# The Foster City 100



## TahoeBC (Mar 11, 2008)

This is hilarious 

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/166231


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## ShaneW (Sep 6, 2008)

HAHAHAHA......how the hell did that guy not die of boredom???


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## grrrah (Jul 22, 2005)

He needs to go back and re-do this and hit the streets that he missed.


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## sometimerider (Sep 21, 2007)

Well, he didn't choose the most efficient route (he did more backtracking than required). If he'd done better, he could have done those other streets and still had a century. Hey, topologists in our midst, how do you optimize a route like this?

In any case, this is incredibly funny. He never exceeded 83 ft. of elevation and averaged about 10 mph.

A fun way to view it is to magnify it a couple of levels - so you can see the individual streets. Then, on the lower right, set the playback speed to about 100x. Then hit Play (the right arrow).


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

That is unbelievable, especially all those dead-end streets. I wonder how he kept track of his progress - can a Garmin do turn-by-turn directions for a cue sheet that long?


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## ShaneW (Sep 6, 2008)

grrrah said:


> He needs to go back and re-do this and hit the streets that he missed.


You are a cruel, cruel man!! :thumbsup:


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

I'm not sure if I should be proud or concerned that the start and stop point is about 3 blocks from where I live.


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## ratpick (Jul 31, 2008)

Like Dr_John, I live nearby.. for some reason actually going out and doing something like this is strangely appealing. Probably because it's the road version of this ride I did last year (Every trail in El Corte de Madera Creek OSP)


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## slow.climber (Nov 25, 2010)

1900' of climbing; he must be training for the Death Ride.

Foster City is land fill so I wonder how much of that is real. Most of it is probably bridge bumps over the water ways. But it's an interesting test of the accuracy of his bike computer.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Damn. The planning, the boredom, the triumph.

fc


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

*Oh come on, 1900 ft of climbing?*

It looks like he rode over an overpass near mile 60.


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## ziscwg (Apr 19, 2010)

ratpick said:


> Like Dr_John, I live nearby.. for some reason actually going out and doing something like this is strangely appealing. Probably because it's the road version of this ride I did last year (Every trail in El Corte de Madera Creek OSP)


But every trail in El Corte Madera is different. You can't just cruise either. It's fun the whole time there. I do a "tour de skeggs" a few times a year. There is way more than 1900 ft of climbing, maybe 8000


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

slow.climber said:


> 1900' of climbing; he must be training for the Death Ride.
> 
> Foster City is land fill so I wonder how much of that is real. Most of it is probably bridge bumps over the water ways. But it's an interesting test of the accuracy of his bike computer.


Maybe, but do these numbers mean anything anymore?

The Leadville 100 used to measure 10,800 to 11,000 ft gain using the old barometer-type altimeter, and if you look at the elevation profile that seems right. With GPS I've heard elevation gains as high as 14,500 ft for the exact same course.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

robwh9 said:


> Maybe, but do these numbers mean anything anymore?


If you turned on a Garmin Edge cycling computer and left it still on a table outside for 10 hours, you'd probably get a 1000 feet of climbing ... Typically the Garmins have both the barometric altimeter and a GPS derived elevation. It is somewhat tricky to get believable numbers, but I think they could do a lot better with more sophisticated firmware algorithms. What's worse is when you upload an activity to Garmin Connect, turn on "elevation correction", and then the number goes up by another mysterious 50%.


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## ShaneW (Sep 6, 2008)

ratpick said:


> Like Dr_John, I live nearby.. for some reason actually going out and doing something like this is strangely appealing. Probably because it's the road version of this ride I did last year (Every trail in El Corte de Madera Creek OSP)



In the immortal words of ALI-G - "REPECT!!":thumbsup:


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

Not that it matters that much, but yeah, those elevations are off. I know the area well, and probably the highest road elevation in Foster City is the Foster City Blvd water overpass near the Dog Park. The elevation at the peak there is listed as -14 ft. One of the highest parts indicated on the map, on Beach Park, at 73 ft, is definitely at sea level.


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