California Diaries Day 9: December 28th

You always find out pretty quickly from the first ascent of the day if the legs are with you or not and there’s no hiding when you have a 29% driveway to scramble up before you even make it to the road. No kidding, it needs mondo concentration (even to try and walk it). One slip and you could quite easily be nursing a nasty pre-ride injury, thus forcing potential early retirement.

We may have had a couple of typically inclement British winter days over the past week but redemption has well and truly been served like a winning ace at Wimbledon. With so many outstanding roads to choose from it was important to seek local knowledge to sniff out the best option for our final day in the area, and the sign of a true route master is one that can give optimum direction without so much as a second glance at the map in a ‘been there, done that’ kinda way.

Page Mill, Skyline and onto Bear Creek, a wonderful ridgeline road with superb vistas dropping in elevation all the way to Central Avenue on HWY 9 towards our next climb of the day, East Zayante. After a long descent it takes a few hard pedal strokes to wake the legs up, but believe me, on this climb they won’t be asleep for long with a series of ski jump style hairpins on a narrow twisting tree lined lane. Simply perfect.

Without a shadow of a doubt the ride would go down as another ‘classic’ but as we descended off of Skyline to Redwood Gulch and Stevens Canyon there was one final masterpiece in store.

It’s always nice to see the words “no through road” at the bottom of a climb. For one it means that it’s likely to be very quiet and with that 'local knowledge' in the bank there’s every chance it means dirt track. Bring it on baby!

Monte Bello Road, loosely translates to Mount Beautiful and I’m sure it was just a matter of a thousand heart beats before we’d find out if this was true. Climbing high above the valley, bend after bend, the road narrows as anticipation draws ever closer and the enchanting sound of 120psi tyres crackling across gravel is heard. The views are indescribable, tranquility prevails like a warm blanket all around. Hard packed dirt makes for a fast cyclocross style hack over to Page Mill and an exceptionally well earned way to end the ride. The world is full of awe inspiring climbs but until you’ve sampled Monte Bello first hand you may be missing out.

























Ride stats: 3,575m elevation/93miles

For Day 9 GPS info click here