I'll second this request....

Heading to SD in February and my younger brother is intent on humiliating me a ride/climb on a route known as "Great Western." Can anyone tell me what I can expect from this ride - in other words, how much trouble am I in, coming from very cold and very flat Long Island!!

You might want to narrow it down as to the part of town you will be in (practically everything from Oceanside to Tijuana is often called "San Diego"), the distance you are looking for, and what you hope to get out of the ride.

Sort of the "default San Diego ride" is to get on the Pacific Coast Highway wherever you can and head north towards Oceanside, turn around whenever you want. Its got a few hills here and there, and not too bad for stoplights, and obviously great for scenery of all kinds. You'll pass Nytro and B&L if you go that far.

The GW loop is a fun loop. Some pretty good climbs. But in my mind, nothing to difficult. The loop is about 40 miles with lots of ups and downs.



If you want a tough climb, head out to Palomar or Sunset HWY!!

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TheBikeRacer.com

The San Diego tri club (www.triclubsandiego.org) lists a number of popular rides around the area plotted out using racermate topo software. You might need to be a registered member to access the maps. FYI, the Great Western is a 40 mi loop with almost 5000 ft of climbing.

Another good resource for route maps is UCSD's cycling team:

http://ucsdcycling.org/modules.php?name=Routes

One of my favorite moderate rides would be starting at the solana beach train station (or B&L bikes) and heading inland on Del Dios hwy. There are tons of different variations you can take through Elfin forest and/or around the San Pasqual valley. Check out the "Elfin forest" or especially "Highland Valley" routes on the above webpage. It gets hot and dry in there.

Harp

If you are in town on the 30th, you may be intersted in the slowtwitch group ride up Palomar.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=250004;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

(sorry about the cut/paste)

Jeromy