From the Field: the LA Tourist Race

From the Field: the LA Tourist Race

Posted on by Linnaea Kershaw

From the Field: the LA Tourist Race

Words: Alvin Escajeda 
Photos: Alvin Escajeda and Jimmy Rosas

4 books, 4 checkpoints and 4 book pages to collect. Sounds like the quirky rules of a standard checkpoint race right? Well, if that’s how you would describe LA TOURIST, you wouldn’t be doing the series any justice. LA Tourist Series is the brain child of Mike Kalenda of Golden Saddle Cyclery, and is now in its second year. Each series has a total of three races - all self-supported, self-routed with different checkpoints showing “Tourists” why #lasucksforcycling. It has quickly gained traction as a must-do event, and personally become my favorite series to ride for a few reasons: Its start and finish is at Golden Saddle Cyclery aka the best bar in Silverlake; it brings cyclist from all disciplines, abilities and backgrounds together; and I get to pay tour guide for any out-of-towners that want to ride with me!

This weekend I got to play tour guide for my dudes, Lucas and Jerry. Lucas was trading Portland’s winter for some LA sunshine, and Jerry, who’s from California, had never ridden around the San Gabriel Mountains so they were in for a treat!

 

 

The second edition was routed to be the longest and hardest one I’ve done so far, at 110 miles and 12,500’ elevation gain. Essentially just a huge loop through the foothills and into the San Gabriel’s. You could either go clockwise or counterclockwise on the route. We chose the latter. With potential rain in the forecast and the highest point in the race being at 6520', having rain that could quickly turn to hail and snow is the last thing you want when descending off the top of a mountain. We did our homework, formed a truce to ride together as a group and shortly after 7:30 am, we left the parking lot of Big Mac’s Liquor store and headed straight up Highway 2, directly into what looked like a potential storm.

Our Squad consisted of Lucas, Jerry, Martin (another local) and myself. We quickly pacelined up a mountain road to get to your first checkpoint, where we quickly realized we had a crucial mistake: none of us knew the exact location of the book. I had watched the video a few times but didn’t screen cap it, and of course we had no service. We lost a good amount of time looking before another group caught us and knew exactly where the book was. Crisis #1 avoided. The next checkpoint lead us to the highest point in the race, Mt Gleason and Lighting Point Campground. With the sun now fully shining, our fears of rain quickly subsided and our four man train was full steam up Angels National Forest Hwy.  By the time we reached the summit we were at 45 miles and 9500’, probably a good place for lunch. Checkpoint 2 was an exact replay of checkpoint 1; no clue where the book was. By luck, Lucas was standing on a log and saw it in a fire pit under a rock. We pull out pages only to turn around to realize the same group had caught us again. With a bulk of the climbing done we were on the good stuff, the descending. The Santa Clara Divide or 3N17 connects Mount Gleason with Magic Mountain which was our third destination. It’s a combination of fire road, broken concrete roads and sandpits about 15-20 miles.

 

 

With chasers on our tails, we began the sandy, rocky fire road descent with a question on our minds: when are we going to see the leaders that went clockwise? We were the leaders going counterclockwise, and a few miles into it that question was answered. That’s when we felt the race was really on. Since the route in either direction was about the same stat +/- a few miles and elevation and only 1 road connecting the checkpoints it was inevitable that we would run into other tourists. We just didn’t think it would happen at precisely the half way point for both of us.

 Counting the riders that passed us as we descended west and they ascended East, I hit a huge rock, causing a sidewall puncture that I prayed did end my race and leave me stranded on the side of a mountain. A Dynaplug, some mud and a Co2 saved my day, but definitely took some steam from us and our 4 man truce was over and it was just now me and Lucas. The rain clouds returned, and a grey sky quickly turned to a drizzle and we crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t turn into something bigger. Fortune was on our side this time.

The further we went into 3N17, the more clockwise tourists we encountered, each saying hello and sharing words of encouragement. Lucas and I rallied, split the last of our food, including a gel, and continued to the last two checkpoints with no issues beyond being a bit hungry, a little tired and really looking forward to some burritos at the finish.

We had beat the rain, and descended back into civilization after about 6 hours of playing bikes in the mountains. Lucas’s 30 hour training weeks in LA played a huge role in making the last 20 miles of city riding back to Golden Saddle a quick (& painful) ride. In the end, we finished the race in 7:23:42 with a final count of 106 miles & 12,470’ in elevation gain. We handed in our 4 pages, and shortly after we had clubs and burritos in hand sharing stories and congratulating the winners (who went clockwise).

AND THEN there was the after party, but that’s a story for another time and better told in person ;)

 

                     

 

Words: Alvin Escajeda 
Photos: Alvin Escajeda and Jimmy Rosas

4 books, 4 checkpoints and 4 book pages to collect. Sounds like the quirky rules of a standard checkpoint race right? Well, if that’s how you would describe LA TOURIST, you wouldn’t be doing the series any justice. LA Tourist Series is the brain child of Mike Kalenda of Golden Saddle Cyclery, and is now in its second year. Each series has a total of three races - all self-supported, self-routed with different checkpoints showing “Tourists” why #lasucksforcycling. It has quickly gained traction as a must-do event, and personally become my favorite series to ride for a few reasons: Its start and finish is at Golden Saddle Cyclery aka the best bar in Silverlake; it brings cyclist from all disciplines, abilities and backgrounds together; and I get to pay tour guide for any out-of-towners that want to ride with me!

This weekend I got to play tour guide for my dudes, Lucas and Jerry. Lucas was trading Portland’s winter for some LA sunshine, and Jerry, who’s from California, had never ridden around the San Gabriel Mountains so they were in for a treat!

 

 

The second edition was routed to be the longest and hardest one I’ve done so far, at 110 miles and 12,500’ elevation gain. Essentially just a huge loop through the foothills and into the San Gabriel’s. You could either go clockwise or counterclockwise on the route. We chose the latter. With potential rain in the forecast and the highest point in the race being at 6520', having rain that could quickly turn to hail and snow is the last thing you want when descending off the top of a mountain. We did our homework, formed a truce to ride together as a group and shortly after 7:30 am, we left the parking lot of Big Mac’s Liquor store and headed straight up Highway 2, directly into what looked like a potential storm.

Our Squad consisted of Lucas, Jerry, Martin (another local) and myself. We quickly pacelined up a mountain road to get to your first checkpoint, where we quickly realized we had a crucial mistake: none of us knew the exact location of the book. I had watched the video a few times but didn’t screen cap it, and of course we had no service. We lost a good amount of time looking before another group caught us and knew exactly where the book was. Crisis #1 avoided. The next checkpoint lead us to the highest point in the race, Mt Gleason and Lighting Point Campground. With the sun now fully shining, our fears of rain quickly subsided and our four man train was full steam up Angels National Forest Hwy.  By the time we reached the summit we were at 45 miles and 9500’, probably a good place for lunch. Checkpoint 2 was an exact replay of checkpoint 1; no clue where the book was. By luck, Lucas was standing on a log and saw it in a fire pit under a rock. We pull out pages only to turn around to realize the same group had caught us again. With a bulk of the climbing done we were on the good stuff, the descending. The Santa Clara Divide or 3N17 connects Mount Gleason with Magic Mountain which was our third destination. It’s a combination of fire road, broken concrete roads and sandpits about 15-20 miles.

 

 

With chasers on our tails, we began the sandy, rocky fire road descent with a question on our minds: when are we going to see the leaders that went clockwise? We were the leaders going counterclockwise, and a few miles into it that question was answered. That’s when we felt the race was really on. Since the route in either direction was about the same stat +/- a few miles and elevation and only 1 road connecting the checkpoints it was inevitable that we would run into other tourists. We just didn’t think it would happen at precisely the half way point for both of us.

 Counting the riders that passed us as we descended west and they ascended East, I hit a huge rock, causing a sidewall puncture that I prayed did end my race and leave me stranded on the side of a mountain. A Dynaplug, some mud and a Co2 saved my day, but definitely took some steam from us and our 4 man truce was over and it was just now me and Lucas. The rain clouds returned, and a grey sky quickly turned to a drizzle and we crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t turn into something bigger. Fortune was on our side this time.

The further we went into 3N17, the more clockwise tourists we encountered, each saying hello and sharing words of encouragement. Lucas and I rallied, split the last of our food, including a gel, and continued to the last two checkpoints with no issues beyond being a bit hungry, a little tired and really looking forward to some burritos at the finish.

We had beat the rain, and descended back into civilization after about 6 hours of playing bikes in the mountains. Lucas’s 30 hour training weeks in LA played a huge role in making the last 20 miles of city riding back to Golden Saddle a quick (& painful) ride. In the end, we finished the race in 7:23:42 with a final count of 106 miles & 12,470’ in elevation gain. We handed in our 4 pages, and shortly after we had clubs and burritos in hand sharing stories and congratulating the winners (who went clockwise).

AND THEN there was the after party, but that’s a story for another time and better told in person ;)