A Dream Century

Sunday, I rode the Tour for Woodside century. I am not sure we can come up with a better route, or a more convenient location.

It included 2 of my favorite climbs in the Bay:

– Kings Mountain, which is almost a model climb, even more so than Old La Honda

– Tunitas Creek, both challenging (but not ridiculously so) and magnificent, with its meandering through the redwoods (without the Muir Woods crowds)

It comprises also the gorgeous Gazos Creek Rd and Stage Rd, and even a bit of Hwy 1 to test your pace line skills in headwind. Of course nothing out of the ordinary for people used to ride in the Peninsula, but beautiful nonetheless.

The support was more than adequate, surprisingly so for a charity ride (its benefits the Woodside High School) with the wonderful surprise Expresso stand on Tunitas Creek when things starts getting serious.

My ride is here. As you can see, its only 75 miles, because I skipped the absurd back-and-forth on Canada Rd, which seems to be there only to get to the 100 “magic” number. Like I care. This way, I could show up at 8 am instead of 6 am, which considerable increased the fun factor of this ride.

There was only one downside to the century: it seems the proportion of jerks was unusually high, especially amongst a racing team called Peninsula Velo. A century like that is not your training ride, so it would be safer for everybody if you didn’t try at all costs to stay as a pack of 20 racing down at 40 mph. Thanks in advance.