[Buzzaro]

Hey guys,

Normally I hang out over in MTBR nor-cal but this seemed much more appropriate. Next week I will be working in Santa Rosa/Rohnert Park and want to take the road bike to get a few miles in. I dont know the area at all so looking at MapMyRide and stuff only gives me an idea. I'm looking for rides around 50mi or so since Ill only have about 3 or 4 hours to ride before dark after work. Rides with some good climbing are best and of course looking to avoid traffic as much as possible, and I'll go ahead and throw perfect pavement in there as long as I'm wishing. You guys have some good rides or favorites out of the area? Anything that fits this description that heads to the coast and back?
Thanks for the help

 

[robwh9]

10 rides recommended by the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. And there's a link to more rides.

http://srcc.memberlodge.com/TGR

 

[Blue CheeseHead]

You can head west a bit to Monte Rio and then do parts of Levi's Grand Fondo. You can head North up to Cazadero and then loops south to Jenner and back. If you are a speed freak you will like Meyer's Grade. There are no services from Cazadero to Jenner, so top off your water bottles and carry tubes.

You can also go south from Monte Rio up the Bohemian Highway, down Coleman Valley to Jenner and loop back.

Another option would be to do part of last years ToC backwards. That way you could ride right out of Santa Rosa. I can't say I know where the appropriate turn around point would be to give you 50 miles.

Any of those options would give you some nice climbs. Granted the first two require driving to get to Monte Rio.

 

[.steve]

http://www.strava.com/rides/164038

Once you get off of HWY 12 (Which has a nice shoulder 90% of the way), Cavedale, Dry Creek, Trinity and Mt. Veeder are almost traffic free. 4 hour ride from Calistoga Road in Santa Rosa. Awesome ride, one of my favorites!

 

[.steve]

http://www.strava.com/rides/164038

Once you get off of HWY 12 (Which has a nice shoulder 90% of the way), Cavedale, Dry Creek, Trinity and Mt. Veeder are almost traffic free. 4 hour ride from Calistoga Road in Santa Rosa. Awesome ride, one of my favorites!

One caveate though, cavedale is not smooth by any stretch of the imagination but is fine for climbing on a road bike. All the other roads are in great shape.

 

[Buzzaro]

Thanks guys for the responses. I was already out of town when you replied steve, which is too bad that ride looks perfect. I ended up heading out toward Sebastopol from my hotel.

You can view the ride here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/152174

It wasn't a bad ride but not great, I just kinda picked a semi-random route from a Santa Rosa bike map I grabbed at Cambria. The map was pretty good, it describes traffic, hill direction and shoulders. The flat stuff east of Sebastopol had quite a bit of traffic and sketchy shoulders in places. The stuff West of Sebastopol was really nice with decent hills, I am sure you could make some really killer loops or long rides out there. Those western roads though I just happened to pick the ones with all the worst pavement, I thought I was going to lose some fillings on a few of the decents. I look forward to getting some good rides out there another time.

 

[budmol3]

Last week I stayed in Windsor, just north of Santa Rosa. I rode Chalk Hill road up to 128 to Pine Flat road and also a few of the roads around WIndsor. Most of the secondary roads are adequate in pavement quality, don't know about after work traffic which could be a problem in that area. Pine Flat is great pavement if somewhat narrow but since it is a dead end road it doesn't have lots of traffic.

 

[redmr2_man]

did you end up hitting annadel on the mtn bike?

 

[mtbbmet]

Funny, I was in Sebastopol on the weekend too. Funny cause I'm from Canada.
I drove up Trinity Road to get over to Yountville. That road is crazy. Would have loved to have my bike with me.

 

[moschika]

Thanks guys for the responses. I was already out of town when you replied steve, which is too bad that ride looks perfect. I ended up heading out toward Sebastopol from my hotel.

You can view the ride here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/152174

It wasn't a bad ride but not great, I just kinda picked a semi-random route from a Santa Rosa bike map I grabbed at Cambria. The map was pretty good, it describes traffic, hill direction and shoulders. The flat stuff east of Sebastopol had quite a bit of traffic and sketchy shoulders in places. The stuff West of Sebastopol was really nice with decent hills, I am sure you could make some really killer loops or long rides out there. Those western roads though I just happened to pick the ones with all the worst pavement, I thought I was going to lose some fillings on a few of the decents. I look forward to getting some good rides out there another time.

wow. that does seem like quite random ride. lol. you barely missed a favorite loop of mine. similar to yours but probably less trafficky and more up and more down, though burnside i think is a nice climb with great views.

 

[Buzzaro]

did you end up hitting annadel on the mtn bike?

No, just took the s******e and did the road ride. After that ride I was really wishing I took the MTB.

 

[Buzzaro]

wow. that does seem like quite random ride. lol. you barely missed a favorite loop of mine. similar to yours but probably less trafficky and more up and more down, though burnside i think is a nice climb with great views.

There were a few sections in the middle there that were promising, most of the stuff west of sebastopol. There were some great views and one really nice section through a forest. The whole thing was pretty random, an employee at CBO handed me a map and pointed to sebastopol and said "anywhere out there, you cant really go wrong". Plus we were doing 10hr+days while out of town, so I was really cramming to try and get rides in. Anyhow, overall Im glad I took the bike.