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Patterson Pass (E)
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Kevin Comerford presents a classic of Bay area cycling events: Patterson Pass Road. While the climb's overall statistics are unexceptional, it ends with a bang, the famous "Oh-My-God" hill to the summit. Winds can be a big factor here, elevating the role of tactics versus most Low-Key climbs. This climb featured in the 2012 Tour of California, a stage won by the remarkable Peter Sagan, who was able to survive the brutal pace up this climb before that race descended into Livermore.

RSVP for today's climb after the previous week's climb!

Results are posted!


Starting groups are posted!
Groups start every 3 minutes (approximately).


PumpkinCycle photo
Looking back ( PumpkinCycle photo )


results?right here!
profileprofile
distance4.79 miles (7.7 km)
climbing1233 ft (375 meters)
grade4.88%
where?see below
when?09 Nov 2013
what timeregistration 9:00 to 10:00
climb starts @ 10:10
RSVPcheck back later!
waiverPlease fill one out before the climb!
how?small group
how much?$10 (free for juniors
and those with volunteer credit)
why?Ask not why; just do!
coordinator
volunteerssign up!
aerial viewWill Van Kaenel, Google Earth
weatherWeather Underground
deja-vu?New!
VeloViewer
Strava
BikeMap

Cover your head, not your ears...

Sorry, folks! Our insurance requires all riders wear helmets during the climb, and we follow the USA Cycling rule against ear buds or other head phones. Rock to tunes before the climb, perhaps, but we need riders to pay attention to what's happening during the climb...

Directions

If you're driving to the start, a good parking option is this lot: start area parking lot. There's plenty of space here and it's a very short distance from the ride start.

The start itself will be here: start area. There's a dirt pull-out where we can stage groups. Groups will be assigned by Friday based on this or prior year scores. For riders doing their first Low-Key, we use other criteria (see below).

The course itself is described here: BikeMap of course. It goes from east to west.

Another good option is to ride to the start, using the pass for warm-up, from Livermore. Then afterwards you can descend back to Livermore.

There will likely be 5 groups, with men and women mixed together. The following guidelines apply, based on analysis of Low-Key times and scores:

  1. Cat 1-3 male racers. Olympic level women.
  2. Cat 4-5 male racers or sub-20 minute OLH climbers. Cat 1-2 women.
  3. Sub-22.5 minute OLH climbers, cat 3-4 women.
  4. Sub-25 minute OLH climbers
  5. Others

Tandems and hybrid-electrics will start separately. We'll also have a volunteer group which will start early.

Volunteer!

Volunteers make Low-Key tick! Without them, we no longer function. Please sign up for any week in the series using our volunteer form! Thanks!!!

The Low-Key Way

Low-Key is all about a group of friends riding up a hill together. It's like any other informal group ride, except we time you to the top and report the results on our web site. But we have no road closures, no lead vehicle, no follow vehicle. We are traffic, sharing the roads with other traffic, following the laws and courtesy which applies to traffic. Think of it as a human-assisted Strava. We're each responsible for our own actions out there, on and off the bike, both as users of the road as as courteous visitors to the neighborhoods we pass through. "Ceci n'est pas un race".



"Get your ass up that hill!" -- Kevin Winterfield, Fovnder
Dan Connelly