mount hamilton century

time to get serious.

ride report, monday august 13
met tom b at the train station at 8 yesterday morning with an ambitious plan: a mount hamilton century featuring sierra road. we'd been up each of those hills before, but never on the same day.

we threaded our way through san jose like bike messengers: dodging buses, skirting a capsized fedex truck, watching a construction crane lift two porta-potties to the 20th floor directly overhead. lots of stop-and-go interval training, not the best way to begin a long ride. we finally got a smooth warmup through alum rock park, then completely woke up on crothers road with its 17% grades on the back way up to mt. hamilton road. the first ridge tops out just under 2000' before dropping a few hundred feet to joseph grant park, where we tanked up. then it's a five-mile climb to twin gates trailhead, about a half-mile down to the cdf station, then that seven miles of steady 6% up to the lick observatory. seemed like it would never end. mile 31, elevation 4217'.

the views are always incredible on that climb, but it was especially clear toward the west, at least above the silicon valley smog. it's neat to see all the familiar mountains from that angle; from mt. tamalpais in the north to monterey bay and pacific grove in the south, you're even looking down on mt. diablo and loma prieta. just incredible.

i prefer the climb to the descent. it's not super-steep, but the rough pavement beats the crap out of you. a couple of the worst turns have been repaved, and they were sweet: countersteering steep smooth and tight. but the other seventy or so turns rattle your fillings...

back toward san jose, the road improved greatly. you can just let it fly on the lower stretches. there are only a couple guys i'll follow at 30 mph into a downhill decreasing radius off-camber turn, and tom's one of them... what a rush.

back through alum rock park, tom's fancy-pants carbon-fiber seatpost gave out on him, so we stopped for a sandwich and located a bike shop only a couple miles off course. jose, the wrench at the shop, called tom's seatpost a 'whacked design,' and sold him some (reliable) heavy-guage steel. i think his seatpost now weighs more than his wheels...

back on course, we found the right turn marking for the devil mountain double at sierra road. we pulled off for a second just to admire that wall. the first half-mile is arrow-straight, undulating over 300' up the hill with grades approaching 20%. i told tom we'd been out in the sun too long.

sierra road is a monster. also a beast, bitch kitty, piece of shit, and motherfucker. over 1800' vertical in only three-and-a-half miles. i love that road. it even beats the shit out of the pros who ride it in the tour of california. i've owned several cars that couldn't make that climb. tom said he rode the last half-mile with his eyes closed... from the crest, we could pick out crothers road waaay down there across alum rock canyon below, and mount hamilton above and across the hills to the right. there's some topography around here.

the descent out the back side down sierra, felter, and calaveras roads is faast. i hit 50 mph; the pros do 65 through there. we stopped at the park on the left about a half-mile below the calaveras wall at mile 71 with over six hours of ride time. good thing we'd had that fast descent to boost our average to almost 12 mph... did the hydration test: at least my pee wasn't the color of guinness stout. more of a nut-brown ale. tom said his was looking like strawberry daquiri... drink, boys. water and salt.

at the bottom of calaveras, turned right to find a route to the dumbarton bridge and finish at tom's in redwood city. north through milpitas into fremont on park victoria, scott creek, warm springs, warren, and mission. our legs were shot, so any hill at that point was reeeaaly annoying. stopped at a mcdonald's of all places, and downed fries and cokes. we guessed it was still thirty miles home, and by then we were burning daylight, so we got on it and hammered into the wind on mission, then down the alameda creek trail. tom's electronics gave out at mile 92 after recording almost 9500' vertical. it was mostly flat from there, though, except for the bridge. but the wind was seriously in our faces. and so was the sun. plus that baylands trail goes through terrain that looks like the moon but smells like an abandoned fish cannery. whatever, we were almost done. 106 miles, 8:10 ride time, harder than any single furnace creek stage, but easier than any two...

less than eight weeks to go...