A few weeks ago, one of our club members said he wanted to ride 100 miles 'while he still could". I said I'd go and it took off from there. Word went around the club that we were planning an easy (flat) century that would be perfect for that "first time" (everyone in my club is at least 55). We had no idea how many would show up.

Twenty did, albeit not all planned on doing the entire ride.



We started at 7:30 am on a chilly April 3rd, with a bit of fog.



The first leg was over roads we have all traveled many times and included just about the only hills on the entire ride. None of them are serious. Here we are at the first rest stop. This bridge used to be the turn around point for the club. Riders never crossed it into the Forbidden Zone. It's 14 miles out from home.



The bridge is the highest point on this 100 mile ride. We headed down the hill. Many of the riders had never been out here. We traveled through some fields with cattle grazing and eventually made it into some walnut groves. We tended to break into two groups, but were never more than 100 yards apart. One thing I really enjoyed, as one of the organizers of the ride, was that everyone seemed to be having a good time. The pace was pretty good, but people were talking and laughing. The roads were mostly pretty smooth.

The second rest stop was at a little market at an intersection in the middle of walnut groves. One of the spouses of one of the riders met us there. He had carried extra food and had water for us. If anyone had wanted to lose some jackets, he would have taken them, but it never warmed up.

After a potty stop a few miles on, we made it to the levee that sometimes keeps the Feather and Sacramento Rivers from flooding the valley. Many of the riders had never been on this road, which is really pretty interesting. We stopped to regroup at about mile 63. We had seen almost no cars to this point.

The road goes under Highway 5, bends around and we then we turned on this little road, that began our trip home. It was very narrow at the beginning, but widened out near the Sacramento Airport.



We had lunch at mile 77, at a Subway Sandwich Shop. Sandwiches never tasted so good. Everyone was feeling very good. We were averaging about 15 mph, which on such a flat route was not terribly fast, but a good pace for these folks.

The last stretch has a reputation for being head-windy, but not today. We made the next 15 miles in good time. After a brief regroup about 8 miles out, we all rode together back to the starting point. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were about 15 people there to greet us. Lots of fist-pumping and woo-hooing. Beers all around. Here's me (waving) crossing the finish line.



My stats, which would be near the average for the group were 15.1 mph, total time: 8:40 including breaks. It was a really fun ride for me. Easy. I went a little slower than I needed to as I was sort of the "sweep" and made sure the slower riders were "In sight and Up right".

Here are the "Century Virgins" at the end of the ride.