Limestone Canyon Over the Hump Course
It’s here. Limestone is ready. I got to get a lap in though my android Pixel GPS failed, you’ll get the idea of elevation and route here.
Note: There is no preriding this course, but it’s simple to follow and very little to question. This course is limited to only the Sport through Elite classes due to difficulty and distance. That means the Beginner and Intermediates get their own private race course tomorrow.
You’ll pedal approx 16 miles in total, with approx 800 feet of elevation (I left off the road from and to Irvine Lake here)
Elevation profile in Limestone
The pain is all upfront on the climb, but the good news is we also have the shade of the hills with coastal prevailing breezes coming up over the ridge to keep you cool.
You’ll climb Haul road with the first 3 miles being pavement, then you’ll peel left on the fire road onto East Loma Ridge. It’s loose recently grated fire road.
Once at the top of the ridge look to your right and you’ll see Irvine Lake (your finish location) off in the distance.
And finishing you’ll get to fire down some epic single track. You’ll be completely separated out at that point after the climb, and there’s approx 1.5 miles of single track no passing in this section.
This is a very special place and holds tons of history preserved by OC Parks and Irvine Ranch Conservancy, from the ole’ Irvine Ranch operation days. Keep your eyes open and you’ll see old cow loading docs, and be able to imagine ranch fires with cowboys and dogs chasing cattle around the ranch.
As always, please respect out partners and the land.
Basically boils down to this:
- Don’t ride the trail when the park is not open for racing/open space days
- Please don’t leave wrappers or trash behind
- Stay on the trail, no passing where marked
It’s going to be a sweet course and we only get to do it once a year, so come on out and enjoy it. See you tomorrow.
6 Comments
Some people decided to made their own course on the single trail , their times should be invalidated as they did not follow the race course. They are easy to be found in Strava
Thanks for your feedback. Based on the times there was a detriment to their times, and the race directors are reviewing. There was some question as to the marking on that last left turn to Raptor…all that said, we are aware and will act accordingly. Thank you.
I was one of many, many riders that missed the left hand turn judging by the Strava day of segment ranking for the second half of the single track. The rest of the single track was definitely slower than the fire road, as easily shown by the Strava flybys as many riders passed me on the road while I was on the single track. I was third in a group of I think 5, if there was a sign/marker at that time none of us saw it. Unfortunate situation all around, and not typical of the well marked courses we’re used to at OTH. I’m not aware of anyone doing it intentionally, and in fact everyone I talked to is disappointed the turn wasn’t marked or marked well enough to be seen by riders not in the front/and or in the dust with the sun in your eyes.
I was also involved on this event. I fortunately saw the sign (not the turn that thought was coming after) but, although I told most of the people that we were on the wrong course for the half a mile I deviated, no one turned around (as I did). Guess was not the first time they ride there so knew there was a connection later on but still was not the right course so they should be disqualified
All the other parts of OTH have tons of ribbons and signs. And people yelling at you where to go. But out in the wilderness without any pre-ride it is critical that whatever minimal signs are placed, need to be VERY clear.
In this case a simple orange cone or sign placed directly in the trail would have easily alerted folks that the section they’ve been hammering for the last few minutes is no longer valid and they have to make a turn to continue.
Thank you for your feedback. There was a place on the singletrack that was marked, but could have been made more obvious. we’ll continue to work on improvement on the Limestone section.