Howdy. I'm a long time san jose based mountain biker and recreational (around town/commute) road biker on a Trek hybrid. I came across the team-in-training website and noticed they were doing a century ride around Tahoe in June, and thought that this might be a fun challenge. Couple of questions though and I'm hoping that you guys can point me in the right direction.

1) Can this ride be done on a hybrid? I've done 20-30mi rides already and don't have too much discomfort. It is a tank compared to my mtn bike, but I wouldn't dare try 100mi on road with a mtn bike.

2) What LBS (I'm in SJ) would you guys recommend that I visit if #1 requires a new bike? Also, while I have plenty of experience test riding/buying a mtn bike, I don't have the faintest idea of how to test ride a road bike.

3) Are there any bay area websites that would have good routes that I could use for training?

Thanks in advance,
SJHiker

Sure you can do it on a hybrid. It'll be slower and less comfortable than a road bike, that's all. I did my first century on a 35 lb rigid mountain bike. I vowed to never do it again, but I finished. The lack of alternate hand positions gets tiring after a while.

If you decide to get a road bike, or just look, there's plenty of good shops. Chain Reaction and Go Ride in Redwood City. Cupertino bike in Cupertino. Those are ones I have bought bikes from.

ACTC (actc.org) has routes and organizes rides. Klimb (klimb.org) is a neat mapping tool.

"Long Distance Cycling" by Matheny is a good book on century training and riding.

How often did you typically stop to rest? Also can you recommend some sites/books on training for this? I'm up to 40mi on my hybrid and I stop at 20mi to rest for about 10minutes to have a powerbar.

Hell, you can do whatever you want on whatever you want. I was riding with a guy for a while during the Giro de Peninsula a few years back that meant to do the 100k route, but grabbed the wrong route sheet and ended up doing the full imperial century... on a full suspension mountain bike with knobby tires.

I can't give you any specific shops, but at whichever you end up, tell them your concerns, and I bet they'll be able to help you out and give you pointers.

Not Bay area specific, but you can poke around on Bikely, Map My Ride, Ride With GPS, among others.

Good luck!

I think the rest stops on century rides I've been on seem to be around 20-25 miles apart. At the beginning, don't worry about stopping more often. Work your way into longer stretches. After all, you can't ride at all if you hurt yourself!

A good rule of thumb I've heard is that if you can comfortably do about two-thirds of the distance of a ride, you can do the whole thing. So once you can ride 60-70 miles no problem, you're probably set.

that looks like a fun ride. and TnT is a great program i'm sure they could help you prepare for it.

#1 - depends. you'd probably be more comfortable on a hybrid than some aggressive racing bike. but fit is probably more important than the bike itself. i do agree about the ability to change hand positions on a road bike being a huge plus, even if you spend most of the time on the hoods. for me a road bike is the way to go but your mileage may vary.

#2 - i bought a bike at go ride. they often have good deals on closeout but you'd probably want to know what your looking for before hand. i've heard both good and bad reviews about them. mine was indifferent although i'm glad i didn't need to rely on them to do a fitting. check out a few shops and do some tests rides on different brands/models to see what's best for you.

#3 - actc had a nice profile viewer which is great for comparing climbs: https://www.actc.org/profiles/index.php i don't think there are any huge hills on this ride but being comfortable climbing always helps. it looks like mostly smaller climbs and rollers so it's probably more important to just get some longer rides in.

as far as stops, frequent is fine. you may want to avoid really long stops since it's harder to get back into the rhythm but you'll work that out as you put some mileage in.

A suggestion, if you don't want to go buy a new bike (though honestly, who wouldn't?) you could get some slicks for your MTB, lock out the fork and ride!

There was a guy on a flat-bar hybrid that did the Eastern Sierra Double century last year. I kept seeing him (passed him at mile 180!), so it's totally possible. Not only possible, I dare say that the guys doing distance rides on hybrids/mtbs are even harder than road cyclists.