Dave M. called a fixed gear ride in Woodside on Saturday. We met him and Brad S. at the school and rolled out on our usual route. Zeus, Bianchi, Torpado and Frejus were the chosen machines for this refreshing ride in the trees. It was the usual route: Woodside, Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Woodside. Dave told fun stories of riding the Sunol back roads with an older gentleman that had a cycling history of the golden age in the early 50's in England. We lost track of Brad and Dave near the end of the ride but had lunch behind the school and connected by phone later to make sure we were all OK. Thanks for the great ride Dave & Brad!
Sunday saw me riding alone on a route that I've been itching to try: the Big Basin Loop. Left Boulder Creek late morning and rode up Hwy 236 (Big Basin Way). Nice to see some holiday decorative cheer out in the woods. Never noticed it before in a car but Taungpulu Monastery is on the left a few miles out of town. Pretty cool seeing the pagoda & shrine poking up through the Redwood forest while climbing on the bike. I stopped to check it out, the driveway up is very steep! After a few pics I rode down, Italian brakes squealing, disturbing the peaceful atmosphere - sorry Taungpulu Tawya Kaba-Aye Sayadaw of Upper Burma. Back on the road I continued to climb and after the BC country club it became a bit steeper, not too bad but kinda long to the top and Sempervirens school. From the school into the park was a nice downhill, cool, in the trees cruise. Stopped for some sun and my 2nd sandwich at the snack bar/store but it was closed today. After a little break it was time for the big climb of the day. The one lane road out of the park back to Hwy 9 is truly beautiful with amazingly huge redwood trees. A great percentage of the road surface was still wet from rain and kept the temps down. A few miles into the climb the landscape abruptly changed from wet Redwood forest and green lichen to dry scrub oak and Spanish moss then a couple miles later back again! When the climbing part of this section is over there is a nice loooong downhill (mostly) to Hwy 9 but the road surface is less than ideal here - since I rode the Masi 3V stopping at least once to relieve numb hands was necessary. I really wished I'd ridden a more touring oriented frame at that point. After thinking this part would never end the stop sign at Hwy 9 suddenly appeared. It seemed like the 8 miles back to Boulder Creek took about 10 - 15 mins! The road was so smooth with banked sweeper turns and mostly downhill through more redwoods and hardly any cars - what a pleasure! To sum it up I think this was a great training ride: some long medium climbing in the beginning, a sweet stop in a great park, more climbing then a super fun smooth cruise - all in beautiful Redwoods and almost all shade. Hard to beat! I'll be doing this again soon and hoping you can join me...
more pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157625417431075/with/5258128269/
'til next time, "Have a Nice Ride"...
Albert was most recently known for his involvement in the Forest City Velodrome, where he was both the track designer and a ferverent support of the program. However, his palmares in the sport go back to the mid-1930s, when he rode his first bike race. Despite being hit by a truck when training and breaking both legs (at the age of 19), he came back to racing and won a number of significant races, including the Montreal Six Day as an amateur, before turning professional in 1940.
