San Francisco 400

[blueskies]

A chap I met on LEL, and subsequently stayed in contact with, has just sent me this link to a video of their recent 400 qualifier. Starts with a crossing of The Golden Gate Bridge and then heads north into wine country. Lovely scenery, quaint controls, gentle hills. Just like the UK....


    YouTube
        - SFR 400K 4-9-11 Ver 2
 

[Jamiem]

Great video (apart from the music). Some of the scenery was just like the UK!

[Alouicious]

Don't be fooled.

They go 100km to Sonoma, 200 km round and round Infineon Raceway and 100 km back to SF.

The track is 4 km round and there's 80 m of climbing on every lap. 50 laps is 4000m of climbing.
That' 3.25 AAA points around the raceway.
They're HARD over there.

California Double Century Bike Rides - www.tourofcalifornia.org

[Bendy Bianchi]

It's fab cycling country there - I spent a long weekend in San Fran last year and did much of this route, albeit on a trail bike so I could head off onto the tracks, it's simply stunning.

Don't be fooled.

They go 100km to Sonoma, 200 km round and round Infineon Raceway and 100 km back to SF.

The track is 4 km round and there's 80 m of climbing on every lap. 50 laps is 4000m of climbing.
That' 3.25 AAA points around the raceway.
They're HARD over there.

California Double Century Bike Rides - [url=http://www.tourofcalifornia.org]California Bike Rides[/url]

[Greenbank]

California Double Century Bike Rides - [url=http://www.tourofcalifornia.org]California Bike Rides[/url]

18035ft is ~5500m, so roughly similar to the Midlander Super Grimpeur (although a very different type of climbing to the Peak District).

ISTR some Virginia 300km Audaxes with > 7000m of climbing, that's for the real nutters.

[itinerant]

Great video and good to see our US cousins doing the same sort as riding as us. I thought they were too cool to 'Audax'!  I'm going to San Fran in a week or so with work and I'll be there over a weekend so I've already hired a road bike on line and am looking for routes over the bridge to Marin county. The vid clip has wetted my appetite.

[Greenbank]

It whetted my appetite too, I used to live in SF but never did any serious cycling out there. I'm left wishing I'd used my time out there more wisely.

I'd love to go back there to do a few RUSA Audaxes Brevets.

[mattc]

Great video and good to see our US cousins doing the same sort as riding as us. I thought they were too cool to 'Audax'! 

I don't USAians Audax. I think they Brevet, or randonneurise, or ...

[Alouicious]

Great video and good to see our US cousins doing the same sort as riding as us. I thought they were too cool to 'Audax'!  I'm going to San Fran in a week or so with work and I'll be there over a weekend so I've already hired a road bike on line and am looking for routes over the bridge to Marin county. The vid clip has wetted my appetite.

Ride across the bridge. Take the road down to Sausalito, go in every bike shop and then get an Ice Cream. Then take the Bridgeway path to its end and ride up to Fairfax Cyclery via Sir Francis Drake.
Then come back down and go to the top of Marin Headlands. Then down to Rodeo Cove through the tunnel where cyclists press a button to stop vehicular traffic.

Come back to the Navy memorial and have another Ice Cream.

Or, the routesheet for SFRs 200 is on their website.

If you don't like hills, its 102 km from Fisherman's Wharf to Specialized Engineering Centre in Morgan Hill. The highest point is 120 ft above sea level. The highest point in the first 45 km is a bridge over the 101 at 80 ft above sea level.

Do an 'Overseas DIY'.

[itinerant]

Great video and good to see our US cousins doing the same sort as riding as us. I thought they were too cool to 'Audax'!  I'm going to San Fran in a week or so with work and I'll be there over a weekend so I've already hired a road bike on line and am looking for routes over the bridge to Marin county. The vid clip has wetted my appetite.

Ride across the bridge. Take the road down to Sausalito, go in every bike shop and then get an Ice Cream. Then take the Bridgeway path to its end and ride up to Fairfax Cyclery via Sir Francis Drake.
Then come back down and go to the top of Marin Headlands. Then down to Rodeo Cove through the tunnel where cyclists press a button to stop vehicular traffic.

Come back to the Navy memorial and have another Ice Cream.

Or, the routesheet for SFRs 200 is on their website.

If you don't like hills, its 102 km from Fisherman's Wharf to Specialized Engineering Centre in Morgan Hill. The highest point is 120 ft above sea level. The highest point in the first 45 km is a bridge over the 101 at 80 ft above sea level.

Do an 'Overseas DIY'.

Thanks Alouicious, terrific advice. I've already downloaded a couple of 150k options, one that goes up the shoreline highway to Marshall and another that looks a bit hillier and goes through Sausilito and Fairfax to the Nicasio reservoir. I'll have a look at the SFR web site. Ta. The last time I road out to Sausolito I got the first cafe and didn't get much further!

As for enjoying the hills; I live in the Pennines so have no choice!

[Alouicious]

If you're that way inclined, you could cycle to the Intel museum at Santa Clara and buy some fluffy bunnymen, and the Museum of Computing nearby where you can revisit your earlier life on a Commodore 64.

If you're an AppleMac user, the 'Homestore' is a must. Get a tee shirt "I visited the mothership".

[thing1]

South of san fran, it was on a work trip in 2009 that I hired a road bike one weekend and spent a couple day on the climbs out of Palo Alto.... fantastic fun and it was so infectious I came back and promptly signed up for La Marmotte and Mille Cymru!
Before that I'd always gone out my way to avoid climbs, but somehow discovered I enjoyed them out there.

The swarms cycling up Old La Honda were quite something. Also couldn't help notice how balanced it was; still not quite 50:50 boys to girls, but far closer than I've ever seen in the UK [tandem club rides excepted]

[Alouicious]

South of san fran, it was on a work trip in 2009 that I hired a road bike one weekend and spent a couple day on the climbs out of Palo Alto.... fantastic fun and it was so infectious I came back and promptly signed up for La Marmotte and Mille Cymru!
Before that I'd always gone out my way to avoid climbs, but somehow discovered I enjoyed them out there.

The swarms cycling up Old La Honda were quite something. Also couldn't help notice how balanced it was; still not quite 50:50 boys to girls, but far closer than I've ever seen in the UK [tandem club rides excepted]

Were there any Western Wheelers or Stanford University club members?

[LiamFitz]

South of san fran, it was on a work trip in 2009 that I hired a road bike one weekend and spent a couple day on the climbs out of Palo Alto.... fantastic fun and it was so infectious I came back and promptly signed up for La Marmotte and Mille Cymru!
Before that I'd always gone out my way to avoid climbs, but somehow discovered I enjoyed them out there.

The swarms cycling up Old La Honda were quite something. Also couldn't help notice how balanced it was; still not quite 50:50 boys to girls, but far closer than I've ever seen in the UK [tandem club rides excepted]

I had a completely wasted work trip to SFO a few weeks back - next time it happens I'm going to check out the cycling opportunities!

[Alouicious]

If you hire a bike downtown, you can hire for several days.

You can take a bike on the BART out of peak hours all the way to Millbrae. The El Camino Real reduces to two lanes each way between there and Burlingame. Then it gets real pleasant.
There are minor undulations to Palo Alto and flat through to San Jose.

There are Bike shops in Palo Alto and in the Stanford campus.
Stanford Mall is worth a visit. The cake shop is terrific. I posted a photo of a strawberry gateaux somewhere else on this forum.

Why not return to Pacifica along Skyline Boulevard??