Tiffanie

Wow!

zzzwillzzz

that's about the normal size of the group. i'm in there somewhere along with bigdraft.

george- i saw you at the top of bradbury, are you gonna post any of those pics?

roadfix

I'll upload that next. Were you the one that yelled out?

zzzwillzzz

about 150-250 riders every sat. it's a completely different dynamic than a sfvbc ride. the group rides together as opposed to the sfvbc where people ride along the same route sort of together, if they feel like it. it's hard to describe.

vance, you should give it a try sometime. it's really good for your speed to learn to ride with a group like that. it's something that there is no way to replicate on your own or even with a small group. if you want to give a try i can guide you through it during the ride as there is a big difference riding with a bunch of racers. not necessarily the effort but what is expected of you in the pack to keep the group together and not make any moves that might cause problems in the closer quarters of the peloton.

spingineer

Yea, that looks pretty normal. So that's what it looks like from a passer by. But usually, by the time they get to Arrow, I'm dropped. It's ridiculous when they make the left turn from Santa Anita to Longden. Try making 150 riders suddenly stop at the red left turn. Must make drivers on the other side of the street pissed!

zzzwillzzz

of course! even if i'm ten beats over my max heart rate doesn't mean i should be impolite and not say hi to my friends

roadfix

I just uploaded the Bradbury video on YouTube.

Bradbury climb


Man! I was waaay ahead of the pack today!...

VanceMac

Would be fun, I'm sure. What's their usual route? Distance/climbing?

zzzwillzzz

short route is about 40 miles if you start from descanso gardens about 7 less if you start from trader joes in south pasadena where most riders start
long route adds about 12 or 13 miles

climbs are short and come at the end of the ride. basically you head east on the way out and on the way back you head west to finish in sierra madre. on the way back every time you turn right and head north there will be a climb. it's probably a little different than you're used to, it's not the length or the grade but the pace of the other riders (on the second video that roadfix posted, i'm the one who waved and yelled 'george'). most of the climbs are done in the big ring.

i would advise at first to start at trader joes, not because of the distance but because the trip down arroyo is twisty and tricky at 30+ mph and you want to be pretty confident in a big group before you attempt it.

JetWave

I was watching the video, but please excuse my dumb question, I thought we have to stop at the stop sign? I am new to road cycling & am puzzled by the video that the cyclists cruising right pass the stop sign.

zzzwillzzz

we're supposed to stop, but this is a racing group and we pretty much consider ourselves above the law...

the road ends and turns left at the top of the hill that is just outside the frame of the video so there's not much reason to stop as the only other place traffic could come from is a driveway

JetWave

Thanks for the quick reply. It must be exciting to ride with a large group of top racers.

bitingduck

here's the routeslip for montrose long starting from TJs in South Pasadena. I wagged the route from Descanso to TJ's here (I never go that way- I could be wrong about how it gets from Linda Vista to Arroyo).

The difference between the short and long version is the the short goes straight on Cerritos (where the long turns right at Gladstone) and then turns left at Foothill until it gets back onto the same route.

On the long route there are a couple additional "climbs" that break things up-- right after the 57 there's a short power climb and then there's a shallow fast climb up Valley Center to Sierra Madre. If you rode this yourself you might not notice the climb, but at speed it's a little work. West on Sierra Madre is rolling, and then there's another power climb right after Grand.

bitingduck

Once in a while they park a cop there and stop people-- it's good to not be the first one up...

bitingduck

Except for those of us with a lot of leg speed...

Oleanshoebox

Went for a ride in Sycamore Canyon today. Weather was ideal. Met a couple of nice mtbers. Here are a few pics.

mtblurkr

Chino Hills

spingineer

Pics from Hwy 84 near Woodside in Northern Cal





Tracy is somewhere in this pic

spingineer

Various pics from Tour de Cure

spingineer

Isn't this perdy ????

merider1

So, I had a very upset stomach last night and couldn't sleep, thus I missed my 6:15am take off time to ride with some other folks. What's a girl to do (after she has slept in until 7:30am)? I jumped on my bike and rode 55 miles in a loop from Sherman Oaks to Dodgers Stadium, Griffith Park and back. Lonely, but nice out there! While on the bike path, I saw something I've NEVER seen, hot firemen (and I do mean these were guys couldn't have been more nice looking!) driving a FIRE TRUCK down the LA River bike path. Turns out there was a car submerged in the water. So, of course, I stopped and took a few pics to share here. I did not stick around to see if there were any bodies in that car, but I doubt it. Probably some car thieves dumping a stolen car. Here are the pics:




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spingineer

Some pics from Auburn Century. For a full ride report, see https://www.bikeforums.net/northern-california/344138-auburn-century-ride-report.html

redal

The Socal Norcal difference always makes me laugh. I saw a car tonight in San Dimas with a NorCal sticker and I had to laugh. As junior racers we would always have conflict with the Norcal kids when we went up north to do road races. It was great when we would go to nationals or other big races out of state and they were our best friends. My friend races speedway motorcycles and the guys from the Auburn track are despised at the Costa Mesa track.

spingineer

Interesting ... maybe it's the racer mentality. I don't sense that on all the century and double century rides that I do. In fact, I used to wear the old LA Sheriff race kit on rides all the time in NorCal, and without a snide comment at all.

ovoleg

cool pics man!!