Mountain roads and dirt of California — Central Coast Love

This was an incredible tour of San Luis Obispo. We started up for a local TT up and back from San Bernardo. This is a great dead end road with a nice rolling terrain.We meandered up through Morro Bay and headed up Santa Rita Road. Santa Rita is a gravel climb and very quiet, and can be ridden on a road bike. In fact, this whole ride was on road bikes.We then came down into Templeton and did some great North County gravel roads and stopped at a brewery for some Imperial Red and fish and chips, delicious! It was a great warm and sunny day.

This was all road bikes, despite the iconic gravel climb of Cypress Mountain that has a stunning view and descent back into Santa Rosa Road.We started and finished in Paso Robles at the square, where there are plenty of restaurant options and shops. Parking is widely available as well. Paso Robles has some great winery options and amazing climbs and views.

Wow, this was a brutal climb! San Simeon Creek is a dead end road that finishes the last few miles with gravel. It is super super steep at the top.I "might" have had to walked up a little bit of it, no shame there... but could do this on my road bike. We descended back into Cambria and stopped at Linn's Restaurant for a yummy treat.We headed back up Santa Rosa and back into Cayucos. There are great tacos at Ruddel's Smokehouse in Cayucos. Great place to start and finish a ride!

I did this Tour as part of Nova L'Eroica California. It was an incredible event with wine stops and all!You can definitely ride your road bike on this but really explore some great back country roads with some light gravel sections. I highly recommend this course and event!

Amazing day in the saddle here! This was a long ride (146 miles or 235 km) but so worth it.I rode this with my crew from Lezyne and it took all day but was everything I wanted and more. Definitely enjoyed the stop at Linn's near the end!

This gravel Tour has quite a bit of single track, and all of the adventure! A gravel bike is required for this one, and you will absolutely love it.The distance doesn't look long, but it will take awhile to finish with all that dirt and climbing. Enjoy the Pozo Saloon for a frosty beverage after!

This ride was from CTS's Fig Fondo. It is an amazing ride where you climb up Figueroa Mountain: a long climb, but one of the most beautiful in the country.This is all a road bike ride. There is a small gravel section on Fig, but super easy on a road bike. The descent is highly technical so watch your speeds! You will love Alisos Canyon Road (I grew up there) and Foxen Canyon Road.

This was stage 2 of our Coast Ride, but I put it in this Collection because it does showcase more of the amazing Central Coast.I rode this with two former teammates of mine and Blaize. We ate fish and chips at Ragged Point and finished very bonked in Morro Bay! But... that Big Sur coastline!!!!

I admit I did a few hill repeats up Perfumo Canyon on this tour, but this is one of the most beautiful climbs; it's all paved and pretty steep. At the top you can see views of the entire Morro Bay.We then went down through Los Osos and explored Montana Del Oro. It will blow your mind how pretty it is out there! We took our road bikes around the coastline and soaked in the golden hour light.

You definitely need a gravel bike for this Tour! This is an amazing gravel route (with a really hard pavement climb on an out-and-back section up Black Mountain). It is rugged and gorgeous out there.You can start and stop your ride from the famous Pozo Saloon, a great Wild West bar. Make sure you bring plenty of water with you on this ride (I brought my CamelBak Chase Vest) because there isn't water on course. Enjoy and have a beer for me at Pozo!