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.<\/p>\n
Wow, it was tough! The climbing starts at 340′ and peaks at\u00a02675′. Here are the stats:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
The ride wraps around Anderson County Lake, then the real climbing starts. It had\u00a0varied 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!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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′ … Continue reading