Strada Rossa VI Gravel Adventure Ride

Anyone else doing Strada Rossa VI in Redlands this year? For 2019 you get to ride up the Seven Oaks Dam (one of the largest embankment dams in the USA). As a kid I toured that dam when it was being built in the early 90’s. Now I get to ride my gravel bike up it!

I woke my self up 6 minutes before the registration opened. As of this morning I am one of three already signed up :roll_eyes: Guess I could have slept.

2 Likes

I will be there. Really looking forward to it. I grew up in LA and did some crits / road races in Redlands, but I’ve never ridden off-road there.

Outstanding! It’s a really cool area imho the 2018 route looked like a lot of fun. See you out there :sunny:

1 Like

I will be giving it a shot with my buddy. I did it a few years ago. But it always conflicted with something else. So this year the stars have aligned.

2 Likes

Good luck y’all. God willing I’ll see you at the after party. My gravel bike took a dump on me so I’m riding my hardtail

1 Like

My personal race report published for anyone who might be interested here.

1 Like

I rode the Strada Rosa as well.
Signed up for the 60 mile version as I wanted to ride the dam.
https://www.strava.com/segments/19937418
Almost a mile at 11%. I knew this would be very difficult for me as I am no kind of climber.
My plan was to try and cut something off of the route and maybe make it a 40 ish mile ride.
I was riding my CX bike with 38mm mud tires tubeless. Not low enough geared at 36x27 granny; but my best bike for the route.
Last minute a coworker decides to do the event. Put 25mm treaded tires on his older road bike and poached the event. I told him he had no idea what he was getting in for.
I’d done it once before and had a pretty good idea.
On the drive there a car spun out on the freeway in front of me. Miracle was that he hit nothing and noone hit any of the cars stopping. At a later stretch on the freeway the water was 6 inches deep under an overpass. It was raining stupid hard, a great way to start a dirt ride.
We got going in the rain and struggled through some of the early mud. My friend had many problems with sand and mud in his brakes and drivetrain. We used water bottles and even washed his bike in a street gutter at one point. My bike was doing pretty good, just a little water bottle rinsing of my cassette kept me going.
Took us 3 hours to reach the first SAG stop 16 miles in. My coworker was physically and mentally done. He was really unprepared for what this was.
We went to Plan B and followed some of the route and some of Google Maps and went to Hangar 24; a brewery on the route. I was really shocked that we were the only riders there. Had a couple of pints out of the rain and then Google Mapped ourselves to the end.
I really had designs to do the dam; but it was not to be. Another friend said that the dirt above the dam was even more difficult than the paved dam road.
Lots of people came straggling in with all kinds of adventure happening to them.
Had some really good food and beer and then drove home.
I hope that they can use the dam again and that I can make the event again. I know it was very difficult to get all the agencies to to permit that to happen.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2187388773

1 Like

Glad you weren’t in a car accident on the way there. I got close several times (doesn’t help that my car is a POS) myself…

I was mighty tempted to stop at Hangar 24 when I got a whiff of the burgers cooking on the grill. I was really hungry in that section.

Do you think your co-worker will do it again next year?

Sorry for the late response.
I do think my coworker will do it again. He’ll need to get a bike, and probably will. We’ve got him looking into MTB and gravel bikes. He might get both.
Even though he is currently a stronger road rider than me - he had absolutely no idea what he was getting into. I tried to explain; some things you just need to experience for yourself.
I hope to do the event again; it’s often just a matter of too many things going on.