# 6/3 RoadBikeReview After work Ride Report



## thien (Feb 18, 2004)

It looked like it might be a cold ride, with the grey clouds and fog rolling in from the coast, but it ended up being just perfect around the loop. Traffic was a little sketchy coming up Sand Hill at 5:30 to get to the meeting spot, but other than that, was pretty quite on the ride. Oh, except for later in the ride when descending Page Mill a lady in a big range rover apparently lost her cocker spaniel and was stopping any chance she had to try to wave down other motorists to see if they'd seen her dog. Otherwise a good ride with good company... :thumbsup: 

The riders - kwc, dr. john, and thien

The route - Sandhill -> Portola loop counter clockwise -> Purissima -> elena -> natomas -> black mountain road -> altamont -> down pagemill -> back onto arastradero -> right on alpine-> loop back to sandhill

~21 miles total










No Camera this time, sorry folks.


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## kwc (Mar 10, 2008)

ha, good thing I peeled off at Altamont to head home -- no crazy range rovers for me.

'twas a good ride -- next time I'll bring a tow rope to attach to dr. john so he can pull me up the climbs.


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## thien (Feb 18, 2004)

kwc said:


> next time I'll bring a tow rope to attach to dr. john so he can pull me up the climbs.


I'll bring one too, that way I can hook onto you and then dr. john can pull both of us.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

Thanks for the fun, guys. I really enjoyed that ride.  Beautiful route. :thumbsup:


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## velogirl (Oct 14, 2005)

so, what happened to this? anything on tap for this week?


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## Sunchokes (Jun 26, 2008)

*How is the ride?*

Hi, I know some people who tried this route today but didn't finish. How does the ccw direction compare with the reverse? One of our friend can do this route easily in the clockwise direction but the rest of us can't quite keep up on the climbs.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

There's essentially two loops. For both, I don't think either direction is going to be easier. For the Elena loop, my impression (I could be wrong) is that the climb for the clockwise direction has a steeper grade and is much shorter up Elena than the counter-clockwise direction, where you head up Pagemill which seems longer but less of a grade in that section. I'll check.


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## Sunchokes (Jun 26, 2008)

Thank you very much for the quick response! This information will be helpful the next time we feel adventurous - but in the mean time more training! Do you have any recommendations for nice rides around the area that are suitable for beginners? >.<; 

Thank you much again for your advice!


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

LOL... of course I had it wrong. So much for my "impressions."  Here's the Elena loop, counter-clockwise (starting at Arastradero and Page Mill) with elevation:

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2025298


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> Do you have any recommendations for nice rides around the area that are suitable for beginners? >.<;


The Elena loop might be a bit tough for a beginner, but it's really tough to beat the Portola Loop. Some nice rolling hills to get used to climbing. It's where I started.


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## thien (Feb 18, 2004)

sunchokes - where do you normally start your rides. There's a lot of choices in the foothills there by elena that are doable for a beginner.


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