« Royale (with Cheese)

Royale is the fastest way down the peninsula short of riding on 101 itself (on a day without cars). It's also the simplest possible route: just head south on Mission St. and keep going. This is the original 101, before it was moved to the Bayshore Highway and expanded. CA-82, as it's now known, was also the original Mission Trail and has long been called El Camino Real, The Royal Road. It gets "with cheese" because of all the wacky, weird, oddball businesses you see along its length. This is the Peninsula's original Main Street, and it's like a time capsule.

So why don't people ride Royale all the time? Traffic. It's absolutely essential to leave SF no later than 06:30, and preferably before 06:00. As you can see from the embedded Strava ride above, that gets you to Mountain View in as little as 1h30m, which means you'll be at work really early...

• distance: ~34 miles (to Google)
• travel time: ~1 hour 30 minutes
• elevation gain: ~500 feet
• difficulty rating (1-10): 3
• meetup point: Cafeto or Coffeeshop
• inventor: self-evident