87 Days - Big Sur

Humbly submitted by your ride organizer Carter Goodnough

OK, so I admit it; I’m an evil guy. Under the guise of offering my wife four wonderful days in Big Sur to celebrate our wedding anniversary, I was able to personally re-con portions of Days 2 and 3 of “The Train of Pain”. Here is my report.

Some of you may remember an earlier promise that the entire ride was to be down hill and with a tail wind – Well it seems some of my information may have been wrong; portions of the ride may contain hills…BIG HILLS!

On Day 2 once we pass south through Carmel (roughly 50 miles into the day) we will enter the Big Sur region and the challenging terrain begins. It starts with some gentle teasers and progresses until we reach our highest Day 2 point with a 1.5 mile climb roughly 12 miles from the days finish. For those of you somewhat familiar with the area, this is the climb that comes immediately after crossing the famous Bixby Bridge, the summit is followed by a fast technical downhill, and 10 easy miles to the days end. To see the final 26 miles of Day 2, check out the site for the Big Sur Marathon course information; please remember to read their map in reverse as we’ll be riding south, while the run heads north.

Day 3 is the nut buster - it is our longest and hilliest day. It begins with a 2 mile climb straight out of the gate, topping out at 950 feet, and while not overly steep the fact that there is NO warm up leading into the start may pose problems, this is followed by 35 miles of saw-tooth terrain; we are either going up or down, with very few flat sections. At the approximate 40 mile point of Day 3 the real fun begins, a 3 mile climb that I’d equate to the inside track at Torrey Pines for those of you familiar with San Diego riding, just longer. There are a few sharp hairpins here that are sure to tear muscle from bone (or at least feel like it), this climb tops out at 732 feet, followed by a screaming (at least I will be) downhill which will test the laws of physics and prove the law of gravity; and the breaking ability of our steeds.

Try not to look far ahead at this point as you’ll only be disappointed by the view; the next climb. Immediately upon reaching the bottom of this downhill, gear up for another quad splitting grind, 2+ miles topping out at 703 feet, but even steeper than the preceding, with another harrowing descent. (If I might make a suggestion here, please don’t follow too close behind me on the descents. My descending skills, or lack of them, are legendary, and I can guarantee that this big chicken’s ruffled feathers will be flying), and then roughly another 15 miles of; less and less of the old saw-tooth crap. Once you reach a spot named Ragged Point the real hard stuff is done, just many miles until the days end, but more on that to follow later...

One last side note: Thursday Feb 22^nd is stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California, and the riders will be covering the Big Sur section. The Versus channel. (formally OLN) is offering a nightly recap of the days events so I might suggest recording for an opportunity to 1) see some awesome racing & 2) to check out this portion of our route.

- Carter