Bike MS: Waves to Wine

[maillotpois]

That's definitely a challenge. Tandem and bags will be tricky. However, the start is quite close to the train station. Maybe one of you could ride the bike solo from the station and the other could take a taxi over with the bags?

[MojoGrrl]

That's definitely a challenge. Tandem and bags will be tricky. However, the start is quite close to the train station. Maybe one of you could ride the bike solo from the station and the other could take a taxi over with the bags?

Hmmm, good idea.

So, the ride itself - just how hilly is it? I can ride flat for hours, but I am pretty much new to serious hill climbing. I still have a few months to build up my climbing skills, though, and my boyfriend seems to think I'm capable of just about anything

[maillotpois]

Not sure what routes you are planning to do.

Day 1 - the 75 miler has a lot of rollers. No significant climbs, but repeated rollers. Perhaps 1 - 2 climbs of less than a mile - nothing too bad, though. The 100 miler has a climb, Marshall Wall, done form the easy side. That's probably 1 - 2 miles of real climb, totally doable.

Day 2 - neither route has any long climbs.

For any of the routes it would be really good to get some hill training under your belt to make you more confident and help you work on pacing. I agree with your boyfriend, even though I have never met you, you ARE capable of almost anything. It's largely mental - if you think you can do it, you can.

[aronan]

That's definitely a challenge. Tandem and bags will be tricky. However, the start is quite close to the train station. Maybe one of you could ride the bike solo from the station and the other could take a taxi over with the bags?

The problem is that the train station near the start is across the bay from the train station that the train from Davis stops at. Riders from Davis and Sacramento who are going to San Francisco have to get off the train at Emeryville station and take an Amtrak bus from there. So I am not sure how that is going to work with the tandem. You (MojoGirl) might want to make sure you can actually get your tandem to San Francisco via Amtrak.