prankster

Hey all, I will be visiting socal area (Costa Mesa) during the 4th of July weekend. Where is best place (site) to find courses to ride? Is there Saturday group ride? I planned on racing the CBR #7 that Sunday.

Thank you!

Hermes

Calling... @TMonk and @wktmeow

Check out San Diego Bicycle Club.

furiousferret

www.socalcycling.com

It should have a list of group rides in the OC.

wktmeow

Sorry, I don't really know about riding north of Pendleton!

TMonk

Same here, not super familiar. Check out the website FF listed for races and events, and PM me if you're interesting in coming to San Diego!

Hermes

My bad. I read Costa Mesa and thought Mira Mesa. Sorry.
@Doge may have some ideas.

Doge

Saturday is weird. Food Park seems to have died. There is a Canyon Velo ride. Nothing really that much now.
Might be worth driving down to mid San Diego and doing Swami's.
If not go solo and ride the Santiago canyon. You will see groups, but the rides are not very organized. That is a very recent thing.


Sunday - Como Street if you want an epic group ride. Starts off Jamboree and I-5 Starbucks at 8:00. About 35 miles. That may be a better choice than CBR if you like pain. CBR is fun and a great course with a little rise.

prankster

Thank you for the inputs.

From the website, Food Park ride seems to be the closest one from where I will be staying. If the ride was truly dead, then solo ride might be my most likely option.

Is this the Food Park map?
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1103588

For Friday solo ride, I found this map. Is this any good? Ok to do it on Friday morning?
https://ridewithgps.com/ambassador_r...-baldy-village


I'm a flatlander. The less rise the better. I mean I would do it if I have to.

Thanks for the link.

Doge

GMR is not flat. Food Park is not flat. But more so.
Friday's ride is a local epic one. GMR is a ToC stage. Good call.

I'm not sure if you are asking for best group ride, or best ride. And I don't know if getting in the car is an option.

Yes - that is Food Park. It falls apart after mile 22. 12-24 is dangerous with traffic. Groups have not been showing up lately.

You like flat, do the Coast Hwy S starting San Clemente. Issue is the Marine Base won't let you in without their issued ID.
Lots of rolling flat mid county - Newport on Coast Hwy, but traffic.

Santa Ana River trail is flat - gross.

Still hilly, but do the Sunday Como Street Route.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/25361390

Hermes

Now that I have my head on right and I am thinking orange county, Lightning Velo offers Saturday rides. https://www.lightningvelo.org/rides.html

I ride in orange county a lot. If you want a flat ride, you can start in Newport or Laguna Beach and ride to Long Beach and back on Pacific Coast Highway. This goes along the ocean for much of the route. It has a lot of bike traffic and bike lanes but also a lot of fast car traffic and sensitive sections for cyclists. There is also a loop that you could make from Costa Mesa to the ocean via the Back Bay and then south to Laguna and out highway 133 and back to Costa Mesa. Once again, there will be a lot of fast car traffic.

One of the better SoCal rides is climbing the GMR to Baldy. That may not be in your wheelhouse.

Cleave

Hello prankster, after seeing everything above, I have a couple of suggestions if you want to drive to Long Beach. My club, Lightning Velo has a moderate paced, very flat ride on Fridays that is about 38 miles. It starts here at 8:00a:

https://www.lightningvelo.org/rides.html

On Saturday, we have a ride that starts at the same location at 7:30a. On Saturday, July 6, we are doing the Seapoint route (43 miles), which is relatively flat. We have A and B groups on Saturday but the A group is hit-and-miss depending on who shows up. I am planning on doing CBR on Sunday (60+) so I will be riding with the B group.

All of our rides are very disciplined, double paceline, stop at stop signs and stoplights and most of our team members are not racers. There are some sprint points and we regather after each of those. The B group is also no-drop (for real). Basically a fast-ish recreational group ride.

Let me know if you plan to do either of the rides and I will meet you at the start. I generally don't go to the start as I live just off most of the routes and I need my beauty rest in the morning. For you, I can make an exception.

prankster

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will look into all the options.

It seemed the consensus here is the GMR-Baldy route is a must. I don't mind doing some climbing. Not my cup of coffee but I'm ok. Just need to keep reminding myself not to hammer it too much... Looks like I'm gonna have to up my climbing game. 4 w/kg threshold should be ok right? I'm from Houston. We don't have any epic climbs. Pretty much flat and a lot of nasty crosswinds due to hurricane prone area.

I will have a rental car but my wife will be using it most of the days for friends' wedding errands. I will make an exception for GMR-Baldy ride. If I dont race the CBR 7, I might do that Sunday Como route.

Thanks. I've ridden along PCH before. It was nice but I want to see a different scenery. I will look into this Lighting Velo group ride.

Thanks! I will look into it.

Doge

What did you do?

prankster

Due to lack of time, I did GMR-Mt. Baldy on Friday and Foodpark on Sunday. Both solo. The traffic was not bad along the Foodpark route though I hit every red light and that was more annoying than the traffic. Sadly, the time did not allow me to race the CBR#7. I was really looking forward to experience socal crit scenery.

I gotta say the GMR-MtBaldy was less picturesque than I had anticipated. It was rather dry. I did enjoy the descend.

Doge

Well, bummer. Next time do the drive to Palomar. SoCal lights - not much to say. They put them about everywhere.