I’m heading up to Vancouver this weekend for my annual anniversary/birthday trip and while wifey shops I am going to head out for a long ride if the weather isn’t too terrible. I need to go 5 hours and would rather not do 20 loops of Stanley Park. We are staying on Robson. Any suggestions?
Real locals can chime in with what’s up these days, but years ago the standard loop for me and my crew was to cross over the Lion’s Gate Bridge then take the low road through west Van out to the Ferry Terminal at Horseshoe Bay, then HWY 99( not nice but huge wide shoulder) up to Cypress Road. Do the climb up to Cypress Ski area( 45 - 60 minutes up - 15minutes down!!) then back down to 99 and loop back to the Low Road through West Van. Repeat if required. I would do that, a loop or two of Stanley park and then add on the ride out to UBC if I needed more distance. This course was the one that I prepped for IMC on most years. It’s a killer when done at IM race pace!
Fleck
So you can get all the way to Horseshoe Bay by staying low? Excellent. So long as I can get across the Lion’s Gate I’ll just head out that way. I think they are done with construction…I think. How far past the ferry terminal is the road up to Cypress? If I get a good climb in then I probably won’t go as long.
Thanks.
Are you driving? If so…
I would drive out to the east of of Coquitlam and head towards Mission doing something like the following:
If you want company, I may be able to join you. I have been focusing on my running so I have not been on the bike for a few months but I figure I could average 32 kph comfortably right now - or slower if that is your bag.
Yes, from what I remember, you can take the low road all the way to Horseshoe Bay, but don’t go into Horseshoe bay. You’ll want to turn right and up onto the ramp that feeds into HWY 99. Early in the morning the traffic is not bad, and from my days there, there was still a huge shoulder to ride on - very safe. It’s a long gradual climb from there to the Cypress access road - it’s a marked/signed exit off of hwy 99. It’s from that point that the climb up Cypress really starts. It’s a bit of a monster, but well worth it. There are some great views back towards the city as you wind your way up the mountain. In heavy snow years, there would still be huge piles of snow, several meters high, past the 5,000’ mark.
Fleck
Nice. I do know that whole road around Horseshoe Bay and beyond has been re-done. I didn’t go up to Whistler this year, but last year they were doing some MAJOR construction on the Sea to Sky getting ready for 2010.
Thanks, that looks like a nice one, however I may just start riding directly out of downtown as that will cut down on travel time. I don’t want to be out too long or I may not reep the rewards of a romantic weekend getaway!
Do you know if you can get accross the Lion’s Gate on your bike right now? I seem to recall that you can.
Besides the already mentioned Horseshoe Bay route, you could also bike to UBC on the ‘near side’ to downtown then go around it, down the other way towards the airport and Iona beach: doubt it’d last 5 hours, but you could do the loop a few times.
You could also take the SkyTrain out to Surrey (you’re allowed your bike on it outside of peak hours) then the bus down to White Rock and bike on 0 avenue, if you keep going inland to Langley etc. you can go for quite a ways, it would take probably 90 minutes on transit to get there though.
Personally I tend to do an 8 mile loop out in Langley as nobody I know lives close by and I don’t want to risk being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting back home: what to folks here who do long solo rides in the lower mainland do? if something happens whom do you call?
Yes you can get across the Lions gate Bridge.
I am surprised you can even get 5 hours away for a ride during a romantic weekend. 
I left Vancouver 4 years ago and yes I know that there has been major construction on the Sea to Sky. As crazy as it sounds years ago, we used to ride all the way to Squamish and back or sometimes all the way up to Whistler( one way), but that road became a death road with way too much traffic and crazy drivers. The current pre Olympic construction would only add to the chaos and problems. Too bad, because that WAS an awesome ride along the Sea To Sky. What scenery!
Fleck
Personally I tend to do an 8 mile loop out in Langley as nobody I know lives close by and I don’t want to risk being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting back home: what to folks here who do long solo rides in the lower mainland do? if something happens whom do you call?
I usually sit on the side of the road and cry like a baby for about 30 minutes, after which I reach into my back pocket of the cycling jersey and call my wife. She packs up the 2 little 2 year old and 4 year old yahoos and drives to rescue me. I have rarely needed to call though. I won’t get lost because I know the roads like the back of my hand. Only if I get an unrepairable bike problem.
Hey Adrian
interesting route (google maps rocks ) but do you feel safe riding on the 7B between HWY1 and Poco? How’s the shoulder on that road?
Lions Gate is open for bikes, easy riding, go through the park and exit before the top of Prospect point on to the pavement and head straight over the bridge. Then ride straight down the ramp and follow the road around to the right. This will bring you out on the south side of Marine Drive, there is a over pass that connects the two sides of Park Royal shopping Mall. Go over it and head west until you get to the exit to the highway (this is where the road goes left to HBay or right to the highway) take the right and follow signs to Cypress.
Go up all the way, about 11km of riding, head down and continue east on the highway until you hit Taylor way exit take that and head back to Stanley Park (or go back the way you came on Marine Drive for more distance and more hills). Take the exit off the cause way back into the Park, hride straight out of the Park to English Bay and head to Burrard Street Bridge, from on to Cornwall then to Jericho beach up Spanish banks hill to UBC and just follow the road east through the university grounds and home. If you are fast and need more you can continue to head to Richmond and the flat lands for some aerobar/headwind work. But I suspect that will be too far.
PM me if you need more info. Also Khai and PowerG mightbe riding this weekend might be able to hook up with them. Unfortunately we have team training out in Langley otherwise would hook up as Cypress is the normal ride for many of us. In fact going up tonight!
I am just re-reading this and realizing that I forgot to say that when you get onto HWY 99 at Horseshoe Bay you need to be heading BACK towards Vancouver - not onwards to Whistler. The Cypress access road is about 1/2 way between Horseshoe Bay and Taylor Way in W. Van( Roughly where you get off the Lions Gate Bridge.
Fleck
Fleck…I agree. I road to Squamish and back a few times. I wouldn’t do it now - only when I was young and foolish. It truly is a death trap. The first time I rode it I was passed by a motorcycle doing an incredible speed. About 20 minutes later I passed him - however, he was no longer on his motorcycle; instead, he was dead and caked into the side of a steep rock face on one of the sharp turns. Not only is the road a challenging one to drive, but people will drive it too fast and cut the lines. Riding that incredibly scenic route would unfortunately be pure stupidity in my opinion.
Not Adrian but I know some of the routes out that way - do you mean Lougheed to Mary Hill to Pitt Meadows (which gives you access to Golden Ears, Mission, For Langley, Abbostsford routes) If so Lougheed and Mary Hill are not bad at all for riding especially in the morning.
Hey Adrian if you live out Langley way why dont you come out and ride with Team Coastal, they have various club rides including one that goes from Fort Langley, the intensity can be a bit much as they are roadies but its fun suffering!
In Adrian’s map he market 7B rather than Lougheed (7B is to the south) and I was wondering if it’s any better, as Lougheed has like 0 shoulder 
I know the roads fairly decently on this side of the river (Surrey/Langley) but I’ve never biked on the Mission side: can you take the Fort Langley ferry with the bike? it would probably be easier (and safer) for me to bike out that way, take the ferry and cross rather than go through Lougheed probably…
I must admit that overall living in Vancouver was awesome for training. The one thing it lacked if you lived in the Downtown area or Kits, West Van or North Van, was some variety for the long rides - the 2 hour plus vareity. I was and will always will be a ride-from-the-house kind of person. Putting the bike in/on the car to drive to a place to ride, seemed a bit odd to me and kind of defeated the whole purpose of it all. Their were numerous great shorter ride options - Stanley park, UBC, Richmond flats, low road in West Van and so on. But if you were heading out for a 5 hour/100 mile ride from the downtown areas, you typically had to deal with traffic at some point and had to cobble together a decent long ride route.
Best ride I ever did while out there: A couple of times we rode from Whistler to Lilloet one way and caught the train back to Whistler! It’s about 120K That was cool.
Fleck
5 hours you say. Well from my training last year a good ride of that length would be out around UBC, along Marine to the Arthur Lang then a loop out to Steveson then back over to to the North Shore and out to Horseshoe Bay on the Lower levels.