300 watts, 400 watts, 500 watts… 500 watts… 500 watts. As my power meter data kept screaming to quit and sell my bike, the lights went out for a split second. When I looked back up, the pack had launched me off the back as they accelerated up the rolling Cañada hills. If this sounds like fun, you might enjoy the Spectrum ride…

When I lived in Los Altos, this notorious group ride loomed over me like a high school bully ready to beat me up before I could go home and enjoy a nice pleasant weekend. 

“Specky?” 

The daunting question would go around in my small riding circle’s group chat every week. While I was always fit enough to hang with the pack, I was too dumb to save my legs for when it really mattered. This was the price I paid for not racing the past few years, losing my edge and race sense. As someone who isnt in the top percentile of fitness anymore, I’ve learned that the spectrum ride is all about conserving your matches until the mid-ride Cañada sprint. Though, this is all for unspoken glory and the maybe the slightest nod from the bunch. This brings me back to my cat 3 racing days where recognition of cycling successes consisted of phrases like, “that was too easy for you” or “you’re never doing that again”… shivers… thanks coach! 

Impressions

When I would hop onto the ride in Los Altos, the fast rolling group was usually silent. They were all seeing the slow flashing of life before their eyes as they committed themselves to death of both the physical body and the ego. Riding through the bunch, if you still can see straight, you’ll find that the spectrum ride is truly a mixed bag of individuals. You get young and cocky techies who start tweaking before you even get off the Foothills Expressway, career racers who probably get 35 hours on the bike a week, older guys who haven’t upgraded their gear since 2004, and a handful of badass women who’s fitness will most definitely put you to shame. To top the whole ensemble off, on almost every spectrum ride I’ve ridden, I was blessed by the spirit-like presence of the ‘no-helmet man’ who dons the most matchy and flashy kit paired with a snapback hat – tastefully dangerous.

Route

From the Foothills expressway, you’ll make the punchy climb up Arastradero. Get ready to be blasted by the final punch, because that’s when the first of the group will try to show off some legs. Don’t be distracted by the effort though, it’s usually the folks who blast this who get popped by mountain home. 

Pro Tip: You’ll want to utilize the beefcake technique of waterfalling your way to top on many of the punchers in this ride.

The alpine climb effort is mostly hit or miss depending on the weekend and who is there. By hit or miss, I either mean coughing blood or peacefully floating up the steady incline. 

*Watch out for those stealthy soft attacks that will string out the group* 

Portola usually beckons some more attacks on the false descent. You’re probably better off not following anything on this section due to the fact that the slight decline isn’t enough to propel you faster than the pack barreling behind you at 30 mph. Most get caught and the pack wont view you as special unless you’re putting in the work on Cañada rd.

From Portola, you’ll turn onto Mountain Home road which can get a little dicey with the undulating geography and distractingly beautiful landscape. The giant eucalyptus trees which line the road take the edge off the leg hammering. Once in Woodside, no breaks. Yes, the market and café are both very enticing, but you chose death at 9am on a Saturday, so pay attention

Cañada Road

If you want a chance at impressing anyone your best chances are to wait until after the second stop sign on Cañada road. Because of the potential for police at the second stop, the group “stops” to avoid any more trouble with the law. Cops have been known to cite the entire group with tickets because of failing to come to a complete stop. It even happened to me!

The Cañada stretch is mostly a wild blur of sweat and blood. The only advice I can give you here is to hang on for dear life and don’t go taking pulls unless you feel absolutely phenomenal. Stay near the front because the pace during the rollers leading up to the sprint section can leave you in bad positioning 

This is where traditional race tactics come in – the way I learned them. It goes something like this: don’t go to the front, but don’t hang in the back; don’t chase every move, but chase every move that will get away, burn your matches where it counts, but don’t burn all your matches. There’s a lot of luck that plays into the game too, but the best you might be able to hope for on this race segment is that you hang with the pack and pray you don’t get launched out the back.

The sprinters take off at the last hill that bends upward before the last 300 or so meters of Cañada. This is the bend where you decide to go for the sprint or cut your losses early and turn around to get your legs resting sooner than the others. Many will choose to turn around prior to this point in order to gain a little extra recovery time before the return effort resumes on Cañada. The heavy hitters probably would have been saving their legs for the Cañada sprint, but once you start to head back, all hell break loose.

Cañada and Mountain home are turned up a few notches and probably average another 25-50 watts higher than the trip out. Portola is laced with continual attacks and average uphill speeds of around 23-25mph. It is FAST. 

Some consider the ride done by the top of Portola, and the efforts seem to diminish as you return back to town and folks gradually go off their own way. By the end of the ride, you just go in about 50 or so miles in about 2 hours and some small amount of change. 

Fitness

Is this a good training ride you may ask? The simple answer is no. This is because the spectrum ride simulates a road race. You’re bound by the pack and have little control over the efforts you put in. It always rides easier (drafting in the pack) than you want for any training impact, or way harder than you’ve trained for, unless you race every weekend. 

It’s my opinion that this ride should be done every few months as a way to gauge your fitness and race sense compared to the more trained riders in the bunch. But to do this ride every week, like many do, puts yourself and your nice fancy bike in danger. The Spectrum ride draws in people with good fitness but varying levels of race experience and bicycle handling. It’s like a road race that lets the cat 4’s ride with the cat 1’s. The ride has also been featured in blogs like bicycling.com and cyclingtips.com due to a crash incident where the injured party sued 26 members of the bunch for $1 million in damages and medical expenses. 

So, if you do choose to ride this ride, be careful, have fun, and please wear a helmet 🙂