Bay Area Finale: Old Lo Honda Road and Tunitis Creek

To round out a near-perfect week of cycling I took a short flight from San Diego to San Jose to visit my brother and ride with his cycling partners. I had just completed 5 days (and 325 miles) of mountainous riding with Cycling Camp San Diego (see posts below) where I had pushed myself to the limit each day. To my surprise, each day I seemed able to do it again. But on the 6th consecutive day, despite a huge meal the night before, I felt pretty listless. That changed, however, once I got on the bike on some of the most scenic road I've ever ridden.

Jeremy's friend Paul loaned me a cross bike with 28 mm road tires for our ride. Although it was a little bulky, with its steel frame and old-school bar-end shifters, it was a surprisingly comfortable and reasonably fast ride. We spun at a moderate pace from our meeting place to the base of our first big climb, and I got to know Jeremy's friends John and Beth Stearns (two very strong riders, and very nice people). We were joined by Don, a friend and co-worker of Jeremy's who has joined us on now on three mini-tours, and Paul, whom I met on last year's 3-day Big Sur tour.

The first test of the day came on the climb from Old La Honda Road up to Skyline Blvd., a well-known training climb for cyclists from across the Bay Area. It was a beautiful morning and the road was full of cyclists, who outnumbered cars at least 10 to 1 up this climb. The six of us set our paces as the road rose and John and I found ourselves riding together at the front. I really hope to return and try the climb on fresh legs, since I've heard 20 minutes to the top is a good goal for a strong rider. Neither John nor I set our watches but I'm sure it took us over 20 minutes. Jeremy tells me (perhaps apocryphally?) that former speed skater turned cyclists Eric Heiden has the all-time record, at just over 14 minutes. I find this a little surprising since he was always a pretty big guy -- extremely powerful and built more like a sprinter or track rider than a climber.

Here's an image of part of Old La Honda Road as it serpentines its way west of Skyline Road (not part of our climb). The other image was taken along the road as it climbs toward Skyline.

About mid-way into the climb, after passing quite a few cyclists on their way up, we found ourselves behind a young woman on a time-trial bike working hard, so we settled in and engaged her in a little conversation. She was surprised to see a cyclist from Minnesota enjoying riding in the mountains (on his 6th day nonetheless). Near the final quarter mile we passed her and John yelled out some words of encouragement. When we got to the top she looked at her bike computer and began to celebrate. "Thank you guys for helping me there at the end. I just finished in my best time!" Apparently she was training for a time trial and using the course as her benchmark.


Following this opening climb we had some screaming descents down toward the coast. Eventually we made our way to the base of Tunitis Creek Road for the climb back up to Skyline Blvd. Now, I've had an opportunity to bike in some startlingly beautiful places before -- the mountains of north-central Spain, Cape Town, South Africa, the Red Rock region around Sedona (AZ) and California's Big Sur coast -- but this was one of the most memorable stretches of road I expect to ever encounter.

It was an amazingly quiet and cool ride through the redwood forest with almost no traffic. The road meandered. It rose and fell (mostly rose), skirting the burbling creek with patches of intense sunlight piercing the thickly-forested hillside. And it went on and on. It was as gorgeous as it was challenging. While the 10% average grade wore me down, the tranquil forest seemed to provide the energy to carry on. By the end we had climbed some 600 meters, by my estimate.

The rest of the ride is now a bit of a blur. I remember a delicious lunch of coffee and sandwiches somewhere along the way. I remember a blazing fast descent on a freshly paved roadway that couldn't have had a better surface. I remember winding our way through the Stanford Campus and stopping for more coffee at the end of the ride. There was some kind of crazy skeleton with an automatic weapon. I even recall stopping by Paul's house and helping him carry down some enormous piece of furniture from his second floor (I'm not sure what this has to do with my bike trip but I do remember it).

Then it was over. Jeremy and I headed back to Mountain View. We had a big meal and drank some good beer. I saw my charming sister-in-law Eva and smart little nephew Alex. Then I hopped on a midnight flight back to Minneapolis, where I landed at 6 a.m. after maybe an hour of sleep. I was bone tired. After some 400 miles and 35,000 feet of climbing, it took me a full two weeks to get my legs back. But once they were back, I was ready. Ready for my first season of bike racing. Over the next few posts I'll report on my performance in the first 5 road races of the season, and a few crits to boot!