Date: Saturday, April 7Meet time: 8:00 a.m. Note the earlier meeting time!
Ride-out time: 8:30 a.m.
Meeting place: Parking lot at Villa and Franklin streets, Mountain View (across from the Tied House) (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Heavy rain cancels
Category: 3 - moderate-fast pace (12-15 mph)
Terrain: 4 - steep hills, long climbs
Miles: 90
Description:
We'll head across the bottom of the bay on a flat route to Milpitas, and then make our way up Mission Blvd. to Niles Canyon and tackle the 4.7-mile and 4.4% northbound Palomares climb (the "easier" direction). After a lunch stop in Castro Valley, we'll head across the Dublin Grade (again in the 2.6-mile and 2.7% "easier" direction) and then down Foothill Blvd. into Sunol, where we'll do, yes, the "easier" 2.8-mile and 3.8% southbound climb of Calaveras Road. We finish with a rest stop in Milpitas and then retrace our route through San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. (The Dumbarton Bridge is not part of this route in either direction.)
Strava reports about 4,100 feet of climbing for this route. There's a lot of climbing on this ride, some of it a little bit steep, but none of it stupidly steep. We've rated this ride a terrain "4" because the climbs are long, not because they're unusually steep. Your facilitator rode the entire route in November and wasn't grumpy at the end, so you can do it, too. We'll have at least one SAG vehicle to keep us company, especially in the remote areas where cellphone service is not reliable.
RSVP now RSVPs are requested but not required.
