Ride/Race Report: Old Growth Classic in Santa Cruz

[Collin A]

Hi All,

Last weekend I had the pleasure of heading out for a long weekend of camping with a bike race stuffed in the middle. It's the second year of the so-called Old Growth Classic and was quite a blast with a good group of folks from all around the bay area (and elsewhere). You can read about the event here: http://oldgrowthclassic.com/. It was organized by the Mountain Bikers of Sanat cruz, and what a cool group of folks they are. You can also see a photo summary of the event from Mr. Radavist here: https://theradavist.com/2019/09/rugged-hills-and-mingling-with-redwoods-the-2019-old-growth-classic/

I have not really explored the area too much, so decided that the best way to make it a full "adventure" weekend was to load up my Clem and huff my way to the race the day before. I initially had a pretty mellow route planned that would start at my sister's place in Redwood City and be an enjoyable and quite paved/dirt route to the venue about 40 miles away. However, I ran into some issues such as a 15 ft tall fence blocking my route (no picture because I was just so emotionally crushed), getting lost and somehow winding up on a hiking trail (and getting scolded by the park officials), and then huffing a backpack full of mechanical equipment about 3 miles after 60 miles in the saddle and in the dark (the fellow who was hauling it originally was more defeated than I was at that point). Needless to say, the day before the race didn't go quite according to plan, but I still made it into the campground around 8:30 and scored some sweet pizza from some nice folks who saw how miserable and defeated I looked. Overall, it was about 60 miles and 8000 ft of climbing, bleh.

After my warm up the day before, the plans for race day changed from trying to do well, to just trying to finish. I took off all of my bags, had a full breakfast, chugged some coffee, and headed to the start line for what would be a rather difficult day. As a general note, though, I was never planning to truly "race" the event, rather just explore the area and meet some nice folks who enjoy riding their bikes in beautiful places (of which there were a lot!). The route took us through some beautiful redwoods, but I think the highlight of the route was an are called "chalks mountain" that was exposed, but allowed for fantastic views of the surrounding area. It also had some pretty fun "kitty litter" surfaces that the 60mm g-ones gobbled up with elation. The final climb was awful and I walked most of it, as did a lot of the folks I was "riding" with at that point. I rode in some trail running shoes that proved to be the envy of those who were walking in standard bike shoes up the 20-30% grades on loose surfaces, casual bike attire for the win!

Ultimately, I finished in just under 6.5 hours, but I finished and that was the main point for me. During the award ceremony after everyone showered and recovered, the announcer asked the group who had biked to the event. A few hands were raised (mine included) and she asked where they rode from; most were from Santa Cruz and a few from the south bay area; but it turned out I had ridden the farthest (unintentionally) to the race and actually won something! In this case, a pair of wheels I couldn't use on my Clem (dam disc brakes!). Luckily the company exchanged it for a crankset I could put on my road bike, so I managed to win something at a bike race with my Rivendell with a basket on it! Suck it mainstream bike marketing!

The day after I made some pancakes, chatted with the folks I had met over the weekend and set off for redwood city (the easy way this time). It was a mostly paved day heading out of big basin, but once I got on skyline I took some double track into Monte Bellow Preserve and then headed down page mill road, which has to be one of the best descents in the whole bay area. It was a nice finish to an initially ROUGH start to the weekend.

I'll be sure to do this event again next year, and for those that might be interested, it sells out in about 24 hours, so be quick!

Cheers and have a good Weekend,

Collin in Oakland

The routes

Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/2712351813

Day 2 (race): https://www.strava.com/activities/2712351800

Day 3: https://www.strava.com/activities/2712351782

[Bob Ehrenbeck]

Great story -- this fellow Clem rider salutes you!

I'd love to see some pics.

Bob E

Cranford, NJ

[tuolumne bikes]

I lived at Big Basin in the late 1990s/early 2000s when my wife was a ranger at the park. At that time it might have been thought pretty funny to propose hosting an insanely successful (sold out second year!) bike event on the legal to ride unpaved roads in the park and at Butano. It was all about not being able to ride the single track hiking trails. So congrats to us all for the mainstreaming of unpaved road riding and to MBOSC and park management for working to cooperate on this event. Keep it crumb clean at Big Basin!

Carl, Columbia, CA