Ride Report - San Jose to Capitola

[andtckrtoo]

This ride took place on Friday, but it was only now that I managed to get all of the photos together. Hope the delay is okay!

If you live in San Jose and cycle, one of the “must do” rides is over the mountains to the beach at Santa Cruz (or in this case Capitola – which is directly south of Santa Cruz). Historically, the problem with this ride is that there is so much to eat, drink and simply DO at the beach, that the ride back is 40 miles of torture. So when my company announced a beach party and the CEO himself said he would lead a group of cyclists over the mountain to the beach and the bus could take us back, I jumped on board immediately! To give a little background on my company – as so many of us cycle, we sponsor many of the local bike teams, including some university teams. We have our own cycling kits (jersey, shorts, socks, bottles, windbreakers…). I don’t know how many other companies have this, but I think it’s a great perk to working for this company!

We all met in Los Gatos at the local coffee shop. We went in two groups – the slower group left at 8:30AM and the “faster” group left at 9:30AM. This is the later group (dubbed the “Billy Goats”). That’s me, second to the right.



The ride was gorgeous! We meandered up Old Santa Cruz Highway through the Redwoods:



It was a hot day, but as the ride was in the shade, it was nice and cool for us. Old Santa Cruz Highway is a good climb, but not too steep. We actually hit Summit Road (very aptly named as it goes along the summit) much early than I thought we would. Here’s our CEO and one of our VP’s at Summit Road:



The ride from there was ALL down hill! We hit speeds of 40 MPH going down and the roads were happily clear of traffic. This was just a fun ride! We ended up catching up to the 8:30 group at the rest point towards the bottom of the hill. We also met up with our SAG support:



From there it was a short 5 miles to the ocean:



And the party was right down the road!!!:



We got there before the bus did, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the beach. We immediately went and dipped our poor tired toesies in the water.

Of course, we couldn’t leave our bikes with the bike racks as none of us rode with locks, so we all carried them up the beach and leaned them against the rocks:



And just as the day was getting to be a little too hot, Santa Cruz cooperated and the fog rolled in:



All in all, a fabulous if exhausting day. A total of 38 miles and a 2000 foot elevation gain. Then beach volley ball, surfing lessons, and way too much food!!!

[spindizzy]

What a fabulous company to work for!! (nice names too!)

Did they ask you what extracurricular activities you were involved in before they hired you?

I think that activities like that create a great camaraderie amongst co-workers. People here just think I'm nuts. They admire what I do, but they think I have a screw loose..hmmm maybe I do.........hope nobodytightens it!

Oh, btw, nice pics!

[andtckrtoo]

Spindizzy - actually, I did not know we were so big into cycling before I started working here, but it was a nice surprise, let me tell you! We even have a company bike pro who leads rides and will check over bikes and do some mechanical work on them. He doesn't exactly work for the company, but his wife does (she and I ride together a lot). What's funny is that my DH could not see me getting a new bike until I told him I needed it for company events. As he's a corporate player, I got a new bike.

[maillotpois]

Great report and pics! You are so lucky to be working for such a bike oriented company!

[Jiffer]

How cool to work for a company with a cycling club!!! Of course, I don't have to work for ANY company and that's pretty cool too, but if I had to work for a company, might as well be one with a cycling club. My husband works for himself, so he gets to take off on super long rides in the middle of the week whenever he so chooses (and work allows).

Anyways, sounds like a way cool ride. Thanks for sharing and great pics, too.