scottmorrison99

My first full century. Great ride, rode with cgallagh and RedRider, met Rydaddy, and saw a new slimmer bigbossman on his beautiful Palo Alto. More later, shower calls.

scottmorrison99

I spent the greatest part of the ride in cgallgh and RedRider's draft. Yhose two can hustle, and RedRider is a cheerleader for the whole group. Chris and I thought we saw bigbossman, but this guy was skinnier.
when this stranger got on the Palo Alto, we knew it was him, no one else has such a bike. We rode with bbm until the first? rest stop where the metric and full century split. We spotted rydaddy at several spots, he kept passing us. RedRider took pics, I'm sure they will be up soon. She can multitask on the bike. I finally have a century under my belt. I am beat. good night all,

Red Rider

Well, it was a hot day, but not as hot as Saturday. We were grateful.

We met Scotty, Karen, & Lindsay (our Monticello Cycling Club mates), and BigBossMan (on his hawt bike) at the start, and left about 6:50 a.m. The weather couldn't have been better.

Big Boss Man


Scotty


Lindsay, BBM, Scotty, on our wheel


Karen


Typical scenery




My turn


Three major climbs, many liters of water and sports beverages and snacks later, we finished the ride and enjoyed the tri-tip and Mexican food. This was especially fun for us, as our riding buddies stayed with us the entire ride -- a first for us. And we helped Scotty finish his first century. What a day!

bigbossman 

I did this ride on a lark - I hadn't even known of its' existence until Scotty started a thread on it. I usually do the Sunrise Century out of Lodi, but Saturday was so friggin' hot I bagged it and stayed by the pool. Feeling guilty, I decided late Saturday afternoon to ride the Monticello. As I was a bit pressed for time and I knew it was still going to be hot, I elected to ride the metric and try to get off the course before noon (I did - 11:30).

When I walked over to the registration area, I came across a group of riders that were looking me over and pointing. I asked why, and they shrugged me off..... I'm such an idiot - as soon as I saw them mounted up, I instantly recognized them as cgallgh and RedRider. D'oh!! Scotty came over to my car to introduce himself, and I recognized him from our last ride

I beg you, please forgive my bone-headed rudeness.

Anyway, we saddled up and lit out. I kept right in the shadow of the tandem until about 6 miles out where we hit some big rollers and some headwind. I filtered back in short order, but was able to re-join at about mile 10 or so. We started to do some climbing and they dropped my for good, until I came across them again at the 22 mile rest stop. We chatted for a bit and then went our separate ways - them onto the century split and me onto the metric route.

It was at this point that I hit the first major climb. It was a bit of a grind but not too bad, as it wasn't excessively long and was in and out of the shade. The only real problem was twofold - 1) there was really no space on the right side of the road, and 2) it was a heavily traveled rout to a local and very popular lake. Since it was hot out, the water skiers and jet skiers were out in force, and just about every car that passed was pulling a trailer. Yikes! Everyone seemed pretty courteous and patient though, and gave the cyclists wide berth.

After cresting, I enjoyed a beautiful descent that had me coasting at about 25mph with good sight-lines in mostly shady conditions. After a bit, I actually had a few shivers up my spine as the sweat from the previous climb cooled my core. It was an interesting feeling to be passing through warm air whilst getting the shivers.

At about 33 miles I hit the rest stop, where a pair of attractive young ladies took turns hosing me down with spritzer bottles - man, that felt nice. After a bit of lunch I was off again into some rollers, and then a bit more descending. It was at this point that I rode into a seemingly endless cloud of butterflies. It was pretty odd zipping along while butterflies swirled all about me, but it was pleasant. I tried to miss as many as possible, but they were everywhere.

Soon enough the second major climb began, following the southern reaches of Lake Berryessa. This one was somewhat more protracted - or at least it seemed so because it was in full sun and dead air. Again, not too much room on the apron, but enough - and the trailer-pulling traffic had tapered off. I finally reached the summit and coasted down to the dam.

After cresting the summit at the dam, I coasted down along Putah Creek for several miles, mostly going downhill but hitting the occasional roller and/or flats. Eventually, at mile 45, I rolled into the last rest stop and took a quick breather. The balance of the ride was uneventful - I was supposed to be climbing the last of the major climbs - the back side of Cardiac Hill - but it seemed more a prolonged shallow rise than anything else. the Garmin trace shows it was indeed a climb, but it really didn't feel like it. By that time it was getting towards 11:00-11:30 in the morning, and the heat was building. I finished up at just about 11:30 dead-on, and enjoyed a delicious tri-tip feast before scooting on home to the pool, hammock, and bbq.

It was a nice day.


Sucking wheel:


cgallgh and RedRider:


Top of 1st climb:


Top of 2nd climb:


Top of dam:


Oak trees:


Lake Berryesa:


Ready to go home:

taxi777

Great Picts you guys! You make me want to ride again : )... Can we please do a ride with all you up there or come down here? Alan's ride is first week in July, see if you can make that one. I might be recovered from the Davis by then.
Pete

rydaddy

Congrats again on your first century Scott!! It was nice seeing you all out there.

After reading the Davis Double day in hell thread I can't complain about the heat... but it WAS HOT! The climb up Mt George was awesome because I could feel the cool bay breeze cresting over the summit. The temps in Napa were perfect but short lived. Once we started climbing back out of the valley the heat returned. I managed to stay cool (and sunburn free) by throwing a wet tanktop over my head and neck in the most exposed of places, cardiac hill.

It seemed as though the rest stops just kept coming. They were set up very simple, but that works for me None of those crowds like at the Chico Wildflower. We were in and out without any wait times.

All in all, this is a great ride. The smaller crowds kind of appeal to me and the scenery is breathtaking.... all in my backyard!

More BF members should consider this as a century to mark down for next year. Thanks for the pics and reports.

DG Going Uphill

As everyone else said, this was a great century, even though it was as hot as an oven. I was especially impressed with the road markings -- didn't need the cue sheet once. I hope this century catches on because I'd love to do it with more people. I, and many I rode with at parts, said they had long stretches of riding alone. That could also have been a fact of the heat, since riders who could make it to the start early, did, spreading the group out. I think I'm going to make this ride a regular.

scottmorrison99

Next year, DG , let's all meet up so we can ride as a group. Hopefully we can have more tandems too!

DG Going Uphill

Sounds good, Scott.

cgallagh

Or we can all get together and ride it on our own sometime. There are many variations on this ride. Red Rider and I have done our own unsupported century over a lot of this same route. If anyone is interested then let's put something together.

cccorlew

Tricia thought this looked like fun ride. I'd have died, but it would have nice to ride with ya'all.
I spent Sunday being jello.
Some that scenery looks like the the same route as the Davis ride. Is it?

Hey BigBossMan, your photos have a very color quality. What are you shooting with? Olympus S600?

taxi777

I'd be up for that!
Pete

bigbossman 

Olympus Stylus 600.

Is there a word missing? "a very color quality" - not sure what you mean. I can tell you that my post-processing consists mostly of Picassa's Sharpen/I'm Feeling Lucky/Crop buttons, and sometimes Saturation.

cccorlew

a very pleasant color quality

bigbossman 

Ahhh.....

It does ok for a point and shoot. I bought it expressly for cycling, as it is small, easy to use when in motion, and is weather-resistant (condensation, sweat, etc). The focus is a little soft and most pics have to be sharpened to be acceptable, but for what it is I'm happy with it over all.

I have a closet full of "legacy" photo gear - used to do portfolio work in school...B&W head shots and that sort of thing for aspiring actresses/models (I lived in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley at the time). There was a time when I was very serious about photography, and used to do a lot of landscapes, portaiture, and other stuff. But I didn't keep up with the technology curve, and fell off the back end when everything went digital. Someday I'll pop for a serious digital camera, but for now all need are decent snapshots, and this camera is ok. It is about 2 years old, and there are better ones available now - the little Canon I bought my wife, for example.