Ready to cycle like a pro? 3 renowned group rides

Menlo Park’s Sand Hill Road and Palo Alto’s Page Mill Road carry rich connotations of venture capital and tech development. [...] as actual thoroughfares leading to the area’s most popular back roads for cycling, they’re also where you’ll spot packs of VCs, software engineers and other riders on Silicon Valley’s famous — and sometimes infamous — group rides. The infamy arises from riders who sometimes blow through stop signs, and yell at those who endanger others by literally getting out of line. “To do these rides, you have to have very good bike handling skills, be very comfortable cycling in a pack in high speeds and be confident of your ability to react very quickly,” said Kyle Welch, a 54-year-old sales engineer and regular on several group rides. Every weekday at noon, a group of up to 70 cyclists leaves the intersection of Old Page Mill Road and Page Mill Road, just west of Foothill Expressway in Palo Alto. Named for a former bike shop near its starting point at Hollenbeck Avenue and Homestead Road in Sunnyvale, this long-standing, leaderless ride departs promptly at 9 a.m. Saturdays on a fixed route to Cañada Road in Woodside, about 55 miles round trip, with cyclists joining as it goes along. The most popular of Silicon Valley rides, due to its relatively few stoplights, rolling back roads and easy workday access, the Loop extends from 11½ to 25 miles. The core includes Sand Hill Road from Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park to Portola and Alpine roads in Portola Valley, back to Junipero Serra Parkway at Sand Hill. The 1,940-acre Baylands Nature Preserve off Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto offers 15 miles of relatively flat multiuse trails, both paved and gravel/dirt (best for hybrid bikes). Pick up the paved trail behind the Baylands Athletic Center, 1900 Geng Road, to head south to Mountain View’s Shoreline Park, which has a network of dirt rail and connects to paved Stevens Creek Trail, a protected 5-mile ride passing the hangars of Moffett Field as it heads inland. For a more rolling but still easy ride, join the hikers and bikers who flock to Cañada Road on Sundays, when San Mateo County closes a bucolic 2½-mile stretch — from the entrance of the Filoli estate and gardens in Woodside to Highway 92 near San Mateo — to automobile traffic. The most iconic climb — and safest, in terms of fewest cars on the road — is Old La Honda Road, a sinuous, roughly 3-mile haul that rises 1,250 feet from Portola Road in Woodside. Page Mill Road becomes Alpine Road after it crosses Skyline, ending at Pescadero Creek Road 7.5 winding miles downhill — in that direction. For those who’ve ridden all the way to the ocean (see below), the return trip via Alpine has spectacular scenery to offset the demanding climb. After making it up to Skyline, serious cyclists will want to keep going to the Pacific, or nearly there — Stage Road between Pescadero and San Gregorio serves as a gorgeous if hilly detour paralleling Highway 1. Several stores in those hamlets sell refreshments, but so many cyclists return to Skyline via 9.4-mile Tunitas Creek Road that the owners of Potrero Nuevo Farm, on the road about a mile inland from Highway 1, opened the Bike Hut in 2008. The bright-red cabin offers honor-system snacks, drinks, bike repair gear and a restroom. Serving many years as the starting point for Alto Velo Racing Club’s weekend rides, the cafe is now also one of the amateur team’s sponsors.