As we gear up for another epic Rose to Toads ride, riders around the Tahoe basin and beyond are ramping up their training in preparation for the big day.
In this post, Alex Robinson, TAMBA Board member (and official Rose to Toads finisher!), shares his insights and training route tips to help riders on their way to those coveted unlimited bragging rights.
Since I started riding with Mike “Mr. Crash” Solis back in 2014 he would always tell stories of these epic rides. Mike is known for climbing 1,000,000 vertical ft a year and regularly doing 10K+ days, connecting trails together in interesting ways, Mike is basically a walking atlas of California trails. (Mike’s a great follow on Strava for big ride inspiration!)
Though with all his riding, he says his favorite ride of the year is TAMBA’s Rose to Toads. I first heard of this ride while living in Oakland. I was very familiar with Lake Tahoe for skiing, but the mountain bike scene wasn’t yet on my radar.
Rose to Toads had become a goal of mine, but life kept getting in the way. After moving to South Lake Tahoe, it was finally time to make it happen. 8000’ of climbing and 10,000’ of descending on gorgeous, challenging, thrilling singletrack along the Tahoe Rim Trail ending with the rowdy descent down Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Not for the faint of heart. It’s a long day in the saddle across very strenuous terrain.
To eek enjoyment out of such a grueling task, it helps to pursue many fun, progressively more challenging rides throughout the season to build mental and physical endurance, toughness & suffer less (You’ll still suffer, as they say, “Cycling never gets easier, you just get faster”)
I’ve found joy in creating interesting routes that explore parts of this ride. Creating long routes, that connect trails together across regions is part of what makes the sport of mountain biking awesome. Mike’s been a great mentor in looking at how to connect big rides and create the most interesting routes. It really helps to have a plan that you look forward to, a series of small goals on the way to a big goal, new adventures, and an opportunity to sample these trails more than once in different directions!
Here are a few of my favorite interesting connections around the Tahoe basin that get progressively more challenging in prep for Rose to Toads:
Tahoe Mountain – Angora Ridge connections. 22 miles 3,000’
The easiest route in this training guide ain’t easy! None of these trails are on the Rose to Toads route, but it stitches together most of the great trails on the other side of town.
Star to Heavenly. 25 miles 4,000’
You can start this loop at the High Meadow Trailhead, or at Heavenly to end at Himmel Haus for a great apres. More common is Heavenly to star as a shuttle, but this avoids the need to faff with cars, and Doing it as a counter-clockwise loop is nice as you knock out the bulk of the climbing in the first 7 miles. It’s not rowdy downhill this way, as the TRT through heavenly is rolling, it’s nice to ride the Heavenly TRT segment the opposite of the event route.
Van Sickle – Heavenly – Toads. 35 miles 5,500′
Climbing Van Sickle to get to Heavenly adds a lot of challenge here. You could make it a tad easier, and preview more course by climbing the TRT Edgewood segment, instead of Van S.
I’ve never bonked harder than doing this ride post wedding & honeymoon.
Spooner to Star. 32 miles 5,500′
Riding from Spooner allows you to preview the bench segment, followed by the Heavenly/Monument climb. It’s nice to pair these two big climbs before the event, to feel them back to back. In riding to Toads, you pass 5 other great long descents from the TRT, try dropping others in your training! My personal favorite is Star Lake to Cold Creek here.
TAMBA Triple Crown. 33 miles 5,200′
The premier route of the Tahoe Mountain Bike Fest in June. Christmas Valley, TRT, Toads and Armstrong Connector. An iconic South Lake ride, great fun at the event, or ride it on your own schedule!
Tahoe City Triple. 41 miles 6,100’
Being based in South Lake, I don’t ride North Lake enough. This ride connects 3 big climbs and descents to preview a lot of trails and train volume. Mix and match, make other connections, or ride it as is to get a tour from Tahoe city, truckee, Olympic valley and more!
South Lake to Carson City via new Cap 2 Tahoe Trail. 50 miles 6,500’
Have you ridden the new Cap 2 Tahoe Trail yet? 10+ miles of flowing singletrack from the TRT down to Carson is pretty sweet! If you want to do it the hard way, try getting there from South Lake, via the TRT bench segment in reverse of the R2T route.
43 miles 7000’ – This takes the TAMBA triple crown route and adds a lap up High Meadow Road, down Cold Creek. The triple crown is hard enough, if you can nail this route, you are in great shape for Rose to Toads, this connects most of South Lakes finest trails. Get some!
Get creative! There are so many great trails around that you can tie together for big, challenging loops. Have a route you think the community might enjoy? Share it with us at @tambatahoe. See you on the trails!
