Tandem Cycling - Sonoma 7/25/09 Tandem Rally update

Hi All,

Lunch at tomorrow's Sonoma Tandem Rally is at Raymond's Bakery in Cazadero. They have various bakery items pre-made; also you can order sandwiches.

Because sandwiches take a few minutes to make, and we're expecting a good turnout, we are suggesting that if you want one, you phone them to pre-order if you can. Also you can ask them to set aside a pre-made item for you. (Or just take your chances to see what they have leftwhen we arrive.)

Raymond's Bakery: 707-632-5335 more info: http://www.raymonds-bakery.com

(You can phone them this evening until 9pm, or tomorrow morning any time before we arrive there ... they open 8am ... the only issue is, whether your cell phone gets reception anywhere in that rural area.)

SANDWICHES, MADE TO ORDER Types: Ham, Turkey, Veggie, or Italiam Combo (Ham, Salami, Pepperoni).Bread: choice of Wheat Bread or Ciabatta (Italian white bread).Standard items: Mayo, Mustard, Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion.

OTHER, PRE-MADE Quiche - VeggieQuiche - Meat (usually either ham or bacon, depends what they maketomorrow)Focaccia w/ Mozarella, Gorgonzola, Red Onion, Fresh RosemaryFocaccia w/ Tomato, Mozarella and Pesto (oops, I think that's pesto,my scrawl was too hasty)

PIZZASInfo is here: http://www.raymonds-bakery.com/ourfavs.htmland I'm pretty sure that pre-order is the only way to go on this(they take a while to make & bake). Other bakery stuff is available there too.

Reminder: All characters are welcome on this ride, single bikes andfaster riders alike. The more the merrier! See you all tomorrow!

Come join us on this beautiful ride through Sonoma County.

Sat Jul 25 2/TM/52 Sonoma Tandem Rally
Calling all tandems......Meet in Valley Ford at 9:40 a.m. for a 10:00 a.m. departure. Follow us as we meander the beautiful back roads that join the quaint little towns of Freestone, Occidental and Monte Rio. We'll ride under the redwoods along Austin Creek Rd to Cazadero for lunch at Raymond's Bakery and take Hwy 116 thru Duncans Mills for a jaunt along part of the Russian River. From there, we go on Hwy 1 to take in the spectacular views along the gorgeous Sonoma coast to Bodega Bay. We'll continue along Hwy 1 back to Valley Ford. All characters are welcome, single bikes and faster riders alike. The more the merrier! Come prepared to enjoy the scenery and have fun. Bring a happy attitude, H2O, snacks, lunch or $ to buy. (for an extended ride starting from Petaluma-adds 40 mi, please contact the ride leaders for more info) Take Hwy 101 N to Petaluma, exit at Washington St West which becomes Bodega Ave. After roughly 10 miles, bear right to continue on Valley Ford Rd. This in turn becomes Hwy 1. Left turn on School St (at the blinking lights and 30 mph yellow turn sign). Park in front of the American Valley School. Please allow yourself 1 hr and 15 min drive time from Berkeley. We would love to see you all there! Nancy Yu, nancyyu7 at hotmail dot com or (510) 697-7736. Mark Abrahams (510) 524-1294

This is an organized Grizzly Peak Cyclists ride. We are based in Berkeley, CA. Check out our club at grizz.org

Last edited by echow; 06-25-09 at 07:51 AM.

How about a ride report??? Looks like the weather was great 'til mid day or so...how were the entries...when is the next one?

Bill J.

Disclaimer: newbie (aged) tandem team here (3 months or so). Maybe a more experienced team with chime in. Also, someone reading this who has more than the two rest stop pictures I took could post something as well.

Attendance: 11 tandems plus 3-4 1/2-bikes. Ride left Apple Ford at 10:15 or so.

Route: Attached. About 52 miles of mixed terrain. Maybe the grade at one point touched 10% as I saw 9% on my cyclometer, but no long climbs. Big and little rollers which were a good deal of fun. One long fairly gradual downhill which was a blast. The 5 mile descent out of Occidental was a real highlight. The descent into Apple Ford is a bit harder to recall since we were somewhat tired at that point. The 48 miles (out of 50) I have on my Garmin showed 2300 ft. of climbing at 17 mph. Some riders started in Petaluma which would have made the total ride about 90 miles.

These roads are must-do for riders in this area. Combination of rolling cattle terrain, tall redwoods and the Pacific ocean is pretty hard to beat. Traffic wasn't really too bad. Hwy 116 has a decent shoulder and the cars on Hwy 1 along the coast aren't moving all that fast.

Weather: Dumped my arm warmers and light riding jacket pretty quickly, leg warmers at the first opportunity thereafter. Weather was near ideal with fog along the coast, but didn't get cold enough to require jackets. Good ocean-side visibility would have been nice, but that portion of the ride, especially roller coaster-like, was still very enjoyable.

Finally, this was a good learning experience. On the short rollers we spent a lot of time in our 48t (well, actually 24t since we have a daVinci) chainring charging down the hill in the 48-12 and downshifting 3-4 times on the way up. On the longer downhills I'd have to get in my big chainring and managed to forget on one of the "ups" to change chainrings; lot of grunting on that short climb.

I did brief write-up on my biking blog (http://mickbiking.blogspot.com/). It was a great ride in nice company.

Mick, great writeup in your blog. Hope to see you and Jenny down the road.

I'm sorry I missed this ride; I'll keep an eye out on this site for other tandem happenings...thanks for sharing.