# Sierra road summit finish line party on May 18



## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

A whole contingent of us are scheduled to ride and be at the top finish line for the Tour of CA finish.

I believe expected arrival time is around 3pm.

We would have consumed plenty of Pliny by then.

Who is in?

fc


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## kdown (Dec 8, 2007)

In +1 (my brother is flying down from WA). Please reveal more about the pre-race carbo-loading (mmmmm Pliny).

Ken D.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

What time are you thinking of heading up? I will probably be going up as late as possible so that I can do a half-day at the office before hand. I think 1pm to 1:30pm is the latest that one could head up and not get caught up by potential road closure issues. You'd want to head up earlier if you are towing a trailer full of Pliny!! Or if you want a good spot at the top.


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## alex3780 (Nov 7, 2009)

me (and just about the entire Strava team) will be there as well! can't freaking wait.


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## enr1co (Oct 30, 2009)

Im coming out from San Ramon so my plan was to catch the pre race activities/start in Livermore and then drive over to Milpitas/Ed Levin park and ride the back route to the Sierra finish line.... but a party ride sounds more fun!

What is the plan for the group ride?

Start location?
Start time?


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

In! A mountain-top finish.. going to be awesome!!


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## EBrider (Aug 9, 2009)

Should be a great time. I will be in Modesto tomorrow to watch the finish and can't go 2 days in a row. I will watch on line for the group of drunks wearing RBR kits!


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## CHL (Jun 24, 2005)

Hi Francois

Do have a good time climbing up Sierra Road. Sadly, I will have to ride with you guys in thought only. Haven't ridden much but I have been drinking much. Duvel, Ninkasi, Rogue, Pliny, Ass Kisser (yeah not joking here Double IPA that is delicious) and Young's have all gone down the gullet in ample quantities.

Not to worry, the down time off the bike has been very productive. :thumbsup: 

chl


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

CHL said:


> Hi Francois
> 
> Do have a good time climbing up Sierra Road. Sadly, I will have to ride with you guys in thought only. Haven't ridden much but I have been drinking much. Duvel, Ninkasi, Rogue, Pliny, Ass Kisser (yeah not joking here Double IPA that is delicious) and Young's have all gone down the gullet in ample quantities.
> 
> ...


Oh my, I see you like good beer. When did we ride together? Should have brought beer.

fc


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

With this crew, I'm in too. :thumbsup: Is there a plan? It'd be great to meet up somewhere, other than just on the top. I'm open to anything.



> When did we ride together?


He was on the Superbowl Sunday ride.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

From Francis in the equivalent MTBR thread:



> The mtbr group is going to start riding at around 12:30. We are leaving Rox's house at 12 then we'll pick up folks at the base (piedmont/sierra area) at around 12:30


You can PM rox (on this forum too) for his address, or meet at the base of Sierra at 12:30pm. I will go straight to Sierra, not completely sure if I will make the 12:30 time yet though. I will certainly go up before 1:30pm, with 2pm supposedly being the hard cut-off for the road closure to bikes.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Some info about road closures posted here.

Route Overview: 
• Mt. Hamilton/Del Puerto Canyon Road to Alum Rock Avenue: The California Highway Patrol will close some regional roads for up to two hours. The first cyclists will arrive at Alum Rock and Mt. Hamilton Road at approximately 3:00 PM, continuing onto McKee, 
turning right onto Toyon Street, left on Penitencia, making a right on Piedmont, and a right on Sierra Road at 3:05 PM. All roads, but Sierra, will reopen when the last rider passes by. 
• All times are approximate. 

Notable Road Closures: Closures could be extended “If” Peloton (main pack) splits into smaller groups:
Alum Rock / Mc Kee / Penitencia Street Closures ( approximate): 
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - will be closed for set up for race and will remain closed until the cleanup has concluded. 
• 2:30 PM, through 3:45 PM Alum Rock, from the East Highlands- Miguelita to Kirk Road (both sides) 
• 2:30 PM, through 3:45 PM McKee, from Alum Rock to Kyle Road (both sides) 
• 2:30 PM, through 3:45 PM Toyon, from McKee to Penitencia (both sides) 
• 2:30 PM, through 3:45 PM Penitencia, from Toyon to Kyle Road (both sides) 
• 2:30 PM, through 3:45 PM Piedmont, from N. White Road to Pinnacle (both sides) 

Traffic Bridges; across the Route (intermittent when possible)
• Berryessa Road and crossing Piedmont at Suncrest Avenue 
• Toyon at Joanne Avenue 

Sierra / Felter/ Piedmont/ / Calaveras Road Closures:
Tuesday, May 17 at 7:00 AM to May 18 Midnight 
• Sierra Rd from Skyview Dr to Felter Rd 
Wednesday, May 18 
• 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM ( approximately) Sierra Road – Local Traffic Only 
• 2:30 PM to 3:45 PM ( approximately) Piedmont Road from Sierra Road to Penitencia Road

Road Closures That May Impact You: Most of the route will be handled as a rolling street closure: as cyclists approach, streets will be closed to all vehicular traffic including VTA Buses and Light Rail; streets will re-open after the last cyclist passes a given area. 
No vehicular traffic will be allowed during any given closure. (Fire, police, and ambulance emergency vehicles will not be affected by road closures.) 


Spectators: Everyone is welcome to attend the Stage 4 Finish. There will be many pre-race festivities and many great spots along Sierra Rd to watch the race.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Meet at Rox's house at noon or...

Sierra and Piedmont road at 12:30.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q...ose,+Santa+Clara,+California+95132&gl=us&z=16

fc


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

Wow, well If UK will tow me up the hill I will show up. Other than that, even walking up Sierra Rd is not an option for me yet. 

I can get on the bike and pedal around but Sierra rd not a chance. Have fun all and be safe.


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## tosa (Aug 23, 2010)

Okay, so I chickened out on Mt Ham today (will go for a Sierra climb tomorrow - supposed to be nice and clear)...watching the coverage on ShackerTracker stream live now. Hope to see you guys on Sierra on the broadcast!


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

Well Horner just absolutely killed that. I got 17 minutes flat. I mean really? 17 minutes?

He stood almost the whole way up, but heck if it is only going to take 17 minutes I don't see why not. 

I can only imagine what these guys would race up OLH in.


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## PoorCyclist (Oct 14, 2010)

Horner out of saddle almost the whole climb with a strange smirk on his face!!


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

That was unbelievably awesome. I did another bonus climb of Sierra afterwards. I am officially tired.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Good to see you guys!


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## jetdog9 (Jul 12, 2007)

Watched them all pass by on San Antonio Valley just before Mt. Hamilton. Fun stuff. Pic is just as the lead group came up, at the time the peloton was a minute or so behind.


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## Spectre68 (Jun 8, 2004)

Wow, what a finish. Chris Horner didn't even look winded at the finish, but you could tell from the faces of the guys behind him as to how hard doing Sierra Rd. must have been after doing Mt. Hamilton. Too bad I wasn't able to find you guys at the finish.

I'm going to have to watch the video of the Sierra Rd climb tonight.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> I did another bonus climb of Sierra afterwards. I am officially tired.


And you still beat me home.

Nice to see everybody.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

heythorp said:


> Well Horner just absolutely killed that. I got 17 minutes flat. I mean really? 17 minutes?
> 
> He stood almost the whole way up, but heck if it is only going to take 17 minutes I don't see why not.
> 
> I can only imagine what these guys would race up OLH in.


I timed Ryder Hesjedal at 16:11 from the "steep" sign to the crest. I'm pretty confident that is accurate. The group were about 40 seconds behind Ryder at the turn onto Sierra Road - though we didn't see them hit the bottom. This means that Chris Horner did it in about 15:30. That's amazing, and almost certainly the fastest that anyone has ever ridden Sierra. They had perfect conditions with moderate temperatures and a tail-wind, but still absolutely incredible.

I was thinking that the guys trailing back behind Horner were having a slow climb today because of the amount of time that he put into them. But there were about 40 guys in the group that turned onto Sierra and the "slowest" of them came in at 8:14 behind Horner. So those guys were still doing Sierra in 23:44 ... after 80 miles including Mines Road and Mt Hamilton.


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## IRMB (Jul 15, 2008)

ukbloke said:


> I timed Ryder Hesjedal at 16:11 from the "steep" sign to the crest. I'm pretty confident that is accurate. The group were about 40 seconds behind Ryder at the turn onto Sierra Road - though we didn't see them hit the bottom. This means that Chris Horner did it in about 15:30. That's amazing, and almost certainly the fastest that anyone has ever ridden Sierra. They had perfect conditions with moderate temperatures and a tail-wind, but still absolutely incredible.
> 
> I was thinking that the guys trailing back behind Horner were having a slow climb today because of the amount of time that he put into them. But there were about 40 guys in the group that turned onto Sierra and the "slowest" of them came in at 8:14 behind Horner. So those guys were still doing Sierra in 23:44 ... after 80 miles including Mines Road and Mt Hamilton.


pics















































Chris Horner!






















































The peloton!



















Look ma, no hands!


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## tosa (Aug 23, 2010)

Somehow I timed 18m for Horner, (based on 19m35s for Hesjedal) from Sierra&Piedmont to Finish Line. I got them at ~20m on Mt Ham backside. All great times, whatever the official number is.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

tosa said:


> Somehow I timed 18m for Horner, (based on 19m35s for Hesjedal) from Sierra&Piedmont to Finish Line. I got them at ~20m on Mt Ham backside. All great times, whatever the official number is.


Another data point - 18:02 for Rory Sutherland which makes 16:47 for Horner. I calculated this as 7.2 W/Kg for Horner which is at the very upper end of the believable range. I can't explain the time discrepancies - maybe Versus chopped time out of the "live broadcast" somehow.


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

I hit my stop watch as soon as coverage showed the peloton on Sierra. They were already up the road 1/10th of a mile or so from Piedmont, definitely not on the climb yet. 

<center> 
<a href="https://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c76/heythorp/?action=view&current=photo-5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c76/heythorp/photo-5.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<br/><br/>
</center>

Not a chance under that time. Also 7.2k W/Kg is beyond doping and goes into bionics. I am pretty sure(but I am allowed to be wrong) 6.1 is the generally accepted human capability.

Not to turn this into a doping thread, there are many many instances of well known riders pulling off 6.6 and higher, but they all have very shady pasts.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

heythorp said:


> I am pretty sure(but I am allowed to be wrong) 6.1 is the generally accepted human capability.


That's for a long climb at threshold, and usually measured at 30 to 60 mins (ideally one hour power). Sierra is short enough that they can climb the whole hill above threshold.

So were your timings from the live Versus coverage on TV or the on-line feed? I'm curious as to how my timing was so screwed! I'm wondering if they switched the TV feed from a "remote link" to a "local link" as they approached the finished and dropped more than a minute of coverage. Maybe they had built up a buffer to cope with drops in the video link? I know there were no commercials and I didn't hit fast-forward on the TiVo!


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

I watched it on the live feed (which by the way is amazing). 

Good point about threshold and time. 

Here is a quote from Horner's blog. He also states that he is going to post his power numbers. 

_I glued my eyes to the SRM, keeping the rhythm steady and being very careful to never take it into the red. _

http://www.cascadegranfondo.com/blog/toc-stage-4-–-first-summit-finish-history-tour-cali

So if he never went into the red and still put out 7+ W/Kg that's crazy.


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## rox (Jul 7, 2009)

looking at the sierra segment on strava it appears our very own ukbloke has beaten ben king the us road race champion

14	Bike Telemetry	Thu, Feb 10, 2011	7.9	- 284	1208	26:37
15	Ted King	Wed, May 18, 2011	7.9	139 301	1199	26:49

edit: oh wait thats the wrong King. BEN king managed a 25:12. but still thats an impressive ride uk


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Ted King is a pro rider too, riding on the LiquiGas team. So yes, that's me 12 seconds ahead of the 60+ riders in the Groupetto, including the current world road race champion, Thor Hushovd, and Phinney too!

I will admit that the only reason I have a 26:37 PR on Sierra was because I spent 66% of the climb chasing down Tosa, 33% of the climbing sitting on Tosa's wheel, and 1% of the time crushing the final 2 bumps! So Tosa should really get the credit for that effort.


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

Here is some more info from VN

Let’s not beat around the bush: 478 watts normalized for 18 minutes and two seconds for a power to weight ratio of 6.3 watts per kilogram. That’s the bottom line of Rory Sutherland’s very impressive 3rd place in stage 4.


http://velonews.competitor.com/2011...of-rory-sutherlands-stage-4-power-data_174455



We can see from Sutherland’s power data the Sierra Road climb required a broad range of power outputs. For example, Sutherland was forced to make 681 watts for the first 21 seconds of the climb as RadioShack implemented their textbook slingshot launch. Once the rest of the group was back on their heels, Sutherland “settled” into a 502-watt effort for the next two minutes and 36 seconds. Combined, this surge comes out to a 524-watt effort, or 110% for the first three minutes of an 18-minute climb. You would think that the group would slow down into a steady pace but this is where Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer attacked. Bam, Sutherland was forced to dig deep and produce 593 watts for 53 seconds as he has still to let the winning move ride away.

At that point Sutherland makes a very wise decision to ‘conserve’ and ride steady for the next four minutes and 24 seconds at ‘only’ 415 watts, or 87% of his overall normalized power output. I suspect Sutherland recovered during this time which allowed him to accelerate greater than 500 watts two more times and greater than 600 watts three more times before he reached the finish. At the finish, he matched Andy Schleck’s surge producing 643 watts for 19 seconds and then outsprinted Leipheimer by making 843 watts for 7 seconds.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Chris Horner's blog entry on the stage is a good read!

via ElHombre


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## kdown (Dec 8, 2007)

Great to see everyone at the top. Thanks so much to whoever lugged the frosties up the hill!!! Interesting descent post-race. Fun to ride "with" the pro riders from the peleton, but a lot of bad craziness amongst the pedestrians and wannabe road racers.


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## tosa (Aug 23, 2010)

Yeah, that was a good ride with UK. I changed my mind again and did a Quimby loop before work instead of Sierra. Felt really good from my last few rides, so I figured I go out for a PR. Went out really strong and was really shattering my best previous half way time, but before I got to the flat before the half way, I lost it and slowed down a lot. Looks like UK's advice of using a power meter would help ration out the effort. Anyhow, only was off by a minute (from my PR) to the top, and was able to fully recover on the return to keep the rest of the ride good and not fall asleep at work! UK, when are you heading back to Sierra? Would be good to have you push me up the hill again!


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

I finally saw the replay of this stage on my DVR. It's awesome to be on top of the hill but we really had no idea what was going on.

We were witness to one of the greatest climbing performances in the world! And it was done by 39 year old Horner. Basically, it has defined this race and it has determined the race winner as Horner will be crowned King of Tour of CA today.


quote:
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From Rory Sutherlands power file from velonews. He was 3rd up Sierra and 1:15 behind Horner. Rory's time was 18:02 for the full 3.6 miles, 1760 ft at 6.3 w/kg ouch which *puts Horner at 16:47* and who knows how many watts/kg.

Here's the link: 

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011...of-rory-sutherlands-stage-4-power-data_174455

Best times from low key hill climbs and the longer Sierra KOM from past years was around 22 minutes.

alto velo
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<font size=3>Chris Horner Sierra road time: 16:47 minutes.</font>

my best time up Sierra is 29:52 ... amped up on coffee... with a big tailwind 

fc


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

photos:


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Absolutely, Sierra Road was were it went down this year. The fireworks were all on Sierra Road, not on Mt Baldy. I think it would have been a different story if they'd been using race radios: "Chris, you are pulling away from Levi. Ease off and pace Levi to the top."


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## heythorp (Feb 17, 2005)

Horner posted his information for Stage 4 and 7

Stage 4









Stage 7


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## enr1co (Oct 30, 2009)

Sorry to have missed the ride party- came from the livermore start and didnt get to SJ area til 1:00. Rode up from Calaveras to the finish line and it was crazy crowded so dropped down the road ~500-600 meters.

If you are on FB, here are some pics from my album to share:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.426283898570.202912.534503570


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