training in socal

robkit said:

i'm planning a week of riding in the LA area, to benefit from the climate while it is still cold here in England.

at the moment i'm researching ride options, never having been to that part of the US before. can any locals recommend the best rides or training groups to join?

where would be the best place to stay? i was thinking santa monica for easy access to the mountains, but is it right that most of the city is surrounded by equally challenging canyons?

Hey robkit, you're in for a treat. The LA area has some of the best cycling routes in the world. But, I don't think I would stay in Santa Monica. If I were you, I would probably stay further down the coast in the Newport Beach area. Get in touch with OCRoadie. He knows all the good routes, especially if you like to climb.

robkit said:

i'm planning a week of riding in the LA area, to benefit from the climate while it is still cold here in England.

at the moment i'm researching ride options, never having been to that part of the US before. can any locals recommend the best rides or training groups to join?

where would be the best place to stay? i was thinking santa monica for easy access to the mountains, but is it right that most of the city is surrounded by equally challenging canyons?

It's an enormous metropolitan area so it's hard to pinpoint a particular spot. I went down for the Track Worlds in March and did quite a few rides based out of Long Beach, mostly flattish by Northern California standards, the Palos Verdes ride to highway 1 and back, and I took highway 1 from about Seal Beach south to Davenport ( and supposedly could have gone to San Diego if I had the time), and there are a ton of side loops you can take that are hilly but not mountainous. Challenging is in the eye of the beholder - one can make anything hard by trying to go up it really fast. What do you mean by challenging?

robkit said:

i'm planning a week of riding in the LA area, to benefit from the climate while it is still cold here in England.

at the moment i'm researching ride options, never having been to that part of the US before. can any locals recommend the best rides or training groups to join?

where would be the best place to stay? i was thinking santa monica for easy access to the mountains, but is it right that most of the city is surrounded by equally challenging canyons?

Are you committed to LA? I just spent a weekend in San Diego and it was much better than the time I had training in LA earlier in the year. Best weather in the US, easier to stay away from lights and traffic, excellent group rides, mountains, flats and rolling terrain. Even a track that will loan out bikes for free if you want to try that. One of the best places to train I've ever been. And only a couple of hours from LA if you have some particular reason you want to be there.

As far as training rides - check out the Swami's ride from B&L Bike Sport in north county. You can find the shop online. It goes at 8:15am. Terrain is flat then rolling (you might call them climbs if you weren't living in the Bay Area for the last year). Bunch goes pretty fast for some of the ride, moderate for other bits. If you time your arrival for a Friday you can go on that ride and you'll be able to chat to all the good locals about where to train for the rest of the week.

where can i find out about group rides in San Diego? i might move around a bit.

i found this resource for the LA based group rides

http://socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/frGroupRides.htm

Here's a good resource for ride routes used by the North County (SD County) Cycle Club
kimberlygross.comPageID=1368312Open ↗
(North County Cycle Club page here: northcountycycleclub.comroadies.htmOpen ↗ )

I especially like the "Climbs of North County" page kimberlygross.comPageID=1471935Open ↗
That one makes me homesick. 🙁

robkit said:

where can i find out about group rides in San Diego? i might move around a bit.

i found this resource for the LA based group rides

http://socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/frGroupRides.htm

That site has info about San Diego too:

http://socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/weekly/swamis.htm
http://socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/weekly/SDBC_Ride.htm
http://socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/seasonal/fiesta_island.htm

And also check out San Diego Bicycle Club listings:
http://www.sdbc.org/html/satride.html

SDBC run a lot of the good group rides. You can just show up though - no need to be a member for most of the rides

Frenchgye's links shows a lot of the good routes if you want to plan your own ride, but try just chatting to people on the club rides and they'll show you the best stuff.

Honestly, San Diego is far superior to LA. I wouldn't go to LA to train if I had SD as an option. South Orange County is OK, but then you might as well be in SD and get the real hills (like Palomar) as well as the canyons and the beach rides. Also, while the weather isn't quite as good, Santa Barbara is a pretty good place to be if you don't want to stay in one spot. It's about as far north of LA as SD is south. Again, you would avoid the traffic/nightmarish metropolis of LA whilst still being around enough good bike racers to have bunches to train with and people to show you around.