Milton, Calaveras County, California.

Time to location by car from Fremont (Niles):

Approximately 1 hour 55 minutes if the Freeways are flowing.

Parking and other info:

Parking is not really a problem. There is plenty of space around the barn and along the road as an emergency location. The roads locally are good for warming up and going by my past experiences here you will need to be warm. The wind blows fearsomely and the hill is early on in the race, so a good preparation is essential.

The Course, road by road:

The basic road map for this course is Milton Road, Rock Creek Road, Salt Spring Road, Hunt Road and Milton Road. The lap distance is 21 miles taken in a counter-clockwise direction.

The start is a roll out of the Barn area onto Milton road, heading south. The road surface here is excellent. You only go about 200 yards before you turn east onto Rock Creek Road. The road surface quickly degenerates to fair to poor status and the road is flat for about 1 mile. The road then climbs up at about a 5% grade through the feed zone. This lasts for about 600 yards. There is a small descent past the feed zone, still on poor road surfaces, which lasts for no more than ½ mile. Then the major climb begins.

The climb of Rock Creek Road lasts maybe 4 ½ miles at an average grade of approximately 8%. However the last half mile is at about 10% and this is where it really hurts. The road surface the whole way up is terrible. The only saving grace is that the speed is low so the hammering is less.

Has you crest the hill you emerge onto a plateau. On the left is the Salt Spring Valley resort and lake. The land is flat and the wind doth blow. If you have slid off the back your chances of getting back to the pack are slim due to the wind. The road surface improves however and stays reasonable (fair to good) for a good few miles. You continue east to the hamlet of Felix.

At Felix you turn left through some gates (it looks like you are riding into a farm yard) and turn north onto Salt Spring Road, a long (4 mile) road at the head of the lake. This road is dead flat. The wind will entice the pack into forming echelons but for the individual rider it can be miserably hard.

At the end of the road it rises up about 50 feet and then you turn left and west onto Hunt Road. The road surface is average to good and maybe you will have a tail wind. The road joggles with 4 90 degree bends along it's length, but the gradient remains minimal to flat. After about 5-6 miles the road veers to the southwest and begins to climb. The climb is not so bad, maybe three quarters of a mile at 7-8 %. After this climb you begin the descent back to Milton. This is a really fast descent. I do not recall any tight corners or curves, but the road surface is again pretty atrocious. I heard one rider describe it has a road to "knock the snot outta you". Only the brave descend at full blast. Your reward for this descent is that the road surface changes to silky smooth for the return to Milton. There are a couple of small rollers on the run in to town, and just before the last left turn onto Milton Road the finish is at the top of one of these.

Other stuff you might need to know:

The weather here has been changeable, so bring the full monty of rain gear, etc.

Gearing for the hill. As a Cat 4 rider weighing 180 pounds I used 39x21 and 23 for the climb. I think for contenders these gears will still work. You definitely do not need anything bigger than a 23.

There is absolutely squat in Milton. No store, church or anything else for that matter, so bring all the supplies you need. VeloPromo, who promote this event may have some stuff on sale, but do not count on it. The nearest gasoline is in Copperopolis, which is about 10 miles away.

Because of the early hill, make sure you are warmed up properly.

The race advertisement suggests strong wheels with heavy tires. I have used 32 spoke wheels (Campy with Mavic open pro) shod with continental 2000 tires. I have seen riders line up with cross tires and then again Iwan used his Heliums (he did weigh 140 pounds at the time). You will need to make sure that all the attachments and saddles and handlebars are tightened up. There is always a good selection of drinking bottles strewn around the course.

A map of the area: