Chico Wildflower Ride Reports

[cindysue]

Rain or shine - Post your trip details

[cindysue]

Met my friends in Berkeley. There were five girls including two girls I hadn't met before. I rode up with my friend Sarah and her friend Stephanie. Jenny and her friend Ann were in the other car.

Sarah, Stephanie and I ended up tying our three bikes to the back of Stephanie's SUV with one of those trunk carriers. I had never used one of those carriers before and was quite skeptical but we made it to Chico just fine. We were supposed to leave Berkeley around 3:45 but it was closer to 5pm by the time we picked up everybody's gear and grabbed a frozen yogurt for the road.

Check-in the night before ended at 8pm and we just made it in time. They were closing down the kitchen and let us eat for free since most of the food would have probably been tossed anyway. It was a $16 meal otherwise. That was a nice way to start our Chico adventure.

While in Berkeley, I had asked the girls who would be doing what ride. Jenny was the only other person who said she would do the full century with me, but she ended up changing her mind after we got to Chico, so she could ride with her friend Ann who only wanted to do the 30 miler. I was stressed out all night because the other four girls didn't want to wait around for me to finish up the 100 miler. My option was to "compromise" and do the 65 mile ride or take Amtrak back to the Bay area. I tried calling Nancy "bike goddess" to see if I could hitch a ride with her but she doesn't have voicemail on her cell phone.

After not sleeping most of the night, I decided to get up earlier than the rest of the girls and try to finish the full century before they finished the 60 miler. I got about a hour head start and just cranked through it. This ride was much better organized than Tierra Bella and I didn't get lost once. I had left my map (a souvenir handkerchief) at the hotel, so I was reliant on the signage and other riders. Guess I didn't learn my lesson on the last ride (see Tierra Bella post). The food at the rest stops was pretty good and they had very hot very strong coffee at the first rest stop. The coffee was great considering it was pouring rain at this point.

I had started riding at 6am and it started raining about 1/2 hour into the ride. And then it started pouring! My feet were soaked by the time I made it up Honey Road - a very long ascent - to the first rest stop. At first I was about ready to give up, I was wet, cold, and worried about getting back to the Bay Area. But I pushed myself through it and it finally cleared up after about 2-3 hours of riding. I got to the second rest stop and then climbed another long ascent. I made it to the lunch stop by 11:30. This would be where the extra 35 miles ends and I finish up the ride with the 65 milers.

I called to see where my friends were and I was only 1 hour behind them at this point. Sarah and Stephanie said they would wait for me at the end which was a huge relief. Jenny and Ann would soon depart back to the Bay Area. Not wanting Sarah and Stephanie to wait longer than necessary, I pushed a little harder and managed to gain another 1/2 hour on them over the next 40 miles, so that I arrived at the finish only 1/2 hour later than they did. They were still eating when I got there and I was so relieved to see them and to finally get off my bike. I was sooooo tired. I had finished the 100mile ride in 8 hours including rest stops.

Overall it was a great ride. The only wildflowers I remember seeing were at the top of table mountain (only the 100miles took this route). I have to admit that the Tierra Bella ride, while poorly organized, was a more beautiful ride, with all the reservoirs and green hills. I'm looking forward to the next century - not sure what that will be - maybe the wine country century - or Grizzly Peak?????

[Bike Goddess]

My Chico ride (also the century) started at about 7:15AM. Fortunately by that time it was just cool outside. Not much wind, just wet roads. The first hill we did came at about the 5 mile point- since I wasn't warmed up by then, it was a bit of a grind. However, the two big hills lay lurking in the future!

As we approached the windier parts of the the 1st big hill, it got pretty wet. When I finally slugged it out to the top, it was literally spitting rain! That cold wet stuff. To add to that, my glasses got fogged up which meant "No Can See". So, at the 1st rest stop, off the glasses came! (Good thing I have contact lenses!)

Of course, the rain continued which made the supposedly nice downhill trek a bit of a challenge (as well as being cold) ! However, after that things got better weatherwise, thank goodness! One down, one to go!

The 2nd big hilll- Flattop Mountain (they call it) was actually a bit steeper than than the 1st (HoneyRunRoad). As we slugged it out,(being passed by the hammerheads) one woman I passed mentioned that last year it was 104 degrees going up this hill (yuk), so it was hard to complain.

We were rewarded with lunch shortly after the top and a wonderful descent. I'd paid my weather dues, the rain was way gone, and NO wind!!! Going down that hill I was glad to have stuck it out!

Most of this ride was done solo- met a guy who drafted behind me about 35miles before the end of the ride. So we pretty much rode together part of the time following tandems (V- I love your tandem)- which speeded up our ride home considerably!

Ride OK, Food OK, Riders- not very polite- Very few pacelines or individuals called out when passing and some even rode to the right of me which I didn't appreciate

Ride time: 6hr 37min

WE NEED TO KEEP SETTING THE EXAMPLE of CALLING OUT and TALKING TO OTHER RIDERS! I appreciate it and others I passed did as well.

Next century is in Marin county on May 1st. Should be nice as weather supposed to warm up here in California next weekend!

Re Cindy Sue- Sorry I missed you as well!!!

[cindysue]

Re Cindy Sue- Sorry I missed you as well!!!

Funny thing: it turns out you met my friends Sarah and Stephanie at breakfast. I think it was you: they said it was a woman from TE who looked like Annie Lennox

how was your stay at the Thunderbird? Our room smelled like smoke

[cindysue]

Ride time: 6hr 37min

what time were you back at the finish line? I was there from about 2-2:30ish.

[Bike Goddess]

Yes, I did meet them! They rode over on their bikes and since they couldn't sit by the window (I fortunately got one) I offered to watch their bikes!

I also told them about this forum! Hopefully they'll come aboard!

I got in around 3:00.

Fortuneately my room was clean of smoke! It was a mansion- bigger than our bedroom at home! Microwave, frig, table and chairs, TV.

Not bad for 42 bucks!

Oh Yeah- people running up the stairs during the night did make for some wakeup noise!

[Bike Goddess]

SK- Well this year, the other side of Table Mountain was a breeze!!!! NO bad roads. I flew down- 40mph on one stretch. WhoooHoo!

Yes, as I said before, I can imagine doing Table Mountain in 104 degrees- just like Ink Grade for me in 100 + degrees and NO shade!!! Had to stop halfway up to get iced up! Otherwise I would have been in BADDD shape!

Kudos to you and Bubba for finishing that ride! Yes, the ride from hell!

[NorthTahoe]

Hello Ladies-
As this was my 5th time on my bike (training continues to be mostly indoors for me or snow shoeing), I did the Flat Flower. I teamed up with another nice lady right at the start and we ended up being a good team. We had a hard time at the begining along with many others as the signage was terrible at the start of the Flatflower. We followed a local guy who got us on the bike trail as we found no signs to take us there. I started after the rain (7:30am) and only hit a few drips around 11am. The roads were mostly OK, but lots of just rough broken up country roads off and on. Very little traffice on the side roads and a few scary moments on the main highways. We had to stop and watch a herd of cows be worked by two amazingly talented dogs for a few minutes as the rancher was moving them across the road to another pasture. I was totally amazed by the talent of the dogs. I found the food to be OK, the signs needed to be brighter in color and they should put out a bright traffic cones at turns to catch your attention. The bike trail at the begining of the ride in town was awful as it was too crowded and I was pushed off the trail and into a shrub! I was going to hit the hard gravel on the side of the bike trail or the shrub and my biology training came in with a quick evaluation of the shrub as soft and friendly! They may want to control the flow of riders on the bike trail to make it safer. The signage was so bad we many times had to yell at people that missed turns. We took the extended scenic route and both our little bike computers showed 70.33 miles at the end. We did get some good winds after the lunch break, so the Flatflower was a little more work then I thought it would be. We did the ride in 5 hours including the very
slow town traffic coming and going out of Chico and our cow heard crossing.
I camped out in my SUV at the Fairgrounds and will definitly do it again next year. Everyone went to bed very early, the restrooms were fine and it was great to just roll out of the sleeping bag and onto the bike. I will definitly do the ride next year and hope for 70 degrees and sunny.
[B]Question.[/B] I was thinking about doing the Wine Country Century in two weeks and the Lodi Century in four weeks. Any input? I may be bring friends that are new to the sport and I want them to have a good time! Are they fun, well run rides?
Thanks....Jean

[SadieKate]

The 2nd big hilll- Flattop Mountain (they call it) was actually a bit steeper than than the 1st (HoneyRunRoad). As we slugged it out,(being passed by the hammerheads) one woman I passed mentioned that last year it was 104 degrees going up this hill (yuk), so it was hard to complain.

Please don't remind me of the ride from hell. Table Mountain has no shade except waaay on the outside shoulders. Last year the downhill was crossed with bad cracks and bumps so you had to stand on your pedals the entire way. With a combo of cracks and the heat, a bunch of us pinch-flatted.

Between this and the Tour of Napa Valley weather, I wasn't allowed to pick out rides for months.