Winter training / vacation ideas?

[LegendRider]

Three friends and I want to do a week-long trip to a warm destination for guys' getaway (riding, hanging out, drinking beer, etc.) sometime in January or February. We're all Southerners, so we'd like to go west (i.e., no Florida) - perhaps Sand Diego or Tucson. Any recommendations?

[Peter B]

Fly to San Francisco. Ride the coast highway 1 to Santa Barbara or San Diego. SF to Seaside, to Morro Bay, to SB, to LA to SD. 3-5 days. Typical weather pattern is clear skies, cold mornings and warm afternoons w/ a tailwind. ~135 miles per day and beautiful scenery. There's a group of 25-40 folks who do this each year in the middle of January. Come join us.

[LegendRider]

Originally Posted by Peter B

Fly to San Francisco. Ride the coast highway 1 to Santa Barbara or San Diego. SF to Seaside, to Morro Bay, to SB, to LA to SD. 3-5 days. Typical weather pattern is clear skies, cold mornings and warm afternoons w/ a tailwind. ~135 miles per day and beautiful scenery. There's a group of 25-40 folks who do this each year in the middle of January. Come join us.

One of my friends knows an elite triathlete who organizes that exact trip. We were all excited about it until we learned he wanted $2,400 - $2,800 for the logistics and hotel. Add in meals and flight from the east and it's way too pricey.

I'd love to know more about your trip.

[Peter B]

This one is an annual event, mostly triatheletes, known as The Ride. Been going on about 15 years. It's 'self supported', though sometimes folks mail stuff to their hotel ahead of time or have an SO shuttle it. Lodging is ~$60-$90 night, cheaper for double occ. Meals as cheap or spendy as you like. I rented a car for the retun once, took the train another. Total cost ~$350-$500 (food, lodging, return transport). PM your email address and I'll get you on the distribution once organizing starts.

Peter

[93legendti]

http://www.redrocklasvegas.com/adven...a_specials.php

http://www.redrocklasvegas.com/adven...activities.pdf

[dogdriver]

Moab.

Easy, cheap in the winter, all the mtb riding you can stand, epic road riding (Arches and Canyonlands Nat'l Parks, La Sal Loop--though it won't go if there's snow up high, Dead Horse Point, etc) if the wx is warm enough.

Friuta is even better, 100 miles down the road. I assume that the weather would be the same (same latitude), but recommended Moab first 'cus I haven't done Fruita in the winter.

Real beer in Fruita.

Tucson could also work-- lived there for a couple years and don't remember a whole lot about the riding, except that the loop of the East unit of Saguaro (?sp) National Monument is still 8 of my favorite road miles anywhere. Mt. Lemmon is an epic climb-- don't know how high you can ride it in the winter-- I'd suppose it would go to the top much of the year. GREAT bike group--GABA organized rides just about every day-- I hope they're still alive and kicking.


Cheers, Chris

[Bill Bove]

I've been in love with Tucson ever since visiting ten years ago. A great riding community, great group rides (love "The Shootout"), great bike shops AND GREAT MEXICAN FOOD

[Ken Robb]

Well that is the rainy season in SoCal. You might not see any and it might drizzle every day. A safe bet would be to come to San Diego or Orange County because the farther south you are the more storms you miss with Point Conception near Santa Barbara being the cut-off fairly frequently. If you do hit rain near the coast you can drive over the mountains to Borrego D Springs, Palm Springs, La Quinta, etc and probably have lots of sunshine.

[Pete Serotta]

and stay with KEN, drink his wine, and get track lessons.....

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

Well that is the rainy season in SoCal. You might not see any and it might drizzle every day. A safe bet would be to come to San Diego or Orange County because the farther south you are the more storms you miss with Point Conception near Santa Barbara being the cut-off fairly frequently. If you do hit rain near the coast you can drive over the mountains to Borrego D Springs, Palm Springs, La Quinta, etc and probably have lots of sunshine.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by Serotta_Pete

and stay with KEN, drink his wine, and get track lessons.....

Jeez, thanks Pete but I can get in enough trouble on my own. Just ask Leslie.
Not too close but friends of mine who own Driving Concepts have a one-day school at Laguna Seca every 12/31 and then party in Monterey for New Years Eve. I could go and instruct but it's about 400 miles from SD.

Neat area and a neat track. Might be wet though.

[rspecker]

Originally Posted by Peter B

Fly to San Francisco. Ride the coast highway 1 to Santa Barbara or San Diego. SF to Seaside, to Morro Bay, to SB, to LA to SD. 3-5 days. Typical weather pattern is clear skies, cold mornings and warm afternoons w/ a tailwind. ~135 miles per day and beautiful scenery. There's a group of 25-40 folks who do this each year in the middle of January. Come join us.

+1. I just finshed this ride (Palo Alto to Santa Barbara) with 7 buddies. It was excellent. The tailwinds are impressive, and at times you will be +25mph and hardly pedaling with incredible scenery. A couple nice climbs. We hired Central Coast Outdoors to scope the routes and drive a van in support and haul us back to Palo Alto on day 5. They were really good and I'd highly recommend them.

Cindi Patterson, Guide & Office Manager
Central Coast Outdoors
Cindi@CentralCoastOutdoors.com
805.528.1080
CentralCoastOutdoors.com

[rspecker]

Originally Posted by rspecker

+1. I just finshed this ride (Palo Alto to Santa Barbara) with 7 buddies. It was excellent. The tailwinds are impressive, and at times you will be +25mph and hardly pedaling with incredible scenery. A couple nice climbs. We hired Central Coast Outdoors to scope the routes and drive a van in support and haul us back to Palo Alto on day 5. They were really good and I'd highly recommend them.

Cindi Patterson, Guide & Office Manager
Central Coast Outdoors
Cindi@CentralCoastOutdoors.com
805.528.1080
CentralCoastOutdoors.com

By the way Legend Rider, we did it for WAY WAY less than the price you quoted. It was an incredible deal.

[WadePatton]

The 53x11 folks are associated with a cycling retreat in AZ.

Looks like 255-295 per day, depending on length of stay. details: http://www.thecyclinghouse.com/default.asp

[adampaiva]

piggybacking onto this thread with a similar but slightly different question. I'm looking at some time off in December / January. For reasons I don't want to publish on the internet, I will not know exactly how much time off until then, but looking at between 1 - 4 weeks. I'd like to fly somewhere with my rando bike, rent a cheap little house or apartment for most of that time, and have a home base from which I just do a lot of (really good) riding. Don't want to do a bike tour for this trip. At the most, I think maybe split the trip into two places which either I cycle between, or train/bus between.

I want it to be :
-warm
-not in the USA
-not terribly expensive to rent an accommodation
-have good food
-ideally a smallish city or town. Not a big city. Some restaurants/nightlife would be nice but is not the focus of the trip. But don't particularly want to hunker down in the middle of nowhere for this trip either.
-have spectacular cycling accessible. Road riding and gravel type stuff. Enough to keep me occupied with day rides for 2+ weeks. Maybe an overnight or two either camping or credit card touring style. I will take my 650B L'Avecaise.
-If there's fly fishing too, that would be a plus.

I'm willing to splurge on the airfare but hopefully its somewhere I can rent a flat for a few weeks not too expensively ie not paying for 4 weeks of nightly hotel or b&b rates. Given the unknown timing part of it, it may end up all being confirmed at the last minute, but want to have a location or two researched and in mind so I can jump right on it, book a flight and be gone the next day when the time comes. I'm pretty used to spontaneous figure-it-out-as-I-go travel.

I was thinking maybe Argentina to the Mendoza area or further down into Patagonia. New Zealand also is an idea.

[etu]

not warm, but not super cold, but for amazing, mind-blowing views, I'd go to Death Valley.
Stay at Furace Creek Inn or set up car camping.