# San Jose Climbs



## bigpinkt (Jul 20, 2006)

I am going to be in San Jose for some business and to catch the Tour of California Prolog. Would like to do I 4-5 hours climbing ride (5-10,000 feet) before my meetings on Monday. 

It has been a while since I trained in the area. I figure I can hop on the bike path to Los Gatos but then what are the names of the big climbs from LG?

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## thinkcooper (Jan 5, 2005)

bigpinkt said:


> I am going to be in San Jose for some business and to catch the Tour of California Prolog. Would like to do I 4-5 hours climbing ride (5-10,000 feet) before my meetings on Monday.
> 
> It has been a while since I trained in the area. I figure I can hop on the bike path to Los Gatos but then what are the names of the big climbs from LG?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help.



Bohlman/On Orbit out of Saratoga, four times ~2500 feet of climbing in ~4+ miles. You'll be shell shocked. It's an easy 40 minutes for the climb, and can be whittled down to 35, see the hill climb sticky at the top of this thread. The descent can't be more than 15 minutes of white knuckle. 4 x would give you ~ four hours and approximately 9000-10000 feet. Plus you'd be my hero for a day.

Don't know about anyone else out here, but for some odd reason, my climbing rides all average out with about 1000 feet for every ten miles, unless I do repeats.


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## BlackSteel (Jul 10, 2007)

*Start at Alum Rock Park*

Take Alum Rock Road up to Crothers Rd. Take a left on Crothers to to Lower Mount Hamilton. Go Left on Lower Mt. Hamilton. Take a right on Clayton Rd. Clayton to Mt. Pleasant. Go left and stay on Mt. Pleasant, bear left at Ruby staying on Mt. Pleasant. Mt. Pleasant to Murillo. Left on Murillo. Left on Quimby Rd. Take Quimby to Mt. Hamilton Rd. Go left or right on Mt. Hamilton depending on how much climbing you want to do. Left is downhill. Right adds about 2700 more feet of climbing to the summit of Mt. Hamilton Rd. Also if you go right at Quimby and Mount Hamilton roads you can take an out and back climbing route called Kincaid Rd. which is a very beautiful side trip. 
Another option would be to start at Cataldi Park and add the Sierra loop. Parking at Cataldi take a right on Morril to Hostetter Rd. Go left on Hostetter Rd to Piedmont. Right on Piedmont to Sierra. Take the fairly self explanatory race loop. After climbing Sierra just continue straight to Felter and Calaveras. Descend Calaveras (left at the intersection with Felter) to Piedmont. Left on Piedmont to Penitencia and take a left on Penitencia and follow it through Alum Rock Park to Alum Rock Road which takes you back to Crothers on your left. There is approximately 100 yards of dirt on Alum Rock and Crothers roads. 
Sierra has about 1830 feet of climbing. The whole loop has maybe 400 feet more. Probably a 1000 more from Alum Rock to Clayton. Mt. Pleasant is about 500. Quimby is 2000 feet of climbing. So I would estimate that even if you don't do Kincaid or Mount. Hamilton you would get 6500 feet of climbing and not too many flat miles on this ride. A very uneducated guess would be 45 miles without the Mount Hamilton or Kincaid options, but including the Sierra race loop. All of this route can be accessed on google maps just entering the name of the roads or the parks.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

bigpinkt said:


> I am going to be in San Jose for some business and to catch the Tour of California Prolog. Would like to do I 4-5 hours climbing ride (5-10,000 feet) before my meetings on Monday.
> 
> It has been a while since I trained in the area. I figure I can hop on the bike path to Los Gatos but then what are the names of the big climbs from LG?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help.


Pork cycling is like sausage.... .

From Los Gatos, I wouild say the big climbs are Bohlman road in Saratoga, out and back. Then Highway 9, out and back, then Pierce road to Mt. Eden to Montebello.

Each climb is about 2500 feet. What level of rider are you? You bringing a bike?

regards,
fc


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## BlackSteel (Jul 10, 2007)

*Didn't read*



bigpinkt said:


> I am going to be in San Jose for some business and to catch the Tour of California Prolog. Would like to do I 4-5 hours climbing ride (5-10,000 feet) before my meetings on Monday.
> 
> It has been a while since I trained in the area. I figure I can hop on the bike path to Los Gatos but then what are the names of the big climbs from LG?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help.



your whole post sorry. Yes from LG it would be Bohlman, Montevina, Soda Springs and Black Mountain or what FC and Cooper said. My first post was mainly for climbing some of the terrain the pros will cover on Stage 3.


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## bigpinkt (Jul 20, 2006)

francois said:


> Pork cycling is like sausage.... .
> 
> From Los Gatos, I wouild say the big climbs are Bohlman road in Saratoga, out and back. Then Highway 9, out and back, then Pierce road to Mt. Eden to Montebello.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I am bring my bike. The info on Mt Hamilton looks good, I forgot about those big climbs over there. I am staying in Downtown San Jose so it is only 5-10 mile over to the climb. Hard to say what level of rider I am, used to be what was considered fast, now I am just fast for a fat guy. I do not race much any more but can hang with most Cat 3's or masters.


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## kneejerk (Feb 2, 2007)

My recommendations:
*Weather permitting; take the Los Gatos bike trail you spoke of, get on HWY 9 (saratoga sunnyvale Rd.) to Saratoga, climb HWY 9 to HWY 35, descend to Boulder Creek, North on HWY 236 (the second crossing of HWY 9 in Boulder Creek), ride through Big Basin park back up to HWY 9, return back to town of Saratoga, back to San Jose, total climbing in the 8,000ft. range,

bring warm clothes this time of the year, the Weather can be way different on HWY 35 area,


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