Date: Saturday, August 4Meet time: 9:30 a.m.
Ride-out time: 10:00 a.m.
Meeting place: Parking lot at Villa and Franklin streets, Mountain View (across from the Tied House) (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Rain cancels
Category: 2 - moderate pace (10-12 mph)
Terrain: 3 - rolling hills with some steep hills
Miles: 45
Description:
There's a lot of climbing in this ride, but almost all of it is short-lived ... just like most of the climbing that you'll encounter on the event in September.
After a very brief warm-up leaving Mountain View, we get right into it with a clockwise trip around the Loyola Corners golf course, followed by the short climb to the top of Barley Hill. Then we'll do a little more climbing in the Los Altos Hills before we eventually emerge at the intersection of Altamont and Page Mill, where we'll descend to the Arastradero nature preserve. After a quick rest stop in Portola Valley, we'll tackle our significant climb of the day: the 3.3-mile ride to the end of Alpine Road (followed by the corresponding descent, of course). We'll travel the backside of the Portola loop into Menlo Park for our second rest stop.
We could have chosen to take a direct route back from there, but nooooo. Instead, we'll return to Los Altos Hills for the often-overlooked 0.8-mile climb of La Cresta Drive, and only then will we wind our way back to Foothill Expressway for the easy return into Mountain View.
This is a moderately challenging ride, but it's very doable. We'll have a SAG vehicle on the route. Strava reports about 3,300 feet of climbing for this ride.
This ride is Caltrain-friendly; the first southbound train from San Francisco arrives in Mountain View at 9:29 a.m.
Click here to RSVP now
RSVPs are recommended but not required.
