Tour de Palm Springs Alternative

Many of our riding friends, including members of Shifting Gears, were out in the desert doing the Tour de Palm Springs. We were not quite ready to do a century ride (100 miles), so we stayed in town. And since most of the training ride leaders were gone, there were no official training rides in town. So instead, Cindy, Sam and I went out on our own.

Cindy opted for an old route from the Chain Gang, another training group that Cindy and I used to do a lot of training rides with. This was an east side route that included a 4.5 mile climb up La Tuna Canyon. I can’t believe I agreed to do a climb…on our own no less.

We met up at the Los Angeles Zoo. It was a breezy morning, but the wind soon subsided making it a rather nice morning. We headed toward Glendale and then turned northwest past Burbank and into Sun Valley. I am not familiar with Sun Valley, but apparently it’s just north of the Burbank airport. We made our first pit stop at a produce market where we used the restroom and replenished on water. I also needed a potassium boost and bought the ONE sad-looking banana in the entire store.

I don’t seldom ride without a big group, so I was pleased with how we had been doing so far. It’s just that I’ve always felt better riding in a big group. Let’s be honest, I don’t trust L.A.drivers (I’m one of them, so I know). Most L.A. drivers don’t really pay attention to one or two bikers on the street, so bikers usually have to avoid cars and not the other way around. But when you’re riding in a big group, the drivers tend to avoid you. Safety in numbers, as they say.

Up until this point, the weather had been cooperating, we’d been going at a pretty good pace and riding on mostly flat service. But I knew what was coming up next…La Tuna Canyon. I’ll be honest; I was dreading the climb. La Tuna Canyon is like the Sepulveda Pass. It’s a long, steady climb – about 4.5 miles. Once you get up into the mountain-y part, there are really no places to pull over, so pedal pedal you must. To my surprise, the climb wasn’t too bad and before we knew it, we were at the top. Sam did really well, he shot past us and was the first to the top. Go Sam!!

We took a little break up top to enjoy the “view” of the 210 freeway. Okay, it really wasn’t that exciting of a view. When we were ready, we took off and headed downhill. I’ve always been pretty scared of going downhill. It’s a combination of the downhill speed and worrying that I might hit something and fly over the handlebars. But on this particular day, I was actually enjoying the downhill descent. I don’t know what came over me, but I felt “okay” and I had fun. Wheeeh!!

We rode through La Cescenta and I thought about my friends Stacey and Joe. I haven’t seen their new place and wondered if I rode past their home. (Hi Stacey and Joe!) We ended up at a cute little town in Montrose, where we rested. Cindy and I got a ginormous scone from a café. It was yummy!!

After our break, we started making our way back and headed south, then west through a quiet neighborhood just north of Glendale. We did hit a lot of stop signs in the residential area, but at least there were a lot of pretty nice houses in this area to see. It wasn’t long before we made our way back to the Griffith Park area, where we found out there was an official bike race going on at the same time – the Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker Bike Ride. Some of the volunteers from that ride thought we were part of the ride and were flagging us along. I don’t know how long the Firecracker ride was, but we rode 26.33 miles. “Firecracker” ride? Seriously?!?

This ride is dedicated to this awesome sponsor: Gwen N.