Northern California - Tour de Organics (Sevastopol) 9/16/07

Nobody ever talks about this Century (also has a 65 mile ride and a 35 mile ride). I did it today, my first centruy ever. (7 hours).

Have to say, it's beautiful, and rivals the Tour de Napa. The 100 takes you through Bloomfield, Freestone, Occidental, Forestville, Healdsburg, Windsor and past some beautiful wineries. It's schtik is that all the rest stops feature organic food, fruit etc. The stops could have more of a variety of electrolyte drinks, but hey that's really my problem not theirs. It's got 3000 feet of climbing, not the hardest around, but it's rollers all day long, which makes it kind of tough.

At the end of the ride, dinner from organic farms in the area--not my cup of tea, but many others will apprecaite the shepard's pie with cruncy tofu crust. Still, it's worth a look, I think, for the scenery alone.

Nobody ever talks about this Century (also has a 65 mile ride and a 35 mile ride). I did it today, my first centruy ever. (7 hours).

Have to say, it's beautiful, and rivals the Tour de Napa. The 100 takes you through Bloomfield, Freestone, Occidental, Forestville, Healdsburg, Windsor and past some beautiful wineries. It's schtik is that all the rest stops feature organic food, fruit etc. The stops could have more of a variety of electrolyte drinks, but hey that's really my problem not theirs. It's got 3000 feet of climbing, not the hardest around, but it's rollers all day long, which makes it kind of tough.

At the end of the ride, dinner from organic farms in the area--not my cup of tea, but many others will apprecaite the shepard's pie with cruncy tofu crust. Still, it's worth a look, I think, for the scenery alone.

Hey you spelled Sevastopol the Russian way, sort of.
Actually in Russian it's pronounced "say va STOH pul" but the locals all say "sa BAS ta POOL"
Anyway, I did this Century the first year they had it, it was a logistical mess with bad maps, bad road arrows (lots of people missing turns), bad organization, and way too little food (the organic farmers expected people to just sample, like the tourists). Glad to hear you enjoyed it this year, maybe I'll try again next year.

I also did this century last year (first year, I believe) and enjoyed it somewhat. One of the hidden drawbacks of eatting organic fruit all day long is that, 5 hours into the ride, you're having some serious GI grumblings.

The maps are still bad, though I managed to follow the yellow butterflies well enough (I was thinking along the ride that I was--to use a Paul Sherwinism--totally and utterly dependent upon someone else with a spraypaint can to get me home. Had the GI distress last year (my very first organized ride after my first knee surgery was last year's 35 mile ride), so this year I ate eGel every 1/2 hour for 300 calories an hour.

This ride is nowhere near in the league of the Marin or Tour de Napa in terms of organization or support, I'm just saying that the scenery was nice and I had a nice time. No way no how I was going to eat what they offered for dinner. I bailed.

Sorry for spelling Sebastopol wrong, I suck at spelling.