finally, a full day off without rain or sore legs! the weather was immaculate outside, high 40′s to high 50′s all day long with sunshine the entire ride. it was picture perfect for marin and san francisco this time of year, I was stoked to finally stretch my legs with a substantial ride. the past couple weeks I’ve only ridden two hour sessions because of work and my schedule…it’s been a bit bland. today’s ride was one of the most grueling routes I’ve ever done. I rode up to 4 corners, the ranger station, down into stinson, up highway 1 to bofax, bofax to ridgecrest/7 sisters, back to the ranger station, back down to stinson, down highway 1 towards muir woods, muir woods to mill valley, through sausalito, and then the icing on the cake, sea-level to the top of conzelman. probably around 65 miles with roughly 7000ft of climbing. it was straight brutal on the legs.
on the way up to the ranger station the first time (from 4 corners) I had a misson cycling member on my wheel for a minute or so. at one point I heard him feather his brakes, which had me a bit worried for a second…we’re going uphill! luckily, nothing really happened, and I split off to get some water. we exchanged a couple of words, I think his were something like, “I hate you young, skinny guys! there goes my motivation!” at least he was cool about it, haha! I stopped by the fountain to top off my bottle before descending down into stinson beach. the weather was warming up nicely, but the ground was still saturated at some turns, which was a bit of a bummer. but considering how nice the rest of the ride was, I couldn’t really complain too much. plus, it’s technically still “winter” here in the city. anyway, I paced a guy in a new car (a ford mustang, I think) down the hill to stinson. it was hilarious because he was trying so hard to get away from me by late braking, apexing across the double yellow (DANGEROUS), and accelerating on any straight he had. all the while, I was just chilling, minding my turns and braking. hell, I wasn’t even close to his car, I was at least 100ft back. maybe he just wanted to drive fast.
oh, fun fact of the day: stinson beach is a city right on the coast, with a population of 486. I read the sign just as I passed it, thought it was a pretty neat piece of information. highway 1 was quiet and lonely all the way up to bolinas. there were some cars occasionally, but I didn’t see any riders heading the opposite way. as soon as I got to bofax, I spotted the mission cycling guy way in the distance on highway 1 GETTIN’ IT, full gas. perfect motivation for me on the bofax climb. I was instantly reminded how much longer this climb was than anything I’ve been doing recently. halfway in, the pain started to set in. the amazing views helped to keep my mind busy, which was nice. I actually learned a lot more about my riding position on this climb, which helped a lot later on in the ride. the shot above is from the intersection at the top of bofax, towards 7 sisters.
then the rollers started. steady climbing, a short plateau, more climbing, another break, more climbing. at one point, I actually considered going straight home after the descent, that’s how much it was hurting. but I figured that I wouldn’t have another opportunity for a long ride until next week, so I had to make it really count. I stopped at the ranger station on my way down to top off my bottles with the remaining fuel I had left, and dropped back down into stinson again. instead of heading north on highway 1, I went south, back towards muir woods from the backside. the rollers paired with the view of the pacific ocean were just plain ILL. I was so excited about the road conditions that I almost forgot how much climbing I had just done. it was that nice out!
muir woods was pretty windy, but I made it out in one piece, ready for the final trek home. on my way back, I actually spotted a guy riding a t-mobile colored giant tcr in a freewheel kit – hell yes, support your local. that gave me the final motivation to kill it on conzelman, 0-814ft.
hope everyone enjoyed their saturday!
