The Como Street Ride
by Rick Schultz
posted 2006-04-09

My ride with Monex (UCI American Continental Pro Cycling Team)

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Last winter, I received a call from Patrick Fetzer [owner of Laguna Beach Cyclery, Laguna Beach, California] asking me if I wanted to go on a 75 mile Sunday ride called Como Street. The actual ride is really 32 miles and leaves from the Tustin Ranch Marketplace (corner of Jamboree and the 5 Freeway in Tustin California). Patrick's ride would leave from his shop in Laguna Beach, California.

Como Street is a world famous ride where more than 100 cyclists [including a few pros] regularly participate. It is a very fast-paced ride with close quarter riding and, at times, it can be very dangerous. I definitely would NOT recommended this ride to casual or recreational riders, they will usually get spit out the back fairly quickly.

Como Street ride started during the 60's in Irvine, I believe it was on Warner Ave at the time. Back then, Warner was a Eucalyptus-lined dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. And on Sundays, it was a parking lot all the way from Harvard to Culver. The eucalyptus trees were planted there to keep the dust and wind from blowing across the strawberry fields. Without them, the ocean breeze had a clear shot all the way from Newport Beach and picked up a lot of dust as it blew across the open fields. Due to the housing boom in Irvine, the starting point of the ride was moved to the Tustin Ranch Marketplace in the mid 80's.

There are actually 2 separate starting times -- The 8am start -called "old man Como" and the 8:30am start time - for the faster riders. Each of these rides usually splinter into different many sub-groups of varying levels. Most groups go around Santiago Canyon. One group travels via Bake Parkway and the other via El Toro Road. Others riders continue through Live Oak Canyon, and still another group rides south via Antonio Parkway to Dana Point, working their way along Pacific Coast Highway, eventually making their way back to the starting point at Tustin Ranch.

Patrick told me to arrive around 7am and that we would be leaving around 7:30am. I arrived promtly at 7am with another strong cyclist friend of mine, Tom. After taking some time putting our bikes together, I looked down at my cycle computer, it said 7:15. Just then, the first of the Monex riders showed up. Over the next 15 minutes there were aleast 8 pro riders sitting in Patrick's parking lot. Patrick finally showed up at 7:30 and unlocked the shop. I thought to myself "we are already late". The question I should have asked myself was "we're late, now I wonder if the Monex boys will liven up the pace to get us there in time?" At 7:50am, we finally rolled out of the parking lot and headed North on Pacific Coast Highway, made a right turn onto Laguna Canyon Road and away we went.

I guess that 0.63 miles was all the warmup we were going to get because as soon as we hit Laguna Canyon Road, the pace was moving at a steady 23 mph. For those of you that aren't familiar with Laguna Canyon, it is just that, a canyon. From the ocean, it is uphill and against the wind the entire way. It starts off at sea level and gains 400 feet over 6 miles. It is really not that bad, except when you are still warming up and moving at 23 mph into the wind!

When we hit our first red light, Tom, breathing hard said, "did you check out the guy in front of me? He is still in his small chainring spinning at 150rpm!" Tom continued, "Thank god for that red light so I could catch my breath." I let Tom know that the guys name was Enrique -- he's from the Columbian National Team! Once the light changed, we continued on. As soon as the terrain flattened out, Team Monex increased the pace to more than 30 mph. I thought to myself, "now I guess we will make it to Como in time..."

We met the 8:30 Como group at the corner of Jeffrey and Irvine Blvd., and proceeded at a high-pace along Irvine Blvd towards Bake Parkway. Bake Parkway is a 3 mile long, 406 foot climb. The first half of it is the worst, gaining 305 feet (a 4% grade). Half-way up, I looked at my Heart Rate Monitor and it was pegged. We were crusing between 17-18 mph and I was breathing as hard as I could. I felt slightly frustrated after I glanced over at Enrique. He was sitting up chatting with another Monex boy. I guess that's the difference between a 23 year old, 125 pound professional rider who does nothing but train and a 50 year old family man with a full-time job!!!

There was a tremendous surge once we hit the top and off went Enrique at more than 23 mph -- uphill mind you... I thought Patrick had told me that the Monex guys would take it easy on us... There was a short regroup at the top where I was able to rejoin them. We made a right turn on to Portola and headed towards Glenn Ranch -- "Oh great, another climb," I thought... Glenn Ranch goes right by the Oakley Headquarters. It is a mile long, 155 foot climb (a 3% average grade) which then drops down to join the group that came up El Toro Road. The group coming up El Toro has a 6-1/2 mile long 930 foot climb (a 2.7% average grade) to contend with. A few of the climbers made a left from Glenn Ranch onto Saddleback Ranch -- a 1 mile climb that gains 441 feet (an 8.4% grade) and then drops them down to El Toro/Santiago Canyon (El Toro is Santiago Canyon Road but changes names at Live Oak Canyon Road (also known to the locals as Cooks Corner).

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