Sept 14: Pie Ride (>100 miles, >10k vertical)
 

I plan to ride the Pie Ride again.

Start: Harrah's Rincon in Valley Center (overflow parking)
Time: roll at 7 AM
Route: Up Palomar South Grade. Visit the observatory. Down East Grade. Up and over Mesa Grande to the pie stop. (About halfway through mileage-wise, with >7k ft vertical by this point. This is also the last place where good bail-out routes exist. Past here, you're committed.) CA-78 and Old Julian Hwy to Ramona. Through Highland Valley and Bandy Canyon. CA-78 into Escondido. Up Lake Wohlford (a final 1000 ft climb), then back down to the start.

Who's in?

Rider list
jschen
couchweight
Cleave (doubtful)
Chucklehead (tentative)
Extort (should)
Curlin
Iamkar33m (SAG driver?)
Jancouver (if)
blue_nose
OC Roadie (possibly maybe)
Indolent58 (probably)
Crankit37

Wow, you read my mind! I was going to post this last night, except I was hoping more for the end of sept/early oct.

I'd be up for riding it again in early October... one can never eat too much pie!

I might be up for that ride. What time do you plan on leaving? I'd just assume ride from my place in solana beach and make it around 130 mile day. And Chuckles, I think I meet you last week on the wednesday ride.

You mean on Sept 14? We're rolling at 7 AM because there's slower riders like me who on century pace are looking at about 2 hours to climb South Grade. You could always play catch-up if you want.

Isn't Palomar further away from Solana Beach? It think it's 30 miles 1-way, so it'll turn into 160+ miles total if you start from there.

I assume he'd leave us once we got back into Escondido, in which case 130-ish miles sounds about right.

what is the Wed. ride? I am looking for a local weekly ride. I live in Carlsbad.

Hi Jason,

Let me think about it some more. I probably haven't ridden Palomar since 1985. I'm sure the road got steeper since then. :rolleyes:

How crazy does the traffic get on Palomar? I've never ridden it, but heard it can get pretty dangerous because of all the "spirited" driving that goes on there.

Really? What's your name?

Wed. ride is a very fast paced "Pro" ride on Wednesday mornings that leaves from the Starbucks on Coast Hwy In Carlsbad at 8:15am. From there it goes up to Basilone rd. just past San Onofre where it typically hits the turnaround point with a big bunch sprint. Then it'll turn around and be pretty mellow for a bit before ramping up again back into Oceanside.

It can get spirited at times. At the time of day we're going, though, the motorcyclists are still fast asleep.

Matt, blue tarmac and I've usually got on a squadra kit on.

Oh nice. how was the ride this morning? I stayed up too late watching the Olympics and wasn't able to get up...

You should definitely try to make it out for this ride. It's a great route.

Are you in, Chucklehead?

Call me a tentative yes. The ride is a week before Vegas, so it's definitely dependent on how I feel coming into that weekend.

Have you thought about maybe starting from the North County Fair parking lot?

No. Where exactly is that? What would it change? (We'd climb Wohlford first to avoid it at the end, I assume?)

I've done this ride tons of times. Well, similar to it. I am always up for it though. I am lazy and hate driving anywhere to ride. I like being able to ride out of my door. Usually ride out del dios, hit wolford, then palomar. And if I am feeling frisky, climb cole grade on the way back in. Ride was as usual today. Fast and painful. Things took off pretty fast on the way back south.

Well, shoot. Perfect for you if we start at the mall, then. You could leave a little later. This route also knocks out the part of 78 going past the Wild Animal Park and adds a twisty descent from Ramona down Highland Valley Road. Cross Henshaw over the freeway bridge and it pops out right across the street from the mall.

How FAST is it? and what is the total milage?

Well, as this ride is cross posted in another forum, I'm not going to alter the route this time since discussing changes on two sites with two different groups of people may get really confusing, but I'll consider the proposed alteration for future rides. But Chucklehead, if you like the alternative, you can always start there and play catch-up... we all know you'll easily catch up to me.

It's a race pace ride, so expect sustained speeds between between 28-35mph on the flat sections and 40+ in the sprint if you choose to partake.
I don't know what the speeds are like on the little hills. I never look.
If you're looking to get faster, this is a good way to do it, unless you aren't keen on riding in large groups at high speed. If you don't have much experience, everyone will sense it and keep their distance, and that makes it really hard to draft;)
From Carlsbad, it's about 50 miles round trip.
How long have you been riding and what's your typical pace?

Meh.. I'll decide later. That's a lot of distance to make up, though, so I wouldn't bet on me catching you.