Stage 6: Santa Clarita Time Trial – The weather was turning foul, at least for South California. We had dodged clouds and rain during stage 5; the actual racers finished in a series of deluges into Santa Clarita. An unseasonal storm was afflicting the LA Basin and its surrounding mountains, which rise between 5 and 10,000 feet above the alluvial plain. Up at Big Bear Lake, the site of the time trial, snow fell and temperatures dropped below freezing. In the space of 24 hours, tour organizers and Six Flags turned a giant parking lot into a 6.6 mile prologue-style TT. Uphill sprinter extraordinaire Peter Sagan was about 22 seconds out of first place, behind the relatively unknown Tom Skujins, who had stolen the San Jose finish, (which had seemed custom built for Sagan,) from the Slovakian with a masterful ride over Mt Hamilton. Sagan, not known as a time trialist (much less as a serious climber), looked to on fire in the start house. Maybe he had other ideas that day?
We wandered around the “expo”, snagging swag, eating coconut mile ice cream sandwiches, and using the VIP pass Scott had commandeered for listening to a Lexus pitch to stoke up on finger sandwiches and close up views of the finish line. But the prime attraction was the VR TT set up on a KICKR in the Lexus tent. It was pretty much 60 seconds of agony, and a great time for spectators, as the begged rider would flail the handlebars in response to the veering scene only he could see. We ended our one day “watching the race” at the awards stage, where winners fumbled awkwardly into jerseys, leaned forward to receive that doubled barreled cheek kiss from the podium girls, and tossed bouts into the crowd. Just like on TV!
In the end, Sagan had gained the leader’s jersey by 15 seconds, an eternity in a 12 minute race, especially for one who is not a TT specialist. Now, all he had to do was lose less than 45 seconds to the unknown young French rider, Alaphillipe, up the HC ski slope climb up Mt Baldy. No one was giving him a chance; Sagan seems just too solidly built to climb that well. And besides, Alaphillipe, a member of the Etixx-QuickStep team, had the ace lead out train of Mark Cavendish to pull up through the initial, easier climbs on that stage.
But that was for tomorrow. This evening, we staged our assault on Monrovia in the Duarte Days Inn parking lot. Rich and the vans hauled us up the road past the official EN West offices in the local Starbucks to T. Phillips restaurant. There, we analyzed the various weather apps suggestions about tomorrow, discovering there was no hope: it would be cold and maybe snowing up at the 6600′ level of the Mt. Baldy finish.
Stage 7: Monrovia to Mt Baldy via Glendora Mtn Road – This is, literally, Rich’s back yard. He can climb GMR any time he wants, and was eager to have us experience all the fun. While the road was nominally open to cars this morning, it was for all intents and purposes an uphill bike path as hundreds of cyclists attacked the climbs, riding to watch the race and mountain top finish. GMR is a wonderful ascent, 8.5 miles at a pretty steady 6-8% grade, taking me a little under an hour at the HIM pace I used. Scenery was a bit lacking, in part because SoCal is so dry, and in part because the usual cloudless spring sky was filled with stratus and fog. We gathered at one of the KOMs, to watch the race ride away from Baldy. They would descend back to the basin below, then up GMR, while we simply struggled to make it to the Baldy ski lifts, 6 miles away. Five of those were uphill, and I chose not to make that trip. I wanted to hop right in to training for Lake Place (10 weeks to go!) without skipping a day or feeling fatigued the next week. So my total riding was 29 miles in 3 hours.
The rest of the team successfully made it to the top, then half-way down the mountain to the base of the final climb. I found them there in a funky Bavarian style inn/restaurant. It was filled with goose-bumped cyclists in all manner of exotic kit. Their sheer numbers turned the interior into a steam bath – apparently cycling up a hill and then bombing back down produces a lot of energy, which was being exhaled all around the wide flat screen TVs showing the race, live. Before we could watch the finish, though, team EN started down the mountain, to our final load-out in a Claremont parking lot.
From there, it was a crazy evening of equal parts pizza, beer, and bike dismantling, followed by a 50 minute drive to LAX, hugs, and fond good-byes.
Final Impressions:
- California is a big state; even though we started half-way down, we still spent a LOT of time on our bikes, just trying to make it from Sacramento to LA.
- Though nominally titled “Tour of California”, and being held at the same time and on (mostly) the same roads as a Pro Cycling stage race of the same name, this is in no way an opportunity to watch said bike race.
- Dont bet against Peter Sagan when he puts his mind to the service of his extraordinary abilities on the bike. He lost “only” 30 seconds up the Baldy climb, putting him two seconds down on Alaphillipe. The next day, on a TdF-type finishing stage with multiple laps around the Rose Bowl, he nailed back that time on an intermediate sprint, and by taking 3rd at then end, giving him 5 ” bonus seconds” to win the ToC.
- Everything Rich promised about this ride was true, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Although he does tend to exaggerate a little on the severity of the climbs. Like RnP’s approach to running EN, “Under promise and over-deliver” is the watch word.
- EN has an amazing pool of athletes and people, some of whom made it to this ride. We covered age ranges from about 31 to 66, and abilities from the entire spectrum of long-distance triathletes. Those who were faster, and those who were slower, all got together at the end of the day (and even during the day) and had a great time enjoying each other’s company. I can’t say enough about my team-mates.
- If you enjoy being a part of EN, then making this adventure part of your life list is mandatory, like a pilgrimage to Kona.