Cinderalla Century 30th Anniversary Jersey Orders

[SadieKate]

Grog, the US of A has two women only centuries. I'll give you some notes but know that they are colored by my own personal preference and experience.

The Cinderella is in Dublin, CA (east San Francisco Bay area) and has one route of 65 miles/100km. Due to it's location, much of the ride is on metropolitan roads with lots of traffic and 2,200-2,400 women. Many of these women are riding their first organized ride which is great but it also means you get women riding 2-4 abreast with lots of traffic. I've done the ride 4 times starting in 1987 when there were, I think, about 800 of us and a lot less urban development. It's a very cool ride simply because of the all-women factor and it is pretty awesome to see this many women on their bikes.

The other ride is the Little Red Riding Hood in the Cache Valley of northern Utah. http://www.bbtc.net/Calendar/annual/lrrhinfo05.htm Route options include 30, 62 and 100 miles. Of the two rides, the LLRH is by far more scenic because it is in rural Utah and a smidge into Idaho. The tiny bit of traffic was incredibly friendly. I'll have to go read my thread from this year, but I recall that about 800 women total were on this ride with the goal of 1,000 next year. LLRH included cute red girly T-shirts rather than ugly men's white undershirts. Jenny and I had a very good time and she also preferred this ride. My report is at: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ht=riding+hood

Support for both was equally good. Terrain is very similar as in almost completely flat. Overall, I think the Utah ride was friendlier simply because the atmosphere is so low key compared to the combative/defensive riding necessary for the California Bay Area.

If there were no other factors to consider (like family and other vacation desires), I would spend my money on the LLRH. Just me. I don't do well in crowds and high traffic and I do extremely well when mountains are in view. I think several of us are hoping to do the LLRH in 2006. Bubba has talked about driving the bike bus with the boat trailer remodeled into a bike hauler and then serving as Wrenchboy for the ride.