Summer 2025 Bike Rides
As I am writing this in September 2025 with the closing of the summer season, I wanted to reflect on a couple of fun bike rides I did this summer. For me, summer only really starts when I wrap up my ski season, which in the past few years has ended as late as August. Memorial day weekend has been dedicated to skiing for the past few years, and this year we wrapped up the ski season by summiting Shasta and Shastina over the long weekend.
I recently started a job this spring which involved commuting from San Francisco to the South Bay, and as highway traffic is quite bad, I began regularly commuting to work by bike. This was a way to get a workout while amortizing my commute time, and it made sense to do some bigger rides building on the baseline fitness I'd get from my commutes.
The main goal I had for the summer was to complete the Death Ride, which is a classic California destination bike ride. Along the way, I had a lot of fun with some other big rides.
June 2025: Climb to Kaiser
I only decided to do Climb to Kaiser a few days before the event, as my friend Tiffany mentioned that I should consider riding it. I was looking for a training ride for the Death Ride. At 155 miles and 15,000ft of climbing, it was actually harder than the death ride. This year, Climb to Kaiser happened around Juneteenth Weekend making the commute to Fresno a bit more tolerable, and the high in Clovis was only forecasted to be 85F (it's usually over 100F in the middle of the June), so I decided to pull the trigger and do the ride in the last minute.
I really enjoyed the vibes of the ride, as only about 200 cyclists participated (compared to 6,000 for Seattle to Portland, or over 1,500 for the Death Ride), so it was a very intimate experience. During rider registration at the Clovis Rodeo, I got to chat with Susan of the Fresno Cycling Club who started the event about 50 years ago. She is now ~80 but still is great health, and she mentioned how she rode Paris Brest Paris in the past, I would love to have her health when I am that age.
The scenery of the ride was quite spectacular as well, as we began the ride at twilight in Clovis at the base of the Sierra, and climb up till Kaiser Pass at 9,100 feet in elevation. Along the way, we passed by reserviors, ski resorts, and lakeside resorts with many people camping and enjoying the scents of summer.
The volunteer staff organizing the aid stations were so friendly; at every aid station they offered to take the bike to the bike stand and even wipe off stains, supplying rides with essential electrolytes and snacks to help you keep on going.
On my descent, I took a turn too fast, and skidded out my rear tire while braking; this was quite scary as I could have fallen to the pavement with cars driving up Route 168 at a fast pace. I had a spare inner tube but obviously I did not have a spare tire, so I was in a conundrum. Within a few minutes, a SAG truck came by and helped me replace my dead ride with a new one; when I asked how much I could pay for the tire, the FCC staff mentioned that all I needed to do was say "thank you," and I was deeply appreciative of how nice everyone was, and how passionate everyone was about cycling.
For my nutrition for the ride, I mostly relied on the provided food and snacks at the aid station. I used the provided Hammer liquid calories, pickle juice, and an assortment of bars / snacks to power me through.
Here's my Strava ride link: https://www.strava.com/activities/14875462364.
July 2025: Death Ride
The Death Ride was the pinnacle ride of the summer. It is a 100 mile, 13,000ft ride that traverses multiple mountain passes around south Lake Tahoe (Monitor Pass, Ebbetts Pass, Pacific Grade Summit). This is a classic bay area ride that many of my friends have done. As the Death Ride and Seattle to Portland happen during the same weekend every year, last year we decided to do STP, so this year we chose to ride the Death Ride, as I went up to Tahoe with my friends Ying-Yu and Renault.
The ride also feels like a reunion of bay area cyclists, as I ran into other rides that I knew from the bay area cycling communities. While the Death Ride is shorter in distance than Climb to Kaiser, it essentialyl has no flat sections; the ride is constantly ascending or descending. Altitude wasn't really an issue for me, though maybe my power numbers were lower. I disciplined myself to not ride too hard at the beginning, and with proper nutrition management, the ride didn't feel too bad.
However, doing Death Ride and Climb to Kaiser back to back ended up being a bit bad for my knee. As Climb to Kaiser had a 4 mile, 12% sustained climb, and Death Ride also had a lot of steep climbs leading up and around Ebbetts Pass, I ended up doing a lot of low cadence cycling for these climbs. which led to some left knee pain. I took most of August off from intense workouts, and saw a physical therapist later who mentioned that my knee pain was not permanent, but recommended me to focus more on strength training. Maybe this is part of getting older.
Here's my Strava ride link: https://www.strava.com/activities/15094366683.
August 2025: Copper Triangle
In August 2025, I visited my friend Lara and Andi who were spending the summer in Denver. We spent the weekend summitting Little Bear, which was my first 14er in Colorado and also my first Class 4 summit. I took an extra day off from work and as I had brought my bike to Colorado, I wanted to get a big ride in. I was considering the Copper Triangle (at 80 miles, 6000 ft, it's a classic Colorado ride that passes through Copper, Vail, and Leadfille). I also thought about riding Mt. Blue Sky (but the road is closed this year for repairs) and Pikes Peak (but it would require a longer drive).
At first I wasn't sure if I had the energy to finish the Copper Triangle, as I was feeling quite sore from hiking the previous few days. It was also raining quite hard, but I decided to ride first from Copper to Vail, and then decide. This 25 mile stretch paralleled Interstate 70 and was all bike lanes, no cars, which made for a very scenic ride.
At Vail Pass, I met a guy at Vail pass walking with a shopping cart all the way from Texas to Oregon. He was wearing a United Technical Operations rainjacket, as he mentioned that he was staying with people along the way who offered him food, clothing, and shelter. I felt like I was meeting a real life Forrest Gump, kudos to him for the big adventure.
I didn't push myself too much this ride as my goal was to finish; towards the end of the ride I was definitely feeling fatigue and the thin air at 11,000ft got to me as my power diminished. I liked this ride way more than the McKenzie - Santiam Pass ride that we did in Oregon last year because it felt like there were fewer cars with wider shoulders.
Here's my Strava ride link: https://www.strava.com/activities/15586522041.
Takeaways / Thoughts
As both Climb to Kaiser and Death Ride were big century rides, the key to successfully completing the rides is nutrition management. I was fairly disciplined about tracking my calories intake per hour, forcing myself to eat food even when I did not feel hungry to prevent the premature bonk.
As I enter the fall, I am prioritizing work and climbing more, so I am okay with having my fitness levels decline a bit. Life goes by quickly and I was happy to get these fun adventures in. Maybe next year I could go back to Colorado and ride the Triple Bypass.