Chili Hill Ride Inspired the Competitive Spirit

[Written by Phil Blay] You would have loved this route. 51 miles with 3,350 feet of climbing. The turn onto Shirland Tract was a great alternative to riding straight up Auburn Folsom. Hardly a car on the road. Jerami was first over the top and I was 3rd or 4th. I passed a few guys when the rollers started.

After topping up at Maidu Market we rode a short way to Mt Vernon rd and took the hard left onto Millertown. The speed ramped up to the high 20's descending to Wise rd. The guys were not sure of the route so I was at the front between climbs. Not much engery saved for the climbs!

We turned onto Bald Hill which was another descent and started the second climb up Chili Hill Rd. Not much of a climb but enough to split everyone on the climb. 5-6 of us topped this together and started the descent. It seemed like all we were doing was descending! We regrouped at the bottom and rode over to Ridge Road together. The pack again blew apart with Jerami and Kurt battling to the top. Jeff and another Road Rash guy were 3-4 with me trying to reel them in the last mile. Didn't get the job done.

Regrouped at Taylor road before heading to the gas station at the base of Indian Hill road. Took a quick break and started to climb Indian Hill. Jerami took off with Kurt on his tail. I paced a bunch up in the big chain ring at around 10.5 mph until Jeff had enough and made a move by. Regrouped for the most part for the descent down Auburn-Folsom rd. We had 8-10 riders left at this point. Jeff started the pace for the first few miles, Jerami and I fell back a ways waiting for a couple of guys. We lost Frank somehow. Flat? One rider came up and Jerami pulled him to me and I pulled us back to the group. 30+ mph was showing for awhile. We lost a few more driving this pace back to Folsom. At times I was just hanging on.

After Douglas blvd I made a move from near last in line to second in line. Jerami was driving the pace up for the sprint. He cranked it up and I stayed in the draft until the last 100 meters. Then it was Mano e Mano. We crossed the line so close I'm not sure who was first. Might have been Jerami. Man is he strong! The front group arrived at Karen's around 11:15am. We completed the ride in 2:47 at 18.4 average mph. You would have been home by 11:30.

This would be a good route for the peloton to try out. The climbs are not bad, really great scenery, low traffic.

Tomorrow, I'll send everyone a link of my Garmin download so you can check out the route.

Old Frenchtown Road Makes the Effort Worthwhile

Seven Peloton Group riders started out on what was a new route for most  us. It was slightly chilly at the start, but warmed up nicely. Lisa Haas designed this route based on past experience, and some additional guidance from Steve Ward to help avoid some traffic and increase safety. We soon found out that Steve's recommendations typically involve a hill or two.

We rode out to Latrobe Road and then onto Cothrin Ranch Rd. I'll blame it on the beautiful scenery, but we all missed a turn that would have kept us on Conthrin Ranch Rd. The result was a pretty tough climb to the ridge. I've since heard reports that the grades throughout that area were 14-15% and up to 18%. We re-grouped at the top and got our bearings with a trusty Google Maps app. Soon we were back on track, heading toward French Creek Road.

It seemed that everything was awash in the emerald green that only Spring can bring. Trees overarched the road; their shade kept slight chill on our skin. A small farm-raised dog threatened to tear us all limb-from-limb as it scampered back and forth behind the wire fence, barking ferociously as we passed.

As we finished up Old French Town Road, Lisa, Ron, Ryan, and Brian took a bypass to Green Valley Rd., while Joel, Kevin and Stan continued up Motherload Rd. to Missouri Flat. Both groups agreed to meet up again at the Rescue Fire Station, but the latter group had a few more miles to cover and a couple of hills. After a quick stop for water at Safeway, Kevin, Joel and Stan were on a mission to get to the Rescue Fire Dept. Thinking that the others might move on without them, they arrived at the fire station to see Lisa and Ron returning from pizza joint across the street, holding a big ol' ham sandwich with all the fixings---and freshly fried potato chips!

After the "nutrition" break, we made our way back on Deer Valley Road and back out to Green Valley. From that point, we usually would take Green Valley all the way home, but Lisa plotted the route to return via Malcom Dixon Road. It was a pleasant surprise. We've gone out on Malcom Dixon the other way several times, but never experienced the road in the other direction. I think I liked it better. This hills go mostly down in that direction, not up.

In the end, we covered just over 58 miles with just under 4500 feet of climbing, all in about 3 hours and 51 minutes. The ride definitely worked up our appetites---perhaps prompted by the ham sandwich at Rescue. A separate Facebook post by Kevin revealed that he stopped for an In-and-Out Double Cheeseburger and a Shake on the way home. Well-deserved.

Thanks to again to Ron for the photos. Visit Ron and Lisa's "Team Van-HuHa" blog for more photos and additional commentary on the ride.

Folsom Lake Loop: First goal ride of the season for the Peloton Group

And what a ride it was! Several riders from the Performance Group joined us for this one and we had about 26 riders in total yesterday which made for quite an impressive site heading out from Folsom. I kept looking for the support cars and the camera helicopter flying overhead with Versus’ Phil Legit and Paul Sherwen voices in the background announcing the ride!

Leaving Karen’s we headed out on Auburn Folsom Rd to E Natoma St then left onto Salmon Falls Rd. Now Salmon Falls starts out as a nice winding route with gradual rollers but don’t be fooled as soon you find yourself cranking up several gradual climbs as a warm up to what’s to come! The group started out together for the most part but once the steeper climbs start in it doesn’t take long for those stronger riders to slowly break away and form a group of their own.

Our first stop for a short break was at the top of a climb across from Zee Estates.

After a short water and refueling stop, we regrouped and were off to Pilot Hill the “official” water and regroup stop.

Several of the faster riders headed out first and after some reminders about how narrow and fast the road will get, we head out and soon you find out just how fast the ride down Salmon Falls really is.

Riding down Salmon Falls Road with its steep curves and no shoulder to speak of, means your riding 2 to 3 abreast in between cars. For me, I love these fast grand prix style turns hugging the corners right behind a car. In fact on a bike you can actually handle the turns faster than the cars can and find yourself having to slow down just to avoid hitting the car a few feet in front of you!

When you get down to the confluence at the bottom and look up to the right at the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge soaring 730 feet above the river, you get a sense of just how far and fast down the hill you’ve come.

Turning right at the El Dorado St/Old Foresthill Rd tee put us on yet another long steady 12% - 14% grade climb up to the approach of what is the 3rd highest bridge in the U.S. and the tallest in California!

From there we rode thru Auburn, got a bit off track at High Street but soon found our way to Auburn Folsom Road and back down into Folsom. Oz, thanks for doing another great job of keeping us "slower" riders on track and riding at a pace that keeps pushing us!

Once passing Indian Hill Road, the group of 10 or so broke up into two and for most of the return ride back to Folsom we attempted to take "short pulls" up front and keep riders rotating out. It gets a bit dicey though on Auburn/ Folsom with its busy traffic and narrow to no shoulder at all to keep a steady pace line going will frequently rotating riders up front.

This ride lived up to being our first goal ride for the Peloton group of the year. I can really fell the group improving not only on the climbs but on the rollers and pushing the pace on the flats. Thanks everyone for a great ride!

I had this one at about 3 hours 21 minuets ride time with about 4500 feet of climbing for a distance of just over 54 miles.

Iron Serpent Modified: This one still has a Bite!

Oz and Brian from the Performance group lead a smaller group of us than usual as a lot of the CycleFolsom group was riding in the Party Pardee ride down in Ione. Today’s route was a modified Iron Serpent route that included less climbing than the original but still packed a potent bite of its own!

We started out from Karen’s as usual and had just worked up to a good warm up pace across the Folsom Lake Crossing when Stan calls out “I’ve got a flat”. Once we all got stopped to help out he mentions that he put new tires on a couple of weeks back and has dealing with chronic flats ever since caused by what he described as a metal thread from the tire rubbing against the tube that he couldn’t get rid of. So he decided to turn back and have the shop take a look at it. Turns out he did have sharp piece of gravel or glass that caused the flat and didn't realize it 'til he got home. A visit to Bicycle Planet fixed him up and he was able to restart his ride from there up Mt. Costco, to Beatty to Serrano, out to Bass Lake Road. Looking back on it I’m surprised we didn’t end up crossing paths as that’s just about the same route we took and we could have met up on Sophia Parkway or Bass Lake Road. Still, it sounds like he got a decent climbing ride in.

Meanwhile we continued over to East Natoma and Sophia Parkway and up to the top of Beatty Road. Just as we crest the top, John, who usually rides with the Performance Group and wears the Folsom High kit, met up with us and rode with us until we came down Appian Way on our way back to Folsom.

From here we continued up the rest of Beatty Road down to El Dorado Hills Blvd up Serrano Parkway all the way to the top where it meets Bass Lake Road. Now, here’s where it gets interesting because little did Joel and I know we were heading for the south side of Hwy 50 and what turned out to be a 20%+ grade climb up Boulder Ridge Road. We rode right past that buffalo ranch that you can see on the right driving east up Hwy 50 just before Bass Lake Road. We continue under Hwy 50 and up a short climb on Marble Mountain Road. As we get close to the start of the big climb, Oz tells all of us “make sure your in the lowest gear you’ve got before turning the corner up here because once you start up the climb you won’t have time to shift” – great, sounds like this is gonna be fun, not!

And he was right, that left turn onto Boulder Ridge does come fast and immediately you’re starting the climb up. As I start digging in, Oz calls out the percent grade, “12, 14, 16…” that’s when I interrupted him by saying “Ok Oz I’ve heard enough” as I look up the climb looks like your going straight up. No kidding folks, I felt my front tire coming off the road a couple of times as I found myself pulling up on the handle bars just trying not to fall off the peddles! As you get to the top of the ridge it takes a left turn and guess what, yep another climb! Thankfully, it’s a short climb and we regroup at the top before heading back down to Bass Lake Road.

Once we got the north side of Hwy 50 on Bass Lake Road, we take a left and ride down Hollow Oak Drive to a much needed water stop and short break. From here we head back up Hallow Oak to Bass Lake and over to Serrano Parkway. From here Oz takes the group thru the entrance to the Serrano Country Club and we ride thru the Serrano gated community with its big homes and great views of Folsom Lake and the surrounding areas. Exiting the gated community we met up Appian Way which some of us had ridden up to the “water tower” during a mid-week ride on Thursday which turned out to be a bit of precursor to this climb fest!

From here we continue down Silva Valley Pkwy across Green Valley down Lakehills Drive to Guadalupe Drive and more climbing, great! At this point I’m just about climbed out but surprising fell pretty good about the fact that we’ve ridden what I consider to be a challenging route for the Peloton group. Continuing on Guadalupe connects to the “back side” of Francisco Drive and El Dorado Hills. Its here we take a slight detour and make a pit stop at Oz’s house for a much needed “bio break”! Thanks Oz

The rest of the ride was pretty standard stuff, down to Green Valley over to Folsom Lake Crossing and back on the American River Bike Trail. Thought I heard some mumbling that Joel wanted to head up to Beales Point before heading back but gotta say at this point I was glad we skipped that last climb and headed straight back to Karens.

Sorry about no pictures for this ride, it was all I could do to hang on without having to fumble with my cell phone camera. Here’s where we missed our “unofficial/official” group photographer Ron!

This was a great climbing work out and after the Thursday afternoon ride on much of the same roads didn’t seem too bad. Overall about 4,350 feet of climbing over 46+ miles for a total of just about 3 hours of riding. Not too bad boyz, not too bad at all!

See ya next week

Discovery Park: Flat City!

[by Kevin Harris] The Performance and Peloton Groups rode together today out to Discovery Park and back for a Long Slow Distance ride. But it didn’t end up that way!

We had a good turnout today for our combined Group Ride, plus two new riders came out for a new "Grupetto" ride around Lake Natoma, led by Stan. Good to see new riders out. All three groups started out from Karen’s this morning for what promised to be very enjoyable ride. The weather was great.

The Grupetto Group dropped back pretty quickly, but the Peloton and Performance Groups pretty much stayed together. As we reached William B. Pond for our first scheduled stop, we collectively made a quick decision to skip the stop and push onto Discovery Park. However, once the group got to about Sacramento State, Phil called out “flat” and several of us stopped to help out. This naturally broke the group into two. Tuned out it was Ryan with the flat, and the first of what would be two for him for the day! Once that was taken care of, Phil discovered he had a slow leak himself and decided to go ahead and change out the tube just to be safe. By the time we got going again we knew the others would be far ahead so we pushed the pace a bit to make up the lost time.

Just as we got to the outer edge of Discovery Park, the first group was coming the other way. They decided to turn around and return with us back to the water stop at Discovery Park for a regroup.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Kirk Stanfield, one of our Peloton riders from last year who we haven’t seen out for several weeks due to an old knee injury. Turns out he had left Karen’s not long after the combined group had departed and just beat us there by only a couple of minutes. Nice riding Kirk!

Before leaving Discovery Park, several Bicycle Planet riders joined us on the ride back to Karen’s and helped push the pace up to about 24 MPH! We ended up with about 12 or so in the group and soon reached William B. Pond for our schedule return stop. But once again the group decided to push onto Karen’s without stopping.

The pace picked up again just before the bridge and the group broke into two separate groups. A couple of us ended falling back a bit and lost sight of the faster group. We soon started to work together and just before reaching Sunrise we spotted the faster group again. Tim departed at Sunrise and I continued to push on to catch what I thought was the entire first group. Turns out they were Joel, Jeff and Phil by themselves riding at a slower pace. The four of us continued onto the Fish Hatchery then stopped for a water refill and to wait a bit for the others to catch up. After about 10 minutes we continued on back to Karen’s, taking the north side route around Lake Natoma.

Once back a Karen’s we found out later that Ryan had his second flat of the ride (the rear tire again!) during the return ride. All and all a very enjoyable ride with fantastic weather and good company

Next week, the Folsom Lake Loop which promises to be quite a challenge for the Peloton riders.

Rescue Ride: Head For Them Thar Hills!

As we move out of primarily building base miles, our routes are gaining elevation and preparing us for the challenges of the cycling season. The first weekend of spring was heralded in by a few more riders joining both the Performance and Peloton Groups to begin their training. New to the Peloton was Ryan, who just finished a half marathon last weekend and wanted to try his hand at hanging with the Cycle Folsom gang. And a fine job he did, too!

We left at 8am (sharp!) for a warmup with the Performance Group over Folsom Dam Crossing, then our routes parted as the Peloton headed east on Green Valley to the scenic Malcolm Dixon Road. This stretch poses some challenging rollers that did a great job preparing us for the workout along Deer Valley Road on the way to our water stop at the Rescue fire station.

Amongst our band was the irrepressible, enthusiastic triathlete Danny, who shared his hill attacking strategies with us. You’ll know Danny when you meet him: he has exquisite style on the bike and endlessly dishes up support and encouragement to the other riders.

Once we refilled our bottles at the fire station we put our newly learned hill climbing skills to the test on the undulating Ponderosa Road. Along the way we crossed paths with the Performance riders and traded a friendly “thumbs up” as they headed towards Rescue. What ensued was a nearly futile downhill chase for Stan and Joel’s wheel all the way back to El Dorado Hills.

Thankfully a red signal or two thwarted their getaway and helped us regroup before the final leg up to Beal’s Point and back down to the start point.

From there, Stan, Joel, and Danny took on the optional loop around Lake Natoma where the too-hot-to-handle Joel answered every challenge Danny presented with a serious reply. Stan joined the fray and the threesome finished the day completely igniting the rest of the route. Good thing the spring grass is so lush and green – but even this early in the season these guys are a fire hazard!

Fast Foxes and Hungry Hounds

[Written by Phil Blay] It was billed as a "Fox and Hound Ride." The Peloton Group starts about 20 minutes earlier than the Perormance Group, with the latter hunting them down like hounds after foxes.

The morning started out strange....Met up with Gary at Karen's 8:12am and no one else was there to support the Performance group in the chase for the Foxes! Until Jeff M. came out to join us. Thanks Jeff! So The three of us started out at 8:20am. We were not too confident we could chase down a big Peloton group of 9-11 riders. Also, Curtis showed up to ride with the Peloton Group (our luck Curtis would not join the Performance Group for the chase). Curtis changed the course to Irish Hill Road for the route back.
 
The three of us rolled out and decided to start at a maintainable pace and try to keep the pace as high as possible without anyone blowing up. Jeff stuggled a little the first few miles warming up. Gary and I would start to push too hard and Jeff would go off the back. He asked us to just go ahead but we knew that a third man was needed to have any chance at all of catching the Peloton. Made the turn onto Jackson Highway and blew right past the old water stop in Murrieta. Felt like a tail wind heading towards Ione road (not good for the way back). Made the turn onto Ione road and Gary picked up the pace on the slight down hill and we really started to put the hammer down. Jeff was helping as much as possible but Gary and I wanted him to get the most rest to help later in the ride. (This would prove later to be a good strategy). A few miles in I was leading and saw some riders on the side of Ione road.
 
It was Stan, Lisa, Ron and Joel. Stan flatted and was in the process of pumping up the tire. According to Stan's group the breakaway Peloton Proup with Curtis was about five minutes ahead! Lisa and Ron took off to get a head start while Jeff, Gary and I waited for Stan to complete the repair. We decided to give them a pull to catch up with the breakaway (we would learn later that this was not possible). We three were just too strong and kept losing Stan's group and slowing for them to catch up to our wheels. Finally we pulled the plug so to speak and put the hammer down. (sorry Stan and group but we were on a mission)
 
We made the turn onto the golf course road and kept up our speed heading in to the water stop (The average MPH can go down quick when slowing for a stop). As we were just turning into the driveway the breakaway group was just leaving! The surprised look on their faces was worth the effort we put in the last ten-twelve miles! We made as short a water stop as possible and got right back on the road.

We ramped the pace up on Irish Hill road hoping to make up time on the breakaway Peloton Group (They had other ideas....can you say Curtis had other ideas......). When we made the left turn back onto Jackson road were greeted by a side/headwind. Gary and Jeff started to slow on their pulls on Jackson so I took the lead for most of the way back to Murieta. Where was the breakaway group? Were they that far ahead? I started to feel little leg cramps coming into Murietta from the effort on Jackson road.
 
We made the turn onto Sloughhouse climbed over the "Hump" with Jeff riding right past Gary and I up the hill! Jeff won the KOM honors! Then Jeff started to pull us like a sleddog down Scott Road. He whipped up the speed to where Gary and I were having a hard time staying on his wheel. Both of us were feeling the twinges of cramps on each uphill section of Scott road. Our average had dropped to 18.9mph. Things were not looking good. NO catch of the breakaway Peloton Group and the average speed dropping! I was not feeling like I could keep the motor running, so to speak. But Jeff kept pulling and Gary and I kept in his draft all the way to Prairie City road. As we neared Whiterock the average moved back to 19.0! We started feeling like the next winners of the Tour De France! We made the turn onto Whiterock and Gary took the lead to keep the pace high with me slotted second and Jeff taking a well deserved break. The turn onto Prairie City was one of desperation, we had dropped back to 18.9mph. We had to either catch the breakaway group (not going to happen this late in the ride) or get our average back up to 19.0 to save the Performance Group's Ione ride!
 
Gary's and Jeff's average MPH was a few ticks slower than mine as I had kept up a faster pace in the Irish Hill section. So the decision was made for Gary and Jeff to lead me out and sacrifice themselves so I could get my average back up to 19.0. Just after the 50 over pass Gary and Jeff ramped it up pulling me at speeds up to 26-29mph. My average peaked at 19.1. Yea! All I had to do was ride no slower than 19mph  the last couple of miles! Gary dropped off the pace line exhausted. Jeff kept the pace up with me staying in the draft, Jeff and I rode into Karen's and I stopped the Garmin averaging 19.1 for the ride! This included the ride from my house to Karen's to meet up ror the ride.  
 
We found out the Peloton group had averaged 18.5mph for the ride. It seems Curtis helped them keep the pace up. To make matters worse.....Scott McKinney joined the group somewhere on the way back and helped. Gary, Jeff and I did not feel so bad not catching the breakaway Peloton group today with those two strong guys helping them out. The .6mph average speed is not enough speed difference to make up 17-20 minutes of lead out with Curtis and Scott lending a helping hand!
 
Kudos to the Peloton Group for their awesome ride today.