Just after you pass Pebble Beach Golf Course and ride through the parking lot, you reach an intersection and turn R. Immediately you’ll see a manned gate charging an entrance fee from the cars, but you’re free, so bypass it on the R (officially you’re supposed to pay a cyclists’ fee, but no one ever does). There are places where you can park on the dirt shoulder near the beginning of the ride, or find parking along Sunset. Start where the Drive takes off from Sunset Drive in Pacific Grove. Because the locals want to keep you from exploring the neighborhoods, they’ve painted huge, unmissable “17-Mile Drive” signs on the road and posted beautiful wooden route marker posts at all the intersections. (To see an interactive version of the map/elevation profile, click on the ride name, upper left, wait for the new map to load, then click on the “full screen” icon, upper right.) This is California coastal riding, so wind is likely and the weather can feel surprisingly cold given the temperature-dress prudently. Of course you’d like to do the ride at sunset, but that’s when everyone else wants to be there too-the last time I did it at sunset, one parking area had four gigantic motor coaches disgorging tourists. The traffic can be a bit noisome, granted, and if you can do the ride before 10 AM so much the better. You’ll do some work-my computer recorded 1300 ft vert. The road contour on the south side is a delightful rollercoaster-up and down and back and forth-and the inland half of the loop is better-glassy smooth meandering, intermixed with effortless descending. This isn’t just a scenic tourist stroll-the riding is outstanding. The forty-million-dollar houses (no exaggeration) are actually pretty cool too, if you can forget the socio-political issues. You ride by waves smashing into coastal rocks, through lanes of coastal cypresses, do a nice little climb, roll through nearly unpopulated Monterey pine forest, then do a fun, fast descent, all on the best road surface money can buy.
Every time I do it, I wish I could live there so I could do it every day.
17 MILE DRIVE BIKE PLUS
Plus it’s all about money (you ride by Pebble Beach Golf Course, for god’s sake)-but, all that notwithstanding, it’s a delightful bike ride.
This ride is a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge loop-a complete chestnut, over-hyped and tourist-ridden.
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