Thursday, May 22, 2008

Valley Ride

Valley Ride not particularly exciting. Was good to see Ted Huang out there, attacking for the Huddard KOM. Three Slipstream riders our there. Dan Martin was there, riding the gravel on the shoulder most of the time for some reason.

Ride home across the bridge was fine, but once I turned north in the East Bay the wind was ridiculous!

14 comments:

Mike Hardy said...

cuz he's a euro-pro now, right?

helmet or not?

slipstream is just different enough from the old school that maybe they wear helmets instead of the little head stockings ;-)

how long is that ride anyway, and at what sort of speeds (e.g. "really hard", "sometimes really hard", "only a little hard", "not that hard"...)

I'm curious, and I gotta match up the Secret Training after all, since I can't make it to the Valley Ride

runjoelrun said...

The ride must be around 40 miles or so. Starts at 6 and is done around 7:30, so it can't be much more.

The effort can really vary. They hit the rollers and the Huddard climb hard, but sitting in on some of the flat and descending sections can be very easy.

The Huddard climb is good Pescadero practice. It's not as long (5 min vs 8 min), but similar grades, and you can try to crush the last 400 yrds against some really good riders.

Are you referring to Dan Martin with helmet? He wears one. All the Slipstream dudes had helmets. There is just that one young Standord/CRC guy that doesn't wear one. Can't remember his name.

karla said...

yes, i will see you on Sat. I just can't stay away! So i decided to jump in with the 3s.

What's the valley ride?

JHL said...

naive sf rider question: i got the when (wed at 6), but where does the valley ride start? glad to hear there is at least one group training ride with a climb -- the POO ride is obviously flat and the Roastery ride out of SF doesn't have much in the way of climbs. I'm interested in trying to find some more training against people who go fast uphill.

runjoelrun said...

Here is the FFBC web site for Wednesdays. Scroll down to see "Valley Ride".

Basically it's the race/ride on the Peninsula at 6pm every Wed (during Daylight Savings). Goes from Los Altos Peete's following Spectrum ride route mostly-> Huddard park climb which is about 1/3 of King's Mtn.

You'll get local pros sometimes. Can be fun, sometimes a little sketchy but very few actual crashes.

runjoelrun said...

Hey Karla, I bet you could do the 35+ 1/2/3 race too can't you? Since you're driving out there....

Anonymous said...

Car problems kept me from hitting up the Valley ride. Mt Hammy, too. I look forward to reports of your 150 miles of flat fun this weekend! I'll see youn on Monday.

phipps said...

Sounds like a fun ride and not too far for me. I'll try to make it in the next couple weeks.

By the way, when you say Dan Martin do you mean the local 35+ VOS rider or the 21 year old Irish Slipstream pro?

runjoelrun said...

Is that the confusion here? I'm talking local 35+ VOS rider, not the irish Slipstream rider.

That would explain Mike's comment above out the 'euro-pro'?

Dan really likes to ride the shoulder. You can hear him crunching away over there, going up the right side.

Mike Hardy said...

Yep - that makes sense

Good thing you didn't mention Rob Evans (apparently there's three of him?) or I would have been even more confused.

So if I read another of your comments right though that Huddard is the start of the Kings Mountain climb, and it has similar grades to Pescadero? Wonder where in the East Bay I can simulate that. Redwood & Tunnel seems too shallow, Pinehurst too steep. Leimert maybe.

Anonymous said...

Mike - Magnolia here in Piedmont is about a 4min climb w/ similar pitches to Haskin's hill at Pescadero.

Now that I'm back in the "states" I'm going to try and hit it for repeats once a week or so....probably Thursday this week.

-t

veloandvino said...

I'm going to the track tonight to see how the legs hold up after a few weeks of nada. i'll either be double fisted or in lycra friday night. see ya then.

beth bikes! said...

where are the prom pictures?!?!?!

runjoelrun said...

Good luck at the track Mike... You should come out for the 40+ Scratch races on Friday nights.

Scratch that, don't need you beating me out there...