Road conditions for the 2010 Tour de Apple Valley
This week’s rains have played havoc with some of the local roads, so in addition to the one-hour-earlier start time and the one-month-later start date, riders will have to contend with some temporary road hazards, mostly in the form of sand, dirt, and gravel on the roadway.
The roads for the metric half century are better than expected. Taking the route from the start:
- The intersection at Thunderbird and Navajo is pretty dirty (no turn)
- Central at Ramona has some additional debris in the roadway
- The corner of Esaws and Mesquite (where you make a left turn) is dirty, but there shouldn’t be any car traffic with which to contend
- Laguna Seca has light dirt and gravel on the roadway virtually from Standing Rock (where you make a left turn) north to Cahulla (where you make another left turn), mainly wherever an above-grade dirt road intersects Laguna Seca
- Just after the high point on Cahulla, as you’re starting down the hill, a lot of dirt has washed onto the roadway
- There’s dirt on the roadway about a block and a half east of Central on Joshua, as you are descending (approaching the intersection at Central)
- The intersection of Joshua and Central (where you turn right) is filty
- There is some dirt at the right turn off of Dakota onto Corwin, so you’ll have to swing a bit wide. Again, traffic shouldn’t be an issue at this hour of a Saturday morning
- The intersection of Waalew and Dale Evans Parkway has some dirt on it, but crews are out in the neighborhood, so maybe this will be handled before tomorrow morning
Other corners looked clearer than they have in weeks, and someone was nice enough to broom off most of the gravel at the right turn from Navajo to Altadena, which should make that downhill turn much nicer. Also, the town has painted the stripes on the new section of Dale Evans Parkway (between Waalew and Otoe), so they seem well ahead of their announced November 17th completion date.
There wasn’t time to do the entire “second half” of the metric century, but the bike lane on Apple Valley Road is a disaster area, with incredible amounts of sand, dirt, and gravel having washed onto the roadway. Also, you should approach the descent on Tao with caution, as debris often washes across the roadway here, too.
Finally as a reminder, there are port-a-potties on the route at Sycamore Rocks Park (corner of Joshua and South) and Virginia Park (on Central just north of Cahulla).