I've been trying to come up with a South Bay route for a very fast century ride. I sometimes go on 50+ mile 3'ish hour training rides, and I was thinking it would not take that much more effort to push out to 100 miles on occasion. One objective would be to complete in 5 hours (total time) for a 20mph average, probably a solo ride using aero bars on an otherwise regular road bike set-up. This means avoiding hills and roads with excessive intersections. The route has to be interesting enough to make me want to ride it, and possibly more than once. 400 times around the track would not be an acceptable route!
This was what I came up with on bikely. It is biassed towards my starting point in Santa Clara and road preferences but I think it meets the bill. In brief it uses Central Expressway and Alma for a fast start, heads via Page Mill over to Portola Valley/Woodside where it does the typical Noon Ride route out to Canada Road and turn-around, and back again through Portola Valley. It then picks up Junipero Serra and Foothills Expressway before heading out through Stevens Creek County Park, Mt Eden, Piece Road, Highway 9 to Saratoga and then down to Los Gatos. From there I add on Kennedy, Shannon and the flat part of Hicks before doubling back towards Winchester and San Tomas Expressway to home.
I think this does a reasonable job of avoiding lights and hills while still picking up some nice roads so that it is a worthwhile ride in itself and not a complete chore. There's a bunch of Expressway miles in there which is necessary to link it together without an excessive number of intersections. I would not be riding this at rush hour during the week, and I think traffic could be fine if the time is well chosen. I'm a little concerned about getting killed by the winds on Canada.
Any alternate routes or suggestions on route improvements would be appreciated!
This was what I came up with on bikely. It is biassed towards my starting point in Santa Clara and road preferences but I think it meets the bill. In brief it uses Central Expressway and Alma for a fast start, heads via Page Mill over to Portola Valley/Woodside where it does the typical Noon Ride route out to Canada Road and turn-around, and back again through Portola Valley. It then picks up Junipero Serra and Foothills Expressway before heading out through Stevens Creek County Park, Mt Eden, Piece Road, Highway 9 to Saratoga and then down to Los Gatos. From there I add on Kennedy, Shannon and the flat part of Hicks before doubling back towards Winchester and San Tomas Expressway to home.
I think this does a reasonable job of avoiding lights and hills while still picking up some nice roads so that it is a worthwhile ride in itself and not a complete chore. There's a bunch of Expressway miles in there which is necessary to link it together without an excessive number of intersections. I would not be riding this at rush hour during the week, and I think traffic could be fine if the time is well chosen. I'm a little concerned about getting killed by the winds on Canada.
Any alternate routes or suggestions on route improvements would be appreciated!