Robert A

Anyone done this ride in the past? Short course is 55 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing, I'm already signed up for the Los Angeles River Century which takes place on the same day, so I'd have to forfeit my reg fees if I switched rides. I'm curious about L'Etape because I know it'll be a real stretch to accomplish that level of climbing.

Edit: Just saw this ride review. I realize that I should have searched first.

Thank you,
Robert

hsuehhwa

I've never participated in the event, but I rode the route all the time. It's really challenging from Baldy Village (~4300' elev) to Ski Life (~6400' elev) in ~4.5 mi. The average grade is ~9% with a 0.3 mi ~15% finish.

Robert A

I did the Solvang Century in March. It was 5,500 feet over 100 miles. Since then, I've staying in shape spending a decent amount of time doing 2,000 foot climbs in my neighborhood. But 8,000 feet over 55 miles might be a bit much at my stage of conditioning.

hsuehhwa

I too did the Solvang this year. The highest elevation in Solvang is merely ~1500 ft. The 5500 ft overall climb included lots of 3-5% rolling hills. The Baldy Ski Lift is one big climb. (900 ft elevation to ~6500 ft elevation).

The Baldy Village to Ski Lift is ~9% x 4.5 miles. In comparison, the most difficult climb in Solvang Century is Foxen Canyon Road (~8% x 0.6 mi).

Other than the Ski Lift segment, the rest of the climb is very doable (5-8%).

Most riders start with GMR, then GMR + GRR, then Crystal Lake. Baldy Ski Lift is considered by many the ultimate challenge in SoCal. It's also more challenging than the Onyx Peak, Mt Wilson, and Palomar Mtns.

Any weekend there are always a lot of riders in San Gabriel Mtns.

Good luck.

The ski lift segment

https://www.strava.com/segments/646081

Tycho Brahe 

The climb from the village to the lifts is a beast. I cannot imagine doing it with lots of other riders around. You need to take the right-turning switchbacks very wide due to the steepness.

I rode it last week. 35 miles to the village, the long way via Hwy 39: one bottle of water. Then 4 miles to the lifts: the other bottle of water. It really is grueling.

RedBullFiXX

GMR to the village is a nice ride
Village to lifts, is an Epic ride !

Robert A

Guys, thanks. I think I'll wait a year. In the meantime, I'll due the L.A. River Century.

Garfield Cat

Then there's the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I think the Tour of California did it only once and at the end to the Tramway, many of the riders looked exhausted, maybe because of the very high temperatures that day.

Will the TdCA ever do Palm Springs again?

Tramway: 1,956 climb from N. Palm Canyon Drive to the top. Distance 3.85 miles. Average 10.435% with no switchbacks.

Baldy: 2,100 climb from Village to lot. Distance 4.5 miles. Average 8.838% with many switchbacks. Not sure of the actual distance from the Village to the parking lot. This might make a difference, but not a big difference.

L'Etape that!

goenrdoug

I live semi-locally, have done Solvang 5 or 6 times, climb the local hills a lot, etc. I've done the GMR part to the Village three or four times. Each time I did a bit of the part to the Ski-lifts and turned around because it was too much and the beer/burgers at the restaurant(s) available in the village were calling to me.

YMMV.

TrojanHorse

The tramway is a beast... it's mentally confusing because the entire terrain tilts up about 10 degrees for the lower portion but you're going slow and it looks flat.

The lifts are probably harder if only because you have to do plenty of climbing before you even get there, and it seemed to me that the gradient was closer to 15% once you get to the switchbacks.

They're both plenty hard.

Elvo

The thing about the lifts is that you will have to contend with cars/cyclists going up and down the switch backs. You'll be squeezing pretty hard on your brakes just to stay within your lane

Tycho Brahe 

You might as well do the ride. The worst that can happen is you turn around. Nothing wrong with that, considering it is a chore.

My only dislike about the lifts is that I am always freezing on the way down.

f4rrest

I like the climb to the lifts but not the descent.

Too much braking required, and the thought of an overheated tire blowout or glue separation in the heat is a concern.

diphthong

baldy ascent road quality bites but you don't notice until the descent because you were climbing it at 4-5 mph...
brake like hell until the village and then brake some more because the road straight into clairemont has plenty
of rough spots/rockfall divots on the right of the road. no thanks when you're easily going 40+ mph braking.

tram road in palm springs doesn't go all the way up anymore. stops at the guard house before things start to get really interesting.
i still think the old tram road climb all the way to the tram was tougher than baldy. steeper and longer ramps and w/o switchbacks.
think the "bowling alley" end climb of baldy but x 3 and you've got the jist of the final stretch of the (old) tram climb.

the baldy climb doesn't need to be done more than once other than just to do it imho. nearly any other climb (save lone pine canyon) in angeles nf/san gabriel mtns
is better. what's the point of climbing something that both sux to ascend and descend more than once?

Tycho Brahe 

Strava PRs. It's all about Strava.

Robert A

It's also the endorphin high afterwards.

Dan333SP

I did the tramway last year, it was hard but not life-changing hard. I think Baldy would probably be more difficult because reduced oxygen at elevation comes into play. The visual aspect of the road looking level with the surrounding terrain was a total mind-fudge though.

This looks like a flat road heading to a mountain, but it's actually about 9% gradient at the point I took the photo. You keep wondering why you're in your smallest gear with the road looking so flat.

hsuehhwa

IMHO, Baldy Ski Lift is more challenging.

1. Most riders stop at the Tramway gate, making it ~3.0 mile x ~9%

2. One can survive the continuous 9-12% grade in Tramway with a lower FTP/weight ratio. On will need a higher FTP/weight ratio to survive the last 0.5 mi of the ski lift climb.

3. In the Tramway climb (tops at ~2500 ft' altitude), the effective oxygen has consistently been over 19% in the entire climb. In Baldy Ski Lift (Alt 4300' to 6400' ft), the effective oxygen is from 17.5% to 16.3%. In the last half mile (13% - 16% grade) of the Ski Lift climb, the effective oxygen is only ~16.3%.

diphthong

ugh. memories and not good ones.

diphthong

meh...i'd rather ride gmr/grr/ach/hwy 39 any day.

robbyville

im staying in Diamond Bar this week. About a 20min drive to GMR I believe. How long of ride is it up and back from base to village say?

diphthong

^it's about 22 miles from the base of gmr at sierre madre to mt. baldy village. it's a solid hour's ride (about 13-15 miles) from diamond bar to either the base of gmr or either of the two roads-
north mountain ave or mt baldy rd. if you climb gmr, plan on 2.25-3hrs to mt. baldy village depending on stops/your ability/fitness. not much cell coverage in the area. if you take
the more direct route to mt. baldy village (up mt. baldy rd/north mountain ave), count on the better part of an hour or a little more. it's about an hour's climb from mt. baldy
village to the lifts at road's end.

Tycho Brahe 

I do all of them in the same day. Problem solved.

diphthong

^bragger...

goenrdoug

Well, this was my strava for a L'etape training ride I did two years ago to the village:
https://www.strava.com/activities/923784220/

Maybe it'll give you an idea of the distances and challenges involved? In short, from the base of the climb to the village was about 2 hours. There were lots of folks on the road and that always gets my competitive juices flowing, so I was trying to push a bit -- for what that's worth, given that I'm not exactly great at climbing.. YMMV.