Fantastic Ride - Thanks Jobob!

[Veronica]

Thom and I drove over to the peninsula to ride some of the classic climbs of the area. Eleven years ago when we lived there and were riding, I never thought I could do one of these monsters, let alone 4. It's amazing what a little self confidence and A LOT of riding can do for you.

We started off with King's Mountain, which I thought was the worst. Even though it was shaded I got really hot and was absolutely soaked by the time I got to the top. This is a 5 mile climb, ascends 1670, average grade 6.8%, max grade 14%.

We rolled along the top of Skyline Boulevard and then descended on 84. This was an awesome descent! Nice pavement, smooth turns. I did lose a contact though. At the bottom Thom and I were riding along with two other folks, doing a nice paceline. But I was a little freaked that my vision wasn't quite what it should be, and you can't look at the scenery when you're pacelining. So we backed off and looked around. Beautiful countryside as you head into San Gregorio.

We stopped at the San Gregorio store for a bit and then headed up Stagecoach to Rt 1. I changed jerseys at the store and replaced the contact. I had started off in cashmere and had really suffered for it on King's Mountain. The climb up Stagecoach has no shade so sleeveless felt really good.

The ride along Rt. 1 was quite pleasant, nice wide shoulder in both directions. We then turned onto Verde Rd. to head over to Higgins-Purisma Rd. This climbs 690 feet in 4.2 miles. This where we ran into Leebob, who was doing another ride. The 4 of us met up for lunch in Half Moon Bay, where my huge Fluffy bag (that I was cursing everytime I climbed) came in handy.

We ate at a rest area which was supposed to have restrooms, but they were locked. The ride leader told us to just go behind the building. Great, except the building was in the middle of a field! I don't mind the open air - but a little privacy is appreciated. So as we headed back down Rt. 1, I kept my eyes open for a State Beach with rest rooms and found one!

Our next climb was Lobitos Creek Rd, 4.1 miles long 670 feet of climb. This road looked worse than actually was. You know when the you can see where the road is going and you think, "I have to go up there!" It wasn't too bad.

This was quickly followed by Tunitas Creek - 6 miles long, 1950 feet of climb. For this climb, I was pretty much into a groove and just chugging away. The last two miles are much shallower than the first 4. This brought us back up to Skyline and a rip roaring descent back down King's Mountain.

I took off just ahead of two guys. One of them passed me about three turns into. It was a nice pass, he said something as he went by. I thought great, someone who's line I can follow. But he was really flying and on some corners going into the other lane. Not my way to descend. I'll use up my WHOLE lane, but the other lane is off limits unless the road is closed to traffic.

The second guy passed me a few corners later and I was able to follow him. We caught up to the first guy who was slowed by a truck, that very kindly moved out of the way for us. Then we passed a motorcycle. Yep, a motorcycle. I figure it must have been a new rider because he was on the brakes the whole time we were behind him. We followed another truck the rest of the way down.

I'm happy to say that the descent was worth the suffering on the ascent.

It was a fun, but hard day. 66.5 miles, 6,000 feet of total ascent. I did a little backtracking so got some extra mileage. I was thrilled to ride some of the classic climbs in the Bay Area. Especially knowing that when we lived close to them, I was afraid to try them.

And hats off to Jobob. First for inviting us, second for doing all that climbing with me!


V.

[jobob]

Oy. Talk about overestimating your abilities !

I had done parts of this ride before and wanted to do the others sometime (note to self: not all at once, you nit ....) The parts I hadn't done were three of the four major climbs. All together now – what were you thinking???

This was a co-listed ACTC/Western Wheelers ride. There were cyclists with a very wide range of abilities on this ride, so it got spread out quite a bit. V. and Thom were well out in front most of the time, I was near the back most of the time, and we'd meet up at the regroups, which was fine.

Like V. said, it was gorgeous out.

We crossed paths with Lee's ride on our last climb before lunch (which was the last climb of Lee's ride) so he joined us for our lunch break afterwards. Then we said our goodbyes and headed off again.

Since we pulled off at the state beach to take advantage of the facilities, we were separated from the rest of the ride group. No prob, we had the route sheet, and it was pretty straightforward.

I knew I might have bit off more than I could chew when we hit the steep bit of Lobitos Creek Rd., the second-to-last big climb of the day. Ordinarily I would just gear way down and chug along, but it was a real struggle for me to get to the top of this one. And in the back of my head I knew the next climb up Tunitas Creek was supposed to be harder. uh oh.

So, as we started up Tunitas I told V. and Thom to go on ahead, I'd meet them at Skyline Rd. up at the top. We were in the woods by then, it was cool and shady with the sound of the trickling creek keeping me company. OK, I can do this. But then it got steeper and my legs were saying "uh, we've had about enough now". I looked at my computer and realized I still had about 4 miles to the top. crap. So I stopped and got off and rested a bit, had something to eat and drink, and set off again. That was good for maybe a half mile. Got off, rested, repeated. The road was still pointing up. The legs were still on strike. double crap.

I'd never been up this road before and I had no idea how much farther it would stay this steep, but I knew there was no way I could do this for another 3+ miles. I was hurting and it was time to throw in the towel. Got off again and reached for the cell phone, I figured I'd call Lee (whose much more sensible ride was long over and who was waiting patiently for us in Woodside) to ask him to come and rescue me (auuuugh ), and then I'd call V. and tell her I was fine and Lee was coming to get me.

Well, of course, there's no cell phone signal. triple crap. I hated the thought of V. or Thom coming all the way back down here to check up on me. I started off again, sort of, and very soon thereafter another cyclist passed me. I asked him if he wouldn't mind telling the couple on orange bikes waiting for me at Skyline to go on ahead down Kings Mtn. and tell my husband to come and get me.

Ahhhh, help was on the way. This time when I got off, I just started walking up. Heck, the 2 mph walking wasn't all that much slower than the 3 mph I was averaging while pedaling So I'm meandering up, enjoying the scenery, listening to the birds. After a while I realized the road had leveled off somewhat, and was semi-level for a ways up ahead (after which it turned and I couldn't see any farther). OK, give it a shot. Well, joy of joys, the legs were willing and I was cruising along at a rip-roaring 7 mph. I figured I'd see how far I can go. The road tipped up a little bit more, but I was still doing OK. sweeeet.

Then Veronica appeared - she was about to come back down to check up on me anyhow when my Messenger arrived at the top, so Thom went ahead to get Lee and she came back down to inspect the carnage. This last bit was much less steep so I was able to make it up to the top without too much grief. I'm very glad that V. didn't have to go back down to the steep part and come back up it again (although she could have done it easily - d*mn her )

So we made it up to the top of Tunitas (woo woo), and V. took off like a shot down Kings Mtn. I took it much more cautiously since I wasn’t about to put too much trust in my motor skills at that point. I had to pull off partway down because I realized I wasn't wearing my sunglasses, and I could have very easily lost a contact the way V. did earlier (and wouldn't that have been special?) . Lee passed me on his way up Kings on his rescue mission, so he turned around and met back up with all of us in Woodside.

A fine day out !

- jo "creaky" bob

[Trekhawk]

[QUOTE=jobob]Oy. Talk about overestimating your abilities !

I had done parts of this ride before and wanted to do the others sometime (note to self: not all at once, you nit ....) The parts I hadn't done were three of the four major climbs. All together now – what were you thinking???


Hey Jobob - well done. What an inspiring read.

I shy away from some of the hills up my way but after reading this Im going to give a few more of them a go.