ISSUE 2: S1/P001/TWE/$ECTOR 2
If you haven't been following our post series on this adventure you can check out the first one here 🧐
AT THE BASE
Rolling into Mountain View we had our first taste of traffic and route navigation. To hit our time 6-hour target and minimize stopped time our mapped route looked to reduce the number of stops we would HAVE to make. This meant weaving into neighborhoods and then getting spat out onto major roadways through some of the busiest parts of the lower peninsula. Shortly after rolling through some of the mansions of Mountain View, we found a reprieve in the drag strip next to the tech titans of the area. With it being Sunday we had the road to ourselves to try and make up for lost time “waiting” at lights and stop signs. We eventually dipped into Palo Alto and had to compete for space on the road with other group rides heading out into the hillside for their own adventures.
By this time we were just under the halfway point of the ride and we had still only done a few hundred feet of climbing which meant we still had almost 3500 to go. The heat had also started to ramp up and an overzealous pace in the first sector definitely had some of the group feeling trepidation about what was to come. Our olive branch was that our one and only rest stop of the day was only a few miles ahead at Woodside and afterward we would be treated to another section of long straight open roads before climbing Skyline into South SF. As the climbing ramped we really had to focus on controlling the group and the pace so we would stay together… dropping each other now would hurt us later making it harder to paceline the effort we needed to escape the 6-hour barrier. After a sweeping right-hander onto Whiskey Hill we were a few short minutes from the rest stop.
The art of resting while sprinting
“In and Out” was the theme of the stop. Get water, and food if you need it, and relieve yourself if necessary. We rolled into the gas station and several of us b-lined it for the bathrooms while others grabbed jugs of water to start filling bottles. The sounds of cleats were like hooves stampeding on asphalt. Could we have executed better… of course, but after 4 short minutes we were on the bikes and moving again. Slugging water and smashing Snickers bars on the way to Oanada Road which would eventually converge with Skyline.
Oanada Rollers
Here the climbing truly began, what goes up must come down but in order to keep pace, there was little recovery on the downhill before we were once again pressing through the pedals to push us up and over each climb. At each crest, the group would reshuffle and assemble the pace now felt hard as the flow we had a few short hours ago began to wane. Moving to Skyline we began our longest climb. This is where the fast early miles and afternoon heat began to beat on the group. We lost one rider who succumbed to the course and decided that was enough for this attempt and the rest of us plotted on as a strong crosswind now made it difficult to think or hear one another.
Please get me off this road
After summiting Skyline in South SF, we descended down to the end of this sector and to the Greatest Highway. This descent is not for the faint of heart as you are now in the thick of Bay Area traffic and drivers. Spacing and being prepared for any situation is essential as your speeds rival that of the Ford F-150s barrelling down the road next to you. Soon though we were able to turn onto the Greatest Highway and could see the surf of the ocean, our final sector had begun.
DISTANCE: 36.7
TIME: 1:48:25
SPEED: 20.2mph
ON PACE FOR: 5 HOURS 53 MINUTES
