Traditional Skyline route with no extra climbing. This would be a chill, Friday friendly ride with regroups on top of the two Skyline climbs but definitely not a NRLB type. SCT joggers & deers love mellow riders so let's go down there & say hello to them.
Route:
Alemany - JD/Skyline - Skyline Drive - SCT - Bunker Hill - Portola - Foothill - AAPL
Rollout: Ritual Roasters 6:30 AM
JD/Skyline Intercept: 7:05 AM
Bonus Edition:
If there is any interest at all, we can do the short & steep Bunker Hill detour instead of the usual Polhemus/Ralston detour:
http://app.strava.com/rides/22703754#405355432
It's Friday & let's ride bikes. Who wants to join me? :)
Ramesh.
Eva - I couldn't give you an accurate time in John Daly & Junipero Serra intersection but we will be there anytime between 6:45 to 6:55 AM. It could be 5 minutes earlier or 5 minutes later depending on the lights in Alemany. Feel free to stalk me in Find Friends iPhone app if you want to know the exact location on where we are at after the rollout in RR.
As far as the climbing in direct Skyline goes, there are only two short & goofy climbs that are less than 2 miles long (Skyline Dr & Polhemus). Rest of the elevation are just rolling terrains. I have ridden with many newbie Skyliners & you will do just fine tomorrow. I hope this will give you the confidence for a confirmed +1 :)
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-1 slipped on wet muni tracks. Need to get arm checked out. Be careful folks!
A great turn around today for a Friday friendly ride. Thanks all for showing up & it was a solid Style III mellow ride:
http://app.strava.com/rides/24818925
It was wet & slightly rainy for the first part of the ride. Later even that stopped. We did the pace-line drill in Cañada land but with none of us with no fenders on it was a lot of fun to watch on a wet day like today. Sorry that the group got split up into two after SAT as some of us felt that they wanted to be OTF.
Not so cool part of the ride was this. I crashed. There was some road work & lane closure thing going on in Sand Hill. When I was descending Sand Hill at > 25mph speed, I believe I slightly hit the giant orange sign that had the temporary bike lane closure sign. I went out of control at that speed & I crashed on my own by falling into the car lane. Thankfully the car that was behind me stopped immediately. The rider who was behind me also crashed into me but thankfully nothing happened to him. I didn't get any major injuries as well except for some painful road rashes in my body, torn bar tape & an unusable new mission cycling kit :( [pics below]
Let's be careful out there peeps in Sand Hill. It is a small descend & you will be tempted to ride fast but probably not the best idea when some road work is going on.
Happy Friday!! :)
Ramesh.
ouch, sorry to hear it dude. I've heard of a couple crashes today -- first rain on oily roads and all. glad you're alright.
I have a crash story to share, too.
I was (briefly) part of the OTF group, but dropped back during SAT. I don't mind riding solo and I had podcasts to keep me company, but by the end of SCT, I was wetter and muddier than I like to be, so I decided to head downhill and get out of the clouds.
I took Crystal Springs down to AdlP and turned right, thinking I would try the fleaway for a while.
Not far along, I came along a rather striking scene. A black Mercedes was halfway up on the sidewalk, but backed into the retaining wall; A woman was lying on the ground in front of the Mercedes, badly bruised but conscious; And two or three bystanders were starting to help out (one was kneeling by the woman and one was on the phone to 911 already).
I stopped to help. I was only marginally useful - the kneeling woman turned out to be a doctor so we just stayed out of her way and asked if she needed anything. The 911 woman needed a bit of encouragement, she was very nervous/shaky and I helped her tell the dispatcher a few important facts. Finally, with my ugly bright red jacket I figured I was best equipped to get out and wave traffic through until police & fire arrived about 5 minutes later.
Here's the disturbing part. By the time the police had arrived, we (bystanders) had determined that none of us had seen it happen. But from looking at the scene and putting on our CSI hats, we think that the woman parked on an uphill slope and got out of her car, and left it in neutral. As far as we could tell she was run over by her own car rolling downhill.
I left after the fire & ambulance arrived. By this point I was *done* so I headed straight downhill to Hillsdale CT, which miraculously rolled up in about 2 minutes, and boarded the rear car where I was greeted by our own Mr. Crosby. Which was good because I was glad to have someone to tell my story to and decompress a little.
Stay safe, my friends,
--Andy
-1 slipped on wet muni tracks. Need to get arm checked out. Be careful folks
Not so cool part of the ride was this. I crashed. There was some road work & lane closure thing going on in Sand Hill.
Yeah, the original plan for this ride was to do Portola Valley but by the time when we got to Robert's, we had some time constraints & hence the Sand Hill option. Yes, agreed that there is construction work & lane closure thing going on in both Sand Hill & in Foothill. In the Foothill segment near Stanford, it gets even worse where you will be stopped for a couple of minutes for the lane closure.
For anyone who is planning on riding Skyline this week, Portola is a highly recommended alternative. Extra climbing + more prettier + much safer === win. win. win.
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