Tour of California - Glendora to Mt Baldy

After Palomar on the first weekend and going south it was on the second weekend time to do a classic and famous ride which is also included into Tour of California. It was time to do Glendora Mt Road and Mt Baldy.

The weather god again ment it good with me. It was sunny and warm eventhough in the morning when i left San Clemente by car it was pretty chilli. From the place i parked i had just a few miles flat before i was already mid in the climb of Glendora. A lot of riders had the same idea and it was like i heared that this is a famous climb around LA. Immediately i gained pretty much height and had already a nice view onto the flat land ending at the pacific ocean. With an average of 5% gradient and 15k to go approx 1000m needed to be climbed before i reached a plateau.

From there a kind of a transission to Mt Baldy began also gaining almost 500m. It was very cool as in the beginning the road was on crest with a nice outlook to booth sides. At the end of this transition i reached after a little descent the main road up to Mt Baldy.

Now the real climb started. 700m to go with an average of 8% and steepest parts with 12%. Now i could feel the racing atmosphere riding on that mountain road which is the highlight of Tour of California.

It was pretty warm already and my legs could feel the rides from last weekend and the ones during the week. But it was the perfect preperation to get in shape on the mountains. Mt. Baldy though is a ski area and a dead end road. A few pics at the chair lift and the official area sign and then back again.

I made a little break at a restaurant though on the bottom and before climbing this little part up again which leads into the transition i came over before. On the way back i met 2 guys and we did a nice train back to Glendora. There i choosed a different road back to th estarting point which at the beginning was an incredible downhill ending at the end of a water resovoir. Along that i needed to ride out of the valley where i had a bit more of a car traffic though. At the end a nice ride over 100k but with more than 2.500 m altitude. After the ride the obligatory cake and a espresso was a must before returning to San Clemente.
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bike: pretty Betty, Specialized Tarmac S-Works
starring: Gerry Samer