Route 66 to Corona

Making the time to train and put the miles in for long distance rides is tough. As I work up to longer rides it takes more and more time away. Juggling family time with work and rest can make for stressful times. The best thing that I have going for me is Serbrina. She is completely supportive and willing to put up with me and the amount of cycling that I try to do throughout the week. She knew that I wanted to get one last ride in before this weekends brevet, so she had an idea. She’d drive down to Corona to hang out with her parents and I could pedal, from home, to Corona. Then we could drive back home together. My sis lives only a mile or two away from her parents, so she dropped a bag off for me, and I pedaled out to hang out with my sis and her family, while Serbrina hung out with her parents. She’s awesome!

The straight route out to Corona is about 45 miles or so, but I chose a slightly longer route. We live right off one of the versions of Route 66. It changed at least 3 times in our area as the freeways were introduced. So I mapped out heading east on Route 66 and then south along the freeway. This way only added about 17 miles but I thought it would be a more interesting route. It’s pretty flat the entire way, but there was a slight headwind on the eastern leg. Luckily I caught a group of 3 riders in a paceline. They were headed back home to Upland. I was nice and talkative, but they didn’t want anything to do with me. Maybe it was the fenders, or the steel frame, I don’t know. So I hitched on to their wheel and got a pull all the way through Azusa and Covina.

There were some really cool things to see along the way. It’s also sad how some places, that I remember being there from when I was young, are either gone or sitting empty.

A modern day drive-in

We used to eat here when we were kids. Only the sign remains.

Sign of the Times.

This was the coolest sign. Coates Schwinn. This sign has been here long before I’ve been around. I hope it stays a lot longer too.

After turning off Route 66 I headed south for about 21 miles. The only nice thing about that part of the ride was that there was a slight downhill most of the way. There was only one climb, about a mile long, once I got into Corona. Actually, this route only had 2 turns the entire way!

The ride ended up totaling 58 miles and I was done in just under 4 hours. I was very happy, as I’d planned on it taking between 4-5 hours. My pace still needs to get better though. I’d like to be able to ride a double in about 16 hours. I’ve got some things in the works that should help get me to that goal. Stay tuned!

Ride to Corona

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