Awesome ride today!
 

Red Rider and I committed to a century a month on our Tandem this year. So far we have ridden organized centuries once per month and really enjoyed them. This month we did not sign up for any organized centuries and with my traveling and her schedule we found ourselves trying to figure out what to do. We decided to follow the path of our last century, a local ride, and stop at our favorite winery in Napa for lunch. We started from home at 7:30 headed for Wooden Valley. There were flower fields and orchards in abundance.
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We rode out of Wooden Vally and climbed Mt. George, dropping down into the Napa Valley. The following view is looking back into Wooden Valley from the top of Mt George and the ridge in the far distance, with the radio towers, is the ridge separating Wooden Valley from our home town of Vacaville. The climb is slog with quite a bit of 10-14% grade and some sections registering up to 24% for a brief but brutal bit.
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The descent into Napa is fantastic. Over a 1000 ft of descent into the beautiful Napa Valley. We hooked it onto to Silverado Trail and headed for St. Helena. Silverado trail has a fantastic bike path on both sides of the road. It is wide and uncluttered. We met up with quite a few bikers from the Napa side, enjoying the 75 degree weather. The view into the valley is quite nice.
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Eventually we wound up at V. Sattui, an award winning winery that only sells through their membership online and at the winery. We had a fresh basil, fresh mozzarello and tomato panini and we put some smoked salmon on it for grins. After lunch we could not find pie so we settled for huge chocolate chip cookies.
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We are cellar club members there and we went to the private cellar for a little tasting, not to much, just a taste for the road.
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It was Fifty miles to Sattui and we spent 1.5 hrs there so we were well rested for the climb out. We went up to Lake Hennessy and on to Lake Berryessa. The valley floor is down to 45 feet and the top of Cardiac Hill is 1100 ft. We descended into Winters and hit the wall. The wind was straight into our face and sustained at 20 gusting to 30 mph. We slogged our way home and thank goodness it was only 20 miles of the wind. We got home just in time to change clothes and bail out our dogs from doggy day care. Bought a sixer of Smithwicks ale and ordered pizza in. We are now sitting here nicely buzzed from beer, pizza and miles. We did learn one thing and that was on organized rides you stop about every 20 miles and snack. We had plenty of water and stayed hydrated but we did not eat enough. We hit a wall about 8 miles from the house and had to stop and eat a clif bar and gu before we could go on:eek: . Next unsupported ride will have plenty of snackies to get us through. 100.2 miles, 6250 ft of climb, overall moving average 16 mph. :D

Beautiful!!! How far do you need to get from home to get to that beautiful scenery?

(I want one of those cookies.....)

It is only about 20 miles to Wooden Valley, and 35 to get up and over the mountain into Napa. The scenery just goes on and on.

VegaVixen, Come on out and play with us.

Wow, lucky you!

Red Rider has my complexion. What does she use for sunscreen?

She says Clinique-SPF 30. Her father was a dark complected Welshman so she doesn't burn easily.

Nice ride and account...that is an impressive ride by anyone's standards.

I do have one really important, burning question though. A really, really important question. Maybe not of life and death magnitude.....but pretty important.

Do you find that riding a lot leaves you with a 'shot' palate for wine tasting? When I'm putting in a couple hundred miles a week or more....my nose remains senitive, and I can appreciate the smell, but in the mouth, the wine seems lacking...lifeless....flat Has this been your experience?

I shudder to think of the swill I might buy if I tried tasting on a bike trip.

Tom

Don't worry- You can tell if a wine is bad or not- no matter how you are feeling. In fact- A bad wine will taste worse if you are bit tired. My problem would be the reverse- How many Good wines would I pass over because they did not taste right due to my bad palate from exertion.


Now we kep seeing pics of the pair of you and you are making the rest of us feel Bad when we realise how fit you are. Haven't seen any pics of the Tandem yet so take a friend with you on the next ride- Providing he is fit or on a motor bike to be able to keep up with you.

As you can tell- I have an interest in Tandems.-Or is it a fetish.

We enjoyed the pics - great ride! It doesn't get much better than cycling in Napa. Are you guys doing the Tour of Napa on August 19? It would be great to ride with you - we are doing the 65 mile route - however, I imagine that you would opt for the century.

Very nice country and that had to be a great ride. Beautiful pics.

What a beautiful place to ride!