Road Ride Report 7 Sisters

Today I got a wild hair to go and attempt the 7 Sisters route that has been touted as one of the more advanced road rides in Orange County.

Since nobody seemed to want to ride with, I decided to load up the route on my Garmin and go at it alone, starting from Aliso Woods. After the countless number of times I have parked at Aliso and rode my mountain bike there, it was odd to park there with the road bike. Seeing everyone getting ready to go ride Aliso made me almost regret going out on the road today, but this is a ride I have been wanting to get under my belt for sometime and also see what the fuss was all about!

For those that aren't familiar with the 7 Sister route, here it is on the Geoladders website. This is the ride I uploaded today - http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=28790

The route is pretty straight forward. 40 miles and 5700ft of ascent all through the Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach cities.

Needless to say, I was pushed to my limits today on this ride. The first 3 "Sisters" weren't to bad, but once you actually got into Laguna Beach DAMN their were some steeps I have yet to ride on my road bike. "Sisters" 4-5 were manageable and same with 6, but the last "Sister", which was Park Dr. got the best of me. After getting about half way up it, I had to stop and rest. My front tire was trying to come up off the ground and I just didn't have it in my legs. So after a couple minutes of rest I was able to finish it and head back down.

All in all 7 Sisters is an amazing training ride for those of you prepping for any long distance XC or just want to put your power to the test. With VQ coming up and even though it's still another 5 months away, I am in the training mindset. This route will be seeing a lot of me in the future.

Only negatives of the ride were, PCH is a mess right now. The entire right lane from Crown Valley to Main Beach Laguna is tore up and getting prepped for repaving. I felt like I was riding the PERRY-ROUBAIX! Second, which is an obvious one was the traffic. Coming down each "Sister" I just took up the entire lane, a majority of the time I was coming down faster than the cars were, but their were a few idiots that just want to get as close to you as they can it seems! :?:

Sorry I didn't take any pictures. My plan was to take a shot at the top of each "Sister" but each time I got to the top I didn't feel like stopping to shoot off a pic. Next time...

 

Thanks for the RR and congrats on the conquest. I saw that description and thought "I gotta get me one of them road bike thingies."

As for PCH: Were you able to detour along some of the parallel streets at all? PCH through Laguna on a weekend seems sketchy under the best of circumstances, but with a lane torn up...

 

Roadie!

 

I didn't want to detour off the original route and wasn't sure of optional routes to take, so I stayed on PCH. I'm for sure not going to ride around there till I know for sure that PCH is done with it's road work. Which when done, should be as smooth as butter!

Thanks! This is the roadie forum. :beer:

 

Check Google Maps: Glenneyre runs parallel to PCH from just north of the Montage up to the downtown area. It still gets traffic, but not usually as nutty as PCH, and it would keep the basic integrity of the route intact.

 

It's just PCH. It's really not that bad. Just take up the lane like you have the legal right to do under the California vehicle code.

Glad you enjoyed 7 Sisters. That is a great ride. My avitar is from the bottom of Nyes Place.

 

3 of us were also out there conquering the sisters today. WE didn't get moving till 8:00 am. I agree with everything you said about the ride. Damn hard ride, PCH sucks right now. Congrats!

 

It's just PCH. It's really not that bad. Just take up the lane like you have the legal right to do under the California vehicle code.

Doc
PCH today was ugly. It would be rough on a mountain bike.
They are repaving it, and its shredded right now. At least cars were a little slower due to the thousands of riders heading south on PCH doing the MS ride. There were ALOT of people doing that ride. It stretched from Crown Valley all the way to Bluebird.

 

Normally PCH doesn't bother me at all and I do take up the right hand lane, but that lane is like a bad dirt road right now from being tore up in prep for repaving.

Nice pic, I remember seeing that sign and thought it would be cool to take a pic of it.

Thanks and congrats to you as well. I didn't get started till after 10, almost closer to 11. Love the fall weather!

I agree. I was not looking forward to getting back on it after climbing each hill. Probably could of improved my time if it was paved as well. I was moving so slow coming down some of the grades on PCH trying not to run over every exposed man hole cover and pot hole!

 

nice work. i'll join you on the next one.

 

you're a beast....

gotta give this one a go

 

congrats ! I include the LN climbs of that route into my training rides a couple times a week. The Laguna climbs intimidate me a bit....can you share what gearing you were running ? Thanks

 

Thanks for the report! I've always wondered what it was like and enjoyed your descriptions. Personally that ride is my next endurance goal.

 

Ok I take back what I said. Local conditions have changed. Is the construction just on the north bound lanes or both north and south lanes?

 

I believe just the North bound. It's probably going to be a series of work they are going to do. This is just the start, but at least the slow lane will be done soon...

I ride the Felt Z35 with the 105 groupo that came with the bike, geared at 50/34T. This compact was good for this type of ride, but anything flat based on the road it's just not enough gearing. I am looking at upgrading my cranks to FSA carbon cranks and a 53/39T gearing.

 

ok when we doing it?!

 

Your a monster but a singlespeed fixie on this ride would be just plain ridiculous!

 

I have a few people interested in doing this in the near future. Maybe before Thanksgiving...

agreed!

 

I am looking at turning this ride into a bigger Bitc$ by adding some more sisters.
Clubhouse for sure is worthy and its on the way, easy add on. More to come....

 

I've seen a few guys post up about doing this ride 1 time, then turning around and doing it in reverse...:?: