Quote Originally Posted by featuretile View Post
I live in Santa Cruz, CA and all the country roads are in the mountains.
I live in those mountains! If I want to ride further than a mile from my house, on safe routes, every direction involves 20% (up) grades - even to get to flat routes along the coast.

Right now at the start of warm season I'm still a bit out of shape. I've been taking the bus to Santa Cruz and riding around randomly in the "flat". In years past, when I was sick of climbing mountains, I'd come into the city and do a coastal ride. I found that riding the coastal bike paths (and a few connecting roads) from Natural Bridges to Capitola and back was as much a workout as climbing the mountain to a viewpoint over Highway 17. I think that's because of all the start and stop, turning, and tourist dodging. (Note, this is on an old rigid frame MTB. You might find tourist dodging on a road bike to be frustrating!)