The big climb on the Tierra Bella route goes from Morgan Hill up to Henry Coe State Park. I’d never been up that road, so I thought I’d check it out.
Wow, it was tough! The climbing starts at 340′ and peaks at 2675′. Here are the stats:
- 58.7 miles
- 3717′ elevation gain
- 5:36:57 total time
- 11.5 MPH avg. speed
- 31 MPH max. speed
I took the direct route down Monterey Hwy, which is not really part of the century route, but I wanted to make sure I had enough gas in the tank to do ~60 miles with more than 3400′ of climbing. It gave me a taste of what I’d be facing in April: headwinds.
I was really cooking down Monterey, hitting speeds of 17-18MPH. It was getting warm, too. Then I looked ahead and saw fog in Morgan Hill. I thought, “wow, that looks cool (in the figurative sense).” Then I hit Live Oak and it was as if someone turned on a big fan! Cool (in the literal sense), steady 5-10MPH headwinds knocked my speed back to 13MPH and made me glad I wore a long-sleeve base layer.
In retrospect, I should’ve taken Coyote Creek Trail because I really needed a bathroom by the time I got to Morgan Hill and couldn’t find one. I searched around the downtown area, scanning the farmer’s market and some of the area I remembered from visiting the Mushroom Mardi Gras earlier in the year. No luck. I thought about riding farther away from the hill because I knew the park where they staged the Morgan Hill Marathon would have restrooms, but loathed the idea of adding miles before I’d begun the ascent. I checked my iPhone and saw a park on the route, right next to the school where my friend teaches. I hoped they would have a restroom, but, nope. So I decided to just start climbing and when my bladder said it was time to go, I’d just have to figure something out.
Fortunately, less than two miles from that park, I saw a porta-potty on the side of the road. It was just sitting there, unlocked, next to a fence. I couldn’t figure out why it was there, but I wasn’t questioning my good luck at that point. That was the sign I needed that this was going to be a good ride! (Later, I saw that there was construction going on at one of the nearby houses. I can only assume that it was for the construction workers.)
The ride wraps around Anderson County Lake, then the real climbing starts. It had varied degrees of steepness, but near the very top, there is a short section that felt like it was greater than 20% incline, but RideWithGPS tells me it was only 12.9%. Still, it kind of sucked. More suckage: the parking lot was BELOW the top of the climb!
It felt good to get to the parking lot, though. The visitors center had a water fountain and restrooms, so I took advantage of both. Then, I climbed up and over the top again and began the descent. There was a little bit of climbing left, but it wasn’t bad.
The headwinds on the way back were no fun, though. But, if that’s what I need to train for, I just have to suck it up and do it. I have lots of time to train for it, though. I need to do more hills!