My wife and I just got home from riding the Tierra Bella 100K this morning in Gilroy, CA. We had time constraints so we did not do the century ride.
The morning climb in the east hills was a blast with a ton of power coming from the wifey. We passed a bunch of half bikes on the climb...much to their chagrin.
The weather was windy and butt cold for this time of year. We were hoping for a little warmer, but you get what you get.
We got a ton of oohs and aahs over our Santana Team Niobium with the 10" disc in the back. I guess there are not many on the road.
Next up for us is the Wine Country Century in 2 weeks up in Santa Rosa, CA. Hope to see some of you listers there.

David

Great to see that you were out there today. We did not ride Tierra Bella and planned to travel to Livermore to preview ride the Wente road race course. It was so windy this morning, we decided to ride that tomorrow and rode our Santana from Edgewood/Canada to Peet's in Los Altos. The wind was something else on the trip back. As I am writing this post, the wind is still very strong and gusty here. We have the Winzip brake and get comments from time to time.:)

It was so cold at the start that I thought I'd die. Of course I forgot my leg warmers so I bought a set before the ride. Best investment I've ever made!

The wind really kicked up and towards the end we were almost blown over.

But the ride was fun. The Missus and I saw quite a few fellow tandemists. Pretty cool.

It seems 100K is the preferred length for tandems? I've done the TB century a number of times but this year was our first tandem ride 100K.

Andy

After much debate, we opted to stay a few hundred miles closer to home this weekend so passed on Gilroy and did the Alta Sierra Challenge out of Bakersfield. It was a little on the cool side down here but the wind was frequently brutal ...how is it that the big wind can be in your face in BOTH directions ???? ....wore us out and we only did the Metric. We'll be up your way in a couple of weeks for the Delta Century in Stockton..we'll do the Metric which is our preferred distance because it is fun without wiping us out.
Bill J.

We also did the 100k. It was kinda cold... then too warm for the layers... then too cold without the layers etc. It was our longest ride on our tandem and my wifes longest ride in a decade. I think she did great! I do feel that 100k is a good distance for a causal tandem couple. My wife was very tired, but felt great inside (it was a great accomplishment) and I felt like I had ridden a hard century. We met some very friendly other tandems couples in the parking lot before we had even got on the bike. That really got my wife excited. It was kinda weird, they were parking cars randomly, but there were three tandem teams all parking together. special thanks to the couple from San Jose on the Cannondale. We appreciated the compliments and trail mix at our 'unoffical rest stop" around mile 34 on the 100k route. Based on my wife's enjoyment of the whole experience, we look forward to doing other events on the tandem. If anyone knows of another event in Northern or Central California soon that will have "significant tandem presence" please post the info.

We will see you out on the road.

The TB was Renee's and my longest ride on the tandem to date but not by much, though. It was her longest ride ever.

I felt a little beat up at the end as well, like having ridden a tough century. Renee was just fine ... a little sore yesterday. If I were on my half bike I think I would have easily finished with a lot of juice to spare. I guess this gets to the additional "overhead" associated with being a tandem captain.

Anyway, we came across the "Danube" couple riding their Santana at the Uvas rest stop. They said they had seen 12 tandem couples by that time.

And thanks go out to the mechanic (owner?) from Summit Cycles who was at the Uvas rest stop. Our gears had a mind of their own that day and he fixed 'em up nicely. For the rest of the ride the gears worked perfectly.

Andy