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.

[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.

[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.

[NorthTahoe]

I am glad to see that those of us on the flat lands had the same problems as those on the hills. The signs were terrible! I also noticed that my fellow riders on the flats were very friendly. I really had some great visits with the flat landers as I think we were all out for the fun of the ride and less into the hill climbing thing. The best part of the ride was all the great people I met along the way. I do think the ride organizers need to work on the route signage for next year! Is there someone taking comments on the event so that they can deal with this issue next year?

[Bike Goddess]

Those of us who didn't get flats were truly blessed (hence my name maybe)
Yes, the signage was poor and yes I say the same - glad I did it, not too excited about doing it again. Did get the jersey, however!

Best part- Houses in Chico are simply loverly!