Date: Saturday, March 9Meet time: 8:30 a.m. Note the earlier time!
Ride-out time: 9:00 a.m.
Meeting place: Parking lot at Villa and Franklin streets, Mountain View (across from the Tied House) (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Heavy rain cancels
Category: 3 - moderate-fast pace (12-15 mph)
Terrain: 3 - rolling hills with some steep climbs
Miles: 77
Description:
Today's ride is very similar in distance and difficulty to Day 1 of the event in June -- and, in fact, covers about 16 miles of the Day 1 route from recent years. With almost three months still to go before Day 1, it's perfectly OK to not be fully ready by this point, but today's ride will help you gauge your progress so far and help you identify any areas of your training where you might want to focus more in the weeks to come.
We start with a simple spin up to Woodside for our first rest stop. Then we'll travel the entire length of Cañada Road and up and over the Ralston Bike Path on our way to the Sawyer Camp Trail, where we'll get some practice riding on a multi-use path with many other types of trail users (something we do on parts of the event in June). Next, we'll spend a couple of minutes on a short bicycle-legal part of I-280 (just like we do on Day 1) and then ride the spine of the coastal hills before the big, steep, incredibly scenic descent into lunch at Pacifica.
Because we descend to the coast, we must also climb back from the coast. Today, we do this on Sharp Park Road, a somewhat challenging 2-mile climb that's fairly consistent but not stupidly steep. From there we pick up the Day 1 route and follow it as far as the Ralston Bike Trail; we return via Alameda de las Pulgas (bypassing Alameda de las Steeps, thankfully) and Foothill Expressway.
Total climbing on this ride is about 5,000 feet, distributed throughout the day. There are very few flat sections.
Sorry, but due to the earlier time, the first southbound Caltrain of the day will not arrive in time for this ride. Because sunset is at 6:10 p.m., please sign up for this ride only if you are reasonably confident that you can complete it in nine hours or less. We hope to have at least one SAG vehicle available if difficulties should arise.
Click here to RSVP
RSVPs are requested but not required.
