Ahaaa...nice long morning rides....

With a break in the weather I was super stoked to get out and do a long road ride before heading into the office. I'd never done the route I'd mapped out in my head, but it seemed very do-able, I just wasn't sure how long it was going to take. I was hoping for about a 3 hr ride. What I ended up with was a 2.5hr ride, not to bad considering I did about 3400ft of climbing and I got to bomb down Page Mill...that is until I came upon a stupid flat bed truck. As I was flying down the hill behind the truck, the driver of the truck sure knew how to maneuver that beast of a vehicle, I could actually feel myself in it's draft. Then I got to thinking, if comes upon another car and brakes, I'm going to have to lay down the bike and slide under the rear axel...yikes! That's the only thing I hate about road riding ;-)

So, my route went like this:
Start in Redwood City@ Whipple and the El Camino,
Hop on Edgewood Rd for a warm up, with only about 400ft of climbing it sure hurt in the early morning, rode Edgewood until it t's into Canada. Hang a left on Canada until I hit Robert's Market, Straight thru stop sign to Mnt Home rd to Sandhill.
Right on Sandhill and then up OLH, I'm at the top in 23 minutes, at a tempo pace. I'd be interested to see how fast I can time trial up it. I'll be back to try it!
Left up H35 to Page Mill rd, which is where the super fun descending begins. The weather, snow and rain, have taken it's toll on Page Mill rd, there are more potholes than I remember, watch out!

After rolling off Page Mill, I hung a left on Arastradero and came across Julie Adams (PABW and my Lapierre-Ritchey cross team mate). I continued on Arastradero and picked up the pace a bit, I passed to other roadies and was determined not to let them catch me. I think I saw a cup of coffee in their hand, but no matter, I'd be damned if I'd let them catch me only to find out that I haven't shaved my legs since cross season ;-) Anyhow, at this point my legs are worked from all the climbing, but I continue to push. Before you know it, I hit Alpine. I make a right and continue motoring down the road, it helps that there is a slight downhill grade here. Now I'm feeling invincible and then I go under H280 and the road turns up slightly, suprisingly my legs feel pretty good and I stand to maintain my cadence.

As I stop for a light at Sandhill (i'm not really a fan of stoping for traffic lights, usually look both ways and roll right thru) I rest and a huge grin spreads across my face, as I think about the beautiful and peaceful climbing I completed just moments ago. As the light turns green I practice a race start and try to clip into my one sided Look KEO pedals...dang it, I hate this one sided BS...the roadie have something to learn from the mtn bikers afterall ;-) Any who, I truck down Santa Cruz avenue, then veer left on Alameda de las pulgas. It's clear sailing down Alameda de las Pulgas and back to Edgewood Rd. As I mentioned before, I've never done this actual loop, but it was actually quite nice and I really enjoyed the Alameda de Las Pulgas section...nice house, rolling hills...kinda reminded me of lake Oswego, OR.

OK, back to work...here's the ride profile: