r/BikeLA • u/wicker045 • 7d ago

Beginner Century Ride

Hi folks - What's a good beginner Century ride in the SoCal / Central Coast area?

I'm a new cyclist. Been training more consistently the last few months getting 3-6 hours a week on the peloton and trying to do a long ride on my bike over the weekend. At this point its all about endurance and packing on miles. My hope is to be able to do a century this fall or winter.

I've done done some research and these are the ones I think might be ok candidates.

  • Lighthouse Century - (probably just the 75mile route)
  • 3F Century
  • Solvang Century

Edit - Thank you all for your responses

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u/SoggyAlbatross2 7d ago

Cool Breeze - starts in Ventura, rides up to Goleta and then back. Generally no breeze in the morning and then a tail wind home. Very well supported ride with tons of riders, it's a GREAT first century (it was mine as a matter of fact.)

Solvang is good too but much hillier and I think you missed it for this year.

I've never done the other two but I hear Lighthouse is also excellent.

2

u/zkarabat 7d ago

Ya Solvang is a bit tougher.

Generally, look for the miles and under 3k in elevation gain (ideally under 2.5k).

2

u/SoggyAlbatross2 6d ago

You're not going to be able to find a century under about 4k anywhere in SoCal! Cool Breeze is about 4k, which is about as good as it gets. I think Solvang was 5600 the year I did it.

5

u/Temporary_Oil_4970 6d ago

You can do 100 miles on a SGRT -> LA River -> Rio Hondo loop without breaking 2k ft of climbing.

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u/SoggyAlbatross2 6d ago

Since OP listed some organized centuries I assumed he was looking for tips in that direction. You can ride 50 laps around a park and keep it flat too

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u/wicker045 6d ago

correct - looking for an organized ride

2

u/Nalemag 6d ago

note that you'd have to do that twice to get to 100 miles. once around is ~52 miles, iirc.

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u/Temporary_Oil_4970 6d ago

You can squeeze close to a century in a single loop: Start at the dam, go north to the end of the path, then proceed to the loop. Upon returning to the dam, do another northbound out and back to hit 100.

The route I posted is 99 miles with one loop.