighttraininguphill) Powerhouse Rd is a nice little cut through joining Auburn Folsom and New Castle Rd. It has a couple small climbs going towards Auburn Folsom and low traffic. There is one little road off of Powerhouse to investigate. I think it's called Happy Hollow. On the map it seems to join Glenview but I think it may be blocked somewhere in between. I do know there is a very steep and short section right off of Powerhouse, so maybe the next time in that area you can at least take a spin up that and come back down just to amplify your Powerhouse experience. Have fun!

freighttraininguphill

Cool! I will definitely check that out, with camera running as always. Thanks!

This is the kind of riding that will make me a "Powerhouse". I looked at my calf muscles this morning and they are more defined now. Maybe by the end of the summer I will be a Strong Climber.

4score

I think you need to give yourself more credit. You are already a strong climber - by the fact that you tackle a lot of tough area climbs. Some of these climbs many others don't even attempt! Now, with the continued training you'll become a FASTER climber too.

Are you ready for Iowa Hill yet?

freighttraininguphill

Aww, thanks. I'm just a realist I guess. I know I can't keep up with JoelS and most male roadies. I don't know about the women, but I'm sure many of them would kick my ass on a climb. I almost always ride solo, so I honestly have no idea how my climbing compares with other women. I just know that I don't want to hold anyone up, so I don't ride with faster people. I don't want to ruin their training.

Iowa Hill is definitely on my to-do list. I'm still just over 145 lbs, so in about another 10 lbs I'll be ready to tackle it. That will be a good video!

Seanholio

I had an awesome group ride this weekend. Starting in Menlo Park, we rode down Alameda to Edgewood Road, over the hill to Canada, up to the overcrossing at 92, and on up to Crystal Springs Dam. Back down from there into Woodside, and then took the Portola Loop to Arastradero, Page Mill, and back up to Menlo Park. 40 miles, lots of good hill climbing, and some phenomenal folks!

freighttraininguphill

I took my first high altitude ride of the summer today, since it was supposed to be over 100 down here in the valley.

I climbed Ice House Road from US 50 to Granite Springs Road, then up that to the top at 5,709' elevation. I rode down the dirt road a little longer then turned around, descended, and finished the climb up Ice House Road to the Crystal Basin sign.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/96655663

Here's video of the ride up Ice House Road, plus the steeper sufferfest part of Granite Springs Road:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYrkt57xJ2w

Since I didn't want to get 2 flat tires from the goat-head thorns Ice House Road has at times, I rode my 32 lb mtb with thick 26 x 1.95 Specialized Hemispheres. I noticed a nice steep rocky dirt trail near the top of Ice House Road, so on the way back down the mountain I decided to see if my non-suspended mtb with 65 psi in the tires would make it up that trail. It did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk527z78-0I

Bottom of Ice House Road climb:



View from the top of Granite Springs Road:



Top of Ice House Road climb:



A closer look at the mountains from the above pic:



View from top of trail:



About to descend Ice House Road:

Beaker

Hatched a plot with ahmose to ride King Ridge as the last ride before next weekends festivities in Markleeville.



What was supposed to be a pleasant training ride ended up being one of my most memorable rides of all - every road was scenic, the weather, while hot, was great and the climbs up King Ridge, then Fort Ross and finally Coleman Valley made sure that there was some training going on among the sight seeing. We diverged from the Gran Fondo route turning right on Tin Barn from King Ridge, a nice undulating climb through several wooded stretched to Skaggs Springs, that took us through some more rollers back to the coast. We paused at Stewart Point for water, soda and a snack. There's an excellent store there which makes for a great staging post for an unsupported ride.

Highway 1 was very nice, not much traffic and superb views. Fort Ross Rd had me intrigued, as I knew it had a pretty good reputation as a kicker of a climb. It didn't disappoint - a solid mile and a half above 11%. Just a case of hunker down and grind or spin it out as much as possible. The payoff is to rejoin the Gran Fondo route in time for the Myers Grade descent down to 1 - where we were treated with breathtaking vistas of the ocean. Another stretch down 1 to Jenner for another soda stop and off to Coleman Valley. After climbing Ft Ross, this seemed a lot simpler climb, the steep part is shorter than Ft Ross and easier. It was nice to open the legs up a little more on this one as we knew the end was in sight. After reaching Occidental it was a fairly straightforward run back to Monte Rio where we started.

As much as I love Strava, here are some nice graphs from Sporttracks for data geeks:

King Ridge - Tin Barn - Skaggs to Hwy 1




Fort Ross Road from Hwy 1 to Myers Grade




Coleman Valley Road from Hwy 1 to Occidental




Stewarts Point Store




View from Myers Grade - courtesy of ahmose

spingineer

Friday:
Redwood Gulch


Saturday: Penn Velo ride, starting from 92/Canada, up to GGB, and back.

Sunday: Recovery ride up Saratoga Gap, then over to Woodside

Monday: More suffering up Moody, then Page Mill, then over to Saratoga Gap

UmneyDurak

Davis 4th of July Crit. Nothing like on set of a heat stroke to liven up the race. lol.

cccorlew

pigs, bears, more w- dan_in dirt by ccorlew, on Flickr

Sixty-two with LanceOldStrong on July 4.
A bit o' Pig Farm, Bears, El Toyonal, Wildcat Canyon and a taste of road bikes in the dirt.

4score

Great coverage....congrats! I liked the shadow of the vulture come by to check you out at the 6:00 mark - you were still alive, but suffering!

Red Rider

The Reader's Digest version: Friday tandem ride 47 mi.extended Winters loop.

Saturday 47 mi. single bike Gordon Valley loop. Left early and enjoyed the benefits.

Sunday: 42 mi. group ride with Putah creek, avg. 19.7 mph. Tacked on another 20 mi. and the heat was a factor.

Monday: Rode a quick 50+ to the Davis 4th of July crit. Our team repped well.

freighttraininguphill

The helmet cam really captures the suffering on that Moody climb. No rattling, very good audio.

I can't use a helmet cam because I look down too much on tough climbs. You would get a wonderful view of the pavement. It would be great for descents, since I don't look down then. I'm not happy with the video quality of my Playsport on descents. It's too shaky due to the rolling shutter, which is typical of cheap cameras.


Thanks! I noticed that. I've seen shadows of vultures before on my climbing videos. They must think I'm dying or something.

bikingshearer 

Okay, I call "shenanigans" on all you folks who claim to be ever-so-slow (while averaging 18mph) on your ever-so-short (732 mile) rides. When it comes to underperforming, you guys are all a bunch of poseurs.

You wanna go slow but make up for it by going short distances? Then ya gotta ride with The Big Dogs. Like bigbossman and me. (MarkoPolo used to qualify, but he is getting Less Big all the time, what with the judicious eating and exercise. He's turning into a veritible spindly-legged climbing fart - and I mean that with all due derision. )

Case in point - Sunday morning, BBM and I set from Chez Bossman with BlankCrows, cuda2k (visiting from Dallas on his way to Lake Tahoe) and BBM's new neighber from across the street, Chris (who really is a spindly legged climbing fart). We only went 19 miles or so, but we made up for it by going slowly and making an extended Peet's stop in Danville. On top of that, the pavement/curb interface in Blackhawk rose up an bit BlankCrows, causing him and his bee-yoo-tee-fool red Chesini to topple over onto the sidewalk. Fortunately, the only thing wounded was pride, which was salved by the aforementioned Peet's stop. Fun was had, and we were done before the heat set in.

Monday the 4th, I did a quick-ish (for me) jaunt from my North Berkeley environs up Spruce St and Grizzly Peak into Tilden via the Shasta gate, down Wildcat Canyon to Camino Pablo, turned around and back up Wildcat, through Tilden and back down Spruce. Only 17 miles or so, but I went a bit faster than planned back up Wildcat, encouraged by two of the nicest looking black-lycra clad female backsides I have seen in quite some time. Call me a sexist pig if you want (and I won't argue the point), but scenery like that is simply not to be missed if at all possible.

And no, I did not try to put any "moves" on the ladies, either in the pick-up sense or in the Cat.6 racing sense. As to the first, I'm a happily married man and I do not need that kind of trouble. As to the second, it was all I could do to keep yo-yoing back and forth between 30 and 50 yards behind.

MarkoPolo

The only possible way I could be mistaken for a climber is when riding with you two.

On Saturday (sure, pick the hottest day of the year) I decided to test my climbing abilities with a long solo jaunt to the coast and back.
First climb: Old La Honda... Riders who passed me: about 2 dozen... Riders I passed: 0
Second Climb: the two small hills on Stage Road between San Gregorio and Pescadero... Riders who passed me: 5 or 6... Riders I passed 0.
Third climb: Pescadero Creek/Haskins Hill... Passed by: 9-10/Passed: 0
Fourth Climb: Alpine West up to Skyline (it's getting really hot now)... Passed by: an even dozen/Passed 3 (they were stopped for a water break, but soon overtook me again).
Fifth Climb: the bumps up Skyline to the Hwy 9 junction... Passed by: 3/Passed 0.

Final stats: 84 miles, 7000 feet of climbing, 0 riders (who weren't stopped) passed.

Note, I finally I did pass something moving on the way down Highway 9 to Saratoga, but it turns out it was a small fawn who almost t-boned me at 35 miles an hour.