Chico Wildflower Ride Reports

[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

[wabisabi]

Hi,all, thanks for this thread.

This was my first century, and I feel excited about finishing it and feeling physically good. I worked some with a trainer at my gym--a triathlete--who was great about stressing the importance of eating and drinking constantly. Due to a glitch with the person driving, we got a later start than planned--about 7:40--so it was cool and overcast but not raining. We were pretty happy to be in our accustomed North Coast weather,cool and overcast, as climbing in the heat would have been hard for me.

I rode with two of my regular riding partners, both men, and they were very supportive on the ride. On the Honey Run hill I knew if I just kept pedaling it would be fine, and I appreciated the gearing ratio on my bike. I hit 40 mph coming down the other side. Two of us had left ourselves the option of bailing and doing the metric century at the point where the two merged, but decided to go on. I did not think that the signage was very good; I actually missed one of the rest stops before the third big climb, never saw the signs for it.

I did see a lot of wildflowers--lupine, poppies and those pretty little red ones, and actually took some time to enjoy the beauty. Birds were singing, the trees in orchards have baby fruits.

The last climb seemed endless to me, and hard, and it was nice to get to the rest stop, having skipped the previous one inadvertently. When I got to lunch, I did not see my friends and assumed they had already been there, and was surprised they showed up 20 minutes later--I actually beat them, woohoo. At the last rest stop we saw an espresso place (we call our riding group the "lattes") and decided we needed a quick one for the last 25 miles, and just then it started pouring out, so we sat it out for a while and then rode back. The last 20 miles had a headwind and bad road, but we made it back. I chatted with another woman on a Rivendell and two women with their helmets decked out as lovely chapeaus. It was not really an overly friendly crowd, and I thought that the signage was poor. We have some friends who work with Chico Velo, and expressed our concerns to them.

I realized how much of the riding was mental for me. There were points where my body was doing OK but my mind kind of panicked and wanted to stop, and I had to work with that. We took 8 hours all told to do it. My 94-year old father--who still rides some--was impressed, if puzzled by why one would do this.

Note to self: don't forget the "butter" for the girl parts next time. Ouch.

Probably due to following the trainer's suggestion I for once did not have bad cramps in my legs and feet afterward, I feel surprisingly fine. Of course, the good Scotch that we had post dinner and shower helped, I'm sure

[Veronica]

Yay!! Doing that first century is quite an accomplishment. So what's the next one?

V.

[Bike Goddess]

Wabisabi- GOOOOOOOD for YOU! WELCOME to the CENTURY club!
That's right- when's the next one?

Yes, I didn't think this was a friendly ride either. (I trust you read my report) I've had way more fun on other centuries.

If you want a good one- do the Santa Rosa Century on May 7th-That's tons of fun and beautiful.

[yellow]

The positive: the food was good and the helpers at check in and post ride were very friendly and helpful. The flowers on Table Mountain were fabulous, though I think a week ago they were probably absolutely fab.

My buddy Hot Rod (HR) and I rode up together Saturday, had a good lunch and way too many beers at the Sierra Nevada brewery and decided that we'd be better off going for a short ride instead of napping. So we rode to the fairgrounds, got all checked in, tried to find the infamous "bike friendly" parts of town (I think we eventually found some), etc. The weather was perfect on Saturday!

My buddy and roomie for the eve, Steph, showed up late-ish. We all had a great dinner though they burned our appetizer (that was free) and gave us the wrong bottle of wine and ended up having to charge us for the cheaper one we ordered. They were very gracious, though, and the food was great. I'd go back.

OK. We got a later start--around 7:30. Steph and I rode together as HR and his buddies of course were doing the "we're not stopping so you take off before us" gig. So we get out of town by following other riders (where the heck are the signs??) and are making our way up the little 8 mile loop and sssssssssssssss. Steph gets a flat. As we're changing the tire I look up and down the road and see others with the same issue about every 50 yards. Hmmmm. So we finally get the very tight tire off of the wheel and she gets her tube and pump out and...the pump does not have a presta adaptor. So we get my pump off my bike. And then discover the tire, which has been in her saddle bag for some time, has a hole in it. By this time HR, who started after us, is here and pulls out one of his spare tubes. It holds air! So we insert the tube and...it doesn't fit. And I look at the wheel and realize it's a 650. We patch the original tube and start back on our merry way...for about 500 yards. She gets another flat. She decides to give it up and tells me to go on.

The good part about all of that is I think it made it so I missed the rain in Paradise! And I didn't get any flats. I was very grateful to the biking gods and goddesses for that one.

The ride up Honey Run was actually nice. Steady and not hot. The road was wet but not spray-all-over wet. I rode with a couple of geologists so we talked about volcanic intrusions and such. We missed a few turns because the signs blend in and are not very noticable. I don't understand what's wrong with BRIGHT ORANGE or something of that nature. And why aren't there volunteers at every turn? Where is the support????

At the stop in Paradise I ran into some Hangtown Velo friends. And there's Steph! She had been picked up by a guy that owns one of the local bike shops. He fixed her up and brought her to Paradise so she could finish the ride with me. He tells us he estimated about 80 flats on Humboldt Road that morning.

So we take off and freeze our butts off until we drop back down to the valley (44.0 mph...wheeeeeeeeee). Only 3 of us go the Table Mountain way. I pretty much forgot to eat what with all the commotion at Paradise so by the time we got to the Table Mountain climb my butt was way kicked and my back is hurting very badly (I still don't seem to have the seat adjusted correctly after replacing the seatpost ). But I made it without stopping and recovered by riding slowly across the top of the mountain. Beautiful!

I did see a TE bottle on a bike as I was riding up. I said hi but was too out of it to say much more. Reddish hair in a ponytail...anyone here?

Anyhow, I met up with only one of my buddies at the lunch stop. He's a big guy so I enticed him into pulling me the rest of the way. I take another pain killer. Steph was nowhere in sight so I figgered she was ahead since she handily whupped me on Table Mountain.

I noticed when we went back by the turn to Table Mountain that the sign was gone. No doubt someone's souvenier.

For the first time ever, I got bad chafing. Between that and my back I was one big lump of waaahhhhh by the time we finished. Big thanks to my buddy for pulling me in. Steph showed up about a half hour later, all smiles and happy. I'm glad she was able to finish!!

I don't know that I'd do the ride again. I'm glad I DID do it, but I think I'll stick with the ones that are better supported.