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SSThe Start SheetNotes on American road-racing club culture

One sector of the route

The course

Mt. Tam, the Presidio circuit, and the roads of Marin

Noted on this sector

3
A rolling coastal road in Marin County at golden hour, a small group of riders in the distance, hills and a reservoir behind

The Roads the Club Kept

The course · · 5 min

A club's real archive is a road book kept in the legs: the Paradise Loop, Fairfax, Nicasio, Alpine Dam and the ridge.

An amateur criterium circuit winding through a wooded park road, riders cornering between tall eucalyptus trees

The Presidio in a Loop

The course · · 5 min

A closed loop under the eucalyptus teaches cornering the way a mountain teaches patience: by making you repeat it.

A long mountain road curving up through golden grass and dark green trees above a fog bank, tiny cyclists on the grade

The Twelve Miles Up Tam

The course · · 5 min

Twelve miles from the shore to the gate below the East Peak: fog, then ridge, then the simplest finish line a race can have.