Wine Country Century 5/6/2006

[SadieKate]

WINE COUNTRY CENTURY RIDERS: one last reminder...

• There are several changes to the routes this year. Do not rely on
memories from previous WCCs. Use your maps/route slips and note the
course markings.

• Severe winter storms have caused extensive damage to many of the
rural roads along our routes. Be extra alert for broken pavement,
potholes, and loose gravel, especially while descending.

[Deanna]

Going home after? No, Mr. LeeBob and I are making a weekend of it. Heading out to the Shultz Museum & the Luther Burbank Gardens either that afternoon, or more likely Sunday. Any other suggestions for fun things to do, or good places to eat (of course) in the Santa Rosa area would be most appreciated.

Those are the two place I recommend and/or take out of town visitors.. If you like pizza and beer, there's the Russian River Brewery downtown on 4th St (walking distance from the Gardens). Also walking distance from the Gardens is Tex Wasabi's (Sushi & Texas BBQ) is a fun place. And for you Food Network fans, this is one of Guy Fieri's restaurants.

[SadieKate]

If you like pizza and beer . . .

You obviously don't know jobob or you wouldn't have used the word "if."

[jobob]

hee hee hee.

Thank you Deanna !

The Sushi & Texas BBQ sounds intruiging too .... something That Wrong has got to be good.

[maillotpois]

High of 68 - 70 in Occidental, 73 in Santa Rosa and 77 in Healdsburg.

Sunday is expected to be much warmer.

[SadieKate]

Sleeveless or not?

This isn't sounding like a sleeveless day but maybe sleeveless with a bolero. I hate the tan line that is starting but I hate being too hot, too cold, too whatever. Oh, just call me Goldilocks.

[maillotpois]

I'm thinking sleeveless w/arm warmers and vest. The real question for me is knickers or shorts? I would so much rather wipe out the early Neapolitan tan and just go shorts...

[SadieKate]

Knee wamers, fer sure. There will be a scad of scorpions on my lower half.

Sleeveless, bolero and wind vest. Will pack a short sleeve just in case I'm a wuss.

[cindysue]

The Sushi & Texas BBQ sounds intruiging too .... something That Wrong has got to be good.

hehehe, that reminds me of the last time I was in N.C. visiting my folks. I saw a Steak and Sushi restaurant and just couldn't imagine what sort of sushi might be on the menu (and I don't eat steak). I'm spoiled!

[snapdragen]

Oops. I overslept, and now I'm in a foul mood. Guess I'll go play tourist today instead.

Hope you guys had a great ride.

[maillotpois]

Great ride! I saw SK and Bubba and talked to her after - she had a great ride and did 200k (as I told her she COULD). She sounded SO up. Very good!!

I had to "grip it and rip it" on this ride with DH which was basically good. I finished super strong, but had a bit of a lull in the middle. Typical. This was our first ride together of the year and our warm up for the Davis double in 2 weeks. I had some leg cramping (which has been waking me up at night, actually - and that's never happened before - all very odd). Anyway, the ride felt a lot better than last year, though the friend we were riding with bonked big time and we were slower than we'd liked to have been after lunch. DH and I basically did a 2 up time trial for the last 20 miles. It was fun.

I really wanted to stick around longer at the end, but we had some kid issues and had to get back. I did get to meet Deanna who was working the clothes booth. I did not see Nancy, but SK said she had seen her earlier.

Looking forward to a more relaxed ride next weekend....

[SadieKate]

Since I am being nagged behind the scenes for my report (erm, excuse me, that is the Princess is gently asking about the whereabouts of same), I better get crackin.’

The very patient Bubba got up when the alarm went off at 3:20 am which meant we arrived in Santa Rosa at 5:40-ish so I probably qualify as more AR than maillotpois. By the time Bubba finished eating, we got dressed, de-watered and registered, we were on the road about 6:10 or so – and it was darn cold (48F). However this was a blessing as we had a prolonged period of climbing in front of us. Coleman Valley – charmer of a hill. If MP and Deanna had told me there was a 22% spot on it I wouldn’t have gone since I have done almost nil in the way of hill climbing for several months. We climbed up through green valleys and into California redwood forest. At one point the fog was so thick I think the visibility was about 100 ft. Wildflowers were in abundance. Fields of poppies, lupine, Itherial's spear, red warrior, on and on. Good ride days for me seem to always include hawks. Just as I was cresting the big climb on Coleman a hawk swooped down to grab something next to the fence directly opposite me on the road. I could see him (her?) soaring in just above the field coming right at me. Amazing to watch and guaranteed good kharma for the day. This was the glory of the California coast hills in springtime.

After the climb up Coleman, the sky suddenly cleared to crystalline blue and we descended a steep and gnarly storm-damaged road (including a sighting of the infamous jobob skeleton suit) to the Sonoma Coast where we rode on Highway 1 along the cliff above the waves and sparkles of the Pacific Ocean. My computer registered a max descent of 16% and it had to have been on this descent. It was not to be fooled with. We cruised up and down rollers along the coast and through meadows. MP was right. This portion of the route was not to be missed.

We then turned inland and cruised along the Russian River where MP caught up with us and we got to meet Mr. MP as well as an old training partner and friend of hers (and, coincidentally a client of Bubba’s – small world). After a couple of grunter hills, we had all the serious climbing behind us and rolled up to Lake Sonoma for lunch and then south back through Geyserville and Santa Rosa. Of course, the last 30 miles was into a headwind. Wouldn’t be a real ride without it, right?

Since I had not ridden a double metric before, had so little hill training this year, and was unfamiliar with the course, I really had no way to gauge my energy reserves. This course has time cutoffs for the 200K so AR-me had carefully calculated the avg min speed to make the cutoff time and the course closure time (I even had a little spreadsheet, AG). Based on a 10 hr ride time allowance, I needed 12.35 mph avg and MP can tell you how often I questioned whether I could make this time. I knew I would be slow on the first half because the big hills were there. When I hit the 2nd rest stop after these hills with a 13.1 mpg avg I Knew could do it because the rest of the course would be faster, just no gonzo-ing the rollers on the way back. After numerous delays to get across highly trafficked roads and to remove a bee from the boobage, I rolled in at 5 pm. Right on the money. 9:17 ride time, only drafted the Bubbameister for maybe a mile and had gas still left in the tank. Feeling pretty darn pleased with myself today.

‘Course I couldn’t have done it without the constant support, encouragement and confidence boosts from maillotpois and yellow. They put up with paroxysms of self-doubt from me. Thanks, girls.

I was very disappointed not to have seen snap, jo, and cindysue. They probably gave up and went off to dinner somewhere. Can’t blame them. It was a long day. Instead we stopped in Sonoma on the way home and found a chocolate shake and a root beer float. Calories don’t count when you’ve just ridden 126 miles and almost 5,600 ft of hills.

Few last ride notes: Tremendously well supported ride. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many SAGs. Great food (PBJs, strawberries and lemonade, yum). Bike racks. Flag waving volunteers at course hazards. Clothing drop-off service. Delicious marinated, grilled locally raised turkey breasts for dinner. Kudos to those VIPPS (very important venerable volunteers).

[bikerz]

SK - Excellent ride (and report)! Well done! Wow, that's a lot of miles and a lot of climbing! Sounds like it was beautiful!

[snapdragen]

Still overcoming the embaressment of oversleeping. Guess next time I'll bring an alarm clock. Glad you had a good time sadiekate! I'll let jobob give her own report - had dinner last night with her and leebob.

My bad mood improved once I got to Healdsburg and discovered they were having a canine carnival.

Bobbing for hotdogs:




Free Pedicures



Fashion Shows


Louisianna Redbone Hound/Jack Russel Mix:


Kenny, the French Bulldog



Now, back to the bikeride.......

[cindysue]

I got up at 4:35 (after hitting the snooze button). Most of my stuff was packed (or so I thought) and I headed to Starbucks. The plan was to pick up coffee for Charlize, Bekki, and I – my carpool companions. I arrived at Starbucks at 5:10 and there was a note on the door that they would open at 5:15 (15 minutes late). Not good enough! I was supposed to meet my group within the next 15 minutes or so! So, I pouted off and met Carlize in the parking lot. Bekki rolled in a few minutes later, we attached the bikes to the roof rack and off we went. No traffic at all so we arrived in Santa Rosa about 6:30. Plenty of time for a trip to Starbucks since we were meeting the rest of our crew at 7:00 am (or so we thought).

While we were in the registration line, it struck me that I had forgot my helmet (the 2nd time this year!). Fortunately, Bekki had a spare since she had just purchased a sporty new one. Thank goodness it fit. It was 7 by now, and we waited for the rest of our crew to show. Oops again. They thought we were to register by 7:30 am, not 7:00 am. It was nearly 8am by the time we left. Bekki and I opted for the metric, while Peggy, Dar and Charlize went on to do the 100 mile. Bekki and I knew we had a ton of time to do the ride since it would take Charlize a few more hours to do the full century. We got to lunch at about 10am (lunch at 10?!). Neither of us were very hungry but I thought I’d eat a sandwich to fuel me until the next stop anyway.

It warmed up quite a bit after lunch and I took off my jacket. No need to peel off any arm or leg warmers since I didn’t think I’d need them—especially since we didn’t leave until almost 8am. I called Jo to see if she had come and gone to lunch, but no luck getting her live, so I left her a voicemail. I figure she was long gone by then since she probably started an hour before me.

Bekki and I both got flats along the way, and both of them within a ¼ mile of the rest stop. Oops, wrong size tube (I grabbed the 20/25 instead of the 18/23). So I had to patch the old tube and hope we'd make it to the next rest stop. We did and I bought a new tube from the friendly mechanic.

I think we finished around 1 pm or so, sat around and chatted, saw some friends, and waited for the other girls to get back; 3 pm, 4pm, 5pm. We knew they were OK, because they called in at every rest stop. But we weren’t quite sure when they would finally arrive—which turned out to be about 5:15pm. I didn’t see Jo or Sarah who, by her report above, rolled in about that time. Charlize and I both had dinner plans, so she sat down and ate a little, but wanted to save room for dinner with friends, so we took off at about 5:40 or so.

Got to chatting in the car, and oops! Missed the 580 interchange and ended up in San Francisco! I had dinner plans at 6:30pm and we were sitting in city traffic at 6:45pm. Ahh well, I was relaxed in the back seat and wasn’t in any rush. After all, I’d probably only miss cocktail hour anyway. I got home about 7:30, quickly showered and headed to dinner…………..

What a beautiful day! And what a great route! I can’t wait for the Marin Century in August.

and only a few weeks until LRRH.