Sunday: Nichols Canyon, West Hollywood

La Grange Velo Club of Los Angeles' Sunday Nichols Canyon group ride is infamous. The club was established in 1969 and their Sunday group ride has been going ever since.

From the La Grange website, I read that 40 to 100 riders each week meet at 8.00am in Beverly Hills and proceed up Santa Monica Blvd to West Hollywood, where the Nichols Cyn climb starts at Hollywood Blvd. The canyon is 4.4km long averaging 4.5% and ends with a steep last 200m grunt (the wall),  at Mulholland Drive.

The full ride continues along Mulholland, in a series of rollers, all the way to Sepulveda Blvd, re-grouping for the mad rush down, culminating in a sprint opposite the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

I'm immediately interested. To see why this ride has been such a big deal for so long, I decide to check it out. Well ...... Nichols Canyon, up to Mulholland at least.

I know that Sepulveda would probably be carrying too much traffic by the time I get there.  I'm thinking, so too Mulholland .... ?

So I make a plan for this late Sunday afternoon ride ..... and a map for my Garmin.

I pick a convenient spot to park in West Hollywood, with my map taking me up Nichols, then only half the distance along Mulholland to return via Coldwater Canyon into Beverly Hills. 

Continuing along Coldwater, it becomes Beverly Drive ..... the famous palm tree lined avenue where the Beverly Hills Hotel is to be found .... and loads of big, Beverly Hills homes. Rodeo Drive is right where I plan to turn back towards West Hollywood ..... back along Melrose Ave and then the quiet streets to where I parked. 

I thought this would be a much more interesting, touristy route. Following the actual La Grange Sunday ride route was not for me today. 

If you go to the La Grange website there is more info and even a video of this "crown jewell of all the La Grange rides".

Park and ride .... West Hollywood.

Santiago Canyon, Orange County

Shawn was keen to get me out to Orange County for my first ride this trip.

70 mins drive to Santiago Canyon, Orange County in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains .... sounded like a quiet mountain ride was on the go.

Well not quite. We did start with a wide bike lane, but the cars were pounding past at speed.

I was looking forward to turning up into the hills at Cook's Corner cafe. But that proved to be even more arduous. Live Oak Canyon Road was narrow, steep with NO SHOULDER.

Oh well, we continued on. I was riding as close as I could to the edge of the bitumen, without dropping a wheel off into the gravel, hoping .....

Sure enough as soon as we crested the climb, the road improved. Dropping down through a lovely treed area we found Trabuco Canyon Rd, which swept back down to a very new, suburban part of Orange County. I was guessing the locals living here, like many other places around LA, need to commute long distances.

 Looping back to re-join Santiago Canyon Rd, we went under the toll road, until once again came to Cook's Corner. Check out all the motor bikes in the photos. Memorial Day weekend has brought them out in droves .... but instead of riding, this group seems to be drinkin' .......

Santiago Canyon Rd, Shawn and the first of many flags flying for fallen vets ....

LA Training Rides - Mandeville Canyon and the 3 Bitches

Garmin Connect Link

Here is a ride I constructed that takes in several roads that the locals use for training.
Starting in an exclusive part of Santa Monica,  it starts with the wide safety of San Vicente to give access to the nice and gentle 8.4km ave 3.5% climb up Mandeville Canyon Rd.

A diversion on the return takes in the infamous THREE BITCHES.
Three short roads that linked together, give a tough 1.6km ave 9.8% workout,
 with gradients consistently approaching 17%
Check out the segment on Strava 3 bitches

If you think training rides should be all about exploding .... this is the ride for you.
Repeat as required.

Tuna Canyon Rd - First Descent

Exploring the Santa Monica Mountains has its moments. The famous Rock Store is the only cafe.

Water refills have to be pre-planned with precision. Some roads are way too busy with cars.

Paying attention to your road position is essential, as motorcyclists and sports cars abound & play here at speed.

It is way worth putting up with these small issues ...... the roads are almost perfect.

The surfaces are superb, the views spectacular, the climbing endless and the descents .... well, the descents are FAST. 

The Vicroads of this area must know a thing or two about safety. They have a few tricks in place.

Like continuous yellow double lines to tell everyone to stay on their side of the road. They even gorge ripple holes in with the double yellows, so that if you do happen to venture to the line on one of the tighter-than-expected corners, you get a rude awakening. 

The authorities gave up on one road though. It is too steep, too narrow ...... too dangerous for cars going in opposite directions to safely pass. Few guard rails, big drops off some corners.

So they made it into a racers dream, by making it ONE WAY.

Instead of it being one way up, they made it one way DOWN. Whoever approved this, obviously drives a sports car. 

And of course, this road is .....

TUNA CANYON ROAD !

One way downhill, make sure you have good brakes.

Exploring Yerba Buena Road, Santa Monica Mountains

On this LA trip I have set out to expand my riding into new areas that local riders might use for training.

I had a few clues from last time here, so I spent some time setting up new courses on Garmin Connect that I can upload onto my 800.

Now what a wonderful device is the 800. It is easy enough to follow an uploaded map. As long as you can actually get onto the course, because if you don't, it keeps wanting you to turn back to the start !

I have a North American sim for my 800. It gets shared with the car GPS I bring with me and it is an easy swap. Just don't let it ping out when changing over ...... it is spring loaded ....

So .... I wanted to ride Yerba Buena Rd. I knew it had steep sections and was maybe a bit rough, so I decided to attack it from the top and ride DOWN. So I did.

Little Sycamore, comes off Mulholland and leads to Yerba Buena.This sign indicating a name change was not even anywhere near a junction !
Name changes are confusingly common in the SMM, but with my trusty 800,
navigation is made lot easier. 

EVOC Soft Travel Case

PACKED ...... eventually.

With everything on hand, lots of fiddling, and Farmer Tony's experience, it still took two hours.

Now, shove in the tools, shoes, helmut, kit & travel pump .... oops, don't forget the seat.

Los Angeles, here we go ..... !

My New Travel Bike

Switching the crank, fitting a Dura-ace chain, that fixed the chain rub.

It is the 2011 Paris Roubaix, Cervelo R3, race winning frame, ridden by Van Summeren.

Fitted with my old Dura-ace wheels, Sram Rival, alloy bars & Rotor crank.

TOUGH ....... I hope.