pedal mashin' up malibu canyon

(via modus eundi)

saturday's training ride took me up the pacific coast highway (PCH) to malibu and its gorgeous canyons and constant winding twisting climbs. PCH is, for much of what we rode, a three-lane highway with a few feet of sandy/gravelly shoulder where bikers can risk a commute. cars zoomed past at 40-50 mph and several times we had to signal to traffic coming up behind us to merge into an actual lane and avoid a particularly rocky stretch or road or an inconveniently placed concrete barrier. and hope to goodness that they saw us. it helped that we had about 50 people in the group, but we were spread out over a mile or two.

once we got up to malibu canyon road, we had our first pit stop at a starbucks. so far, most of the PCH portion of the ride had been a gradual, but still taxing, uphill. after the pit stop, we headed up a short steep climb that made me wish i had a triple chainring instead of a double. even at the lowest easiest gear, i was having trouble keeping up my rpms. after that climb, it was a relief to glide downhill through malibu creek state park for a bit, albeit with a couple hundred foot drop to our right.

we then rode through malibu going inland, and it was a pretty grueling 15 miles of rolling hills, sweat, and pre-summer heat. our second pit stop was an small old grocery store and then we zoomed down a narrow two-laner to PCH. had a minor scare with a speeding mustang that blew past a little too close for comfort, but i managed to stay upright.

it's not a ride i would do alone, but it was scenic, sometimes shaded, and a nice respite from the weekday stress of darting in and out of rush hour traffic. met a new friend, jennifer, a strong girl biker who's done the ALC once before, and got to hang out with my ALC buds fay, nick, andrew, tony, flavio, and wing.

the ALC ride calendar said 65 miles, the ride leader said 45 miles, most everybody's bike computers said about 40 miles in 4 hours.