Mandeville Canyon Biking Getting More Press–This Time, It’s All Good

I was pleasantly surprised to see an article in this month’s Bicycling magazine that names some of the best bike routes across the country. Our very own Mandeville Canyon made the cut, in spite of recent bad press about crazy motorists attacking cyclists.

The route that David Zabriskie of Team Garmin/Chipotle outlines for Bicycling allows road bike riders to enjoy a little of the off-road beauty surrounding Mandeville Canyon Road without damaging skinny tires, but it can also be easily modified as a point of departure for mountain bike riders who want a little road time. (Or for people who want to avoid Sepulveda altogether–I think that road would be quite frightening on a bike!)

I think a great variation to Zabriskie’s route, especially for people who LOVE climbing, is to start at Sunset as suggested, then turn left on Westridge Rd. and start climbing. The ascent up Mandeville Rd. is much more gradual, and I personally have only ever done the climb up Westridge starting from Bayliss Rd, but it’s a personal goal of mine to do the whole climb sometime in the near future, so I encourage other more adventurous riders to give it a try.

Once at the fire road, Mandeville can be accessed by more climbing up to the Gardenland trail (if you’re on a mountain bike) or by Dirt Mulholland. I don’t recommend taking a road bike on to the fire road right now, because the dirt has been pretty loose with lots of gravel recently, but if you know of anyone successfully navigating it on a road bike, let me know! I’d love to hear about it.

If you’d rather not risk skinny tires on the fire road, the ride down Westridge to Mandeville is exhilarating and provides great views of the ocean, Santa Monica and West LA, which is a great treat after all that climbing to the top of the hill.

Related posts:

1. Bikers Beware on Mandeville Canyon Road
2. More Biking Ahead…
3. Santa Monica Hiking - Gardenland Trail
4. Biking Fun : Memorial Day Weekend Without Gas
5. Bad Bike Accident at Sullivan Canyon - 4-26-08

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