obiwan kenobi

It was a great ride with perfect California weather, I thought the rest stop offerings were better than the post ride meal. Overall a well organized event with great food and a scenic ride.

Beaker

Had a great day on the 200K route. I came back this year due to a sense of unfinished business from 2009, and also been looking to ramp up the miles a little.

Drove up early and met up with with ahmose a shade before 7. First question was whether to forego knee warmers/wind jacket. I did and was glad for it, as the weather was not too cold to start with. I also gave my PI arm coolers their first outing (thanks to Ygduf and mellum76 for the tip). They did a good job of fending off the sun, but I didn’t overheat.

To the ride itself. It’s interesting reading the comments about the distance to the first rest stop. On the 200K route, the first rest stop on Coleman Valley Rd doesn’t arrive for 26miles or so. Another reason that the 200K route is nice is that you get to experience probably the best scenery on offer in the first loop to the coast, and if you want some more climbing, it’s all frontloaded up through Occidental. I don’t think of WCC as a hilly route, but there were enough double digit % grades in the first section to make you work.



(*disclaimer, ignore Strava elevation, I think it's whacked, although my 305 barometric gave me 7800...whatever)

As noted above, the scenery is spectacular going to the coast – Coleman Valley offers breathtaking views of the ocean, coastline and surrounding hills.



I can honestly say I got none of that last year. Compare and contrast from 2009:



To 2010:



Still the wind at the coast was considerable. I spent all that time either finding wheels or trying to do my bit pulling others. It was a welcome respite to head back into land and get some occasional shelter. Still the wind would kick back up from time to time. I think that the stretch leading up to the lunch stop (at mile 88 for the 200K route) was the worst for the wind as I was starting to get a little hot foot and my backside was starting to get a little complain-y. I was also feeling ready for lunch after a bunch of rollers for the last few miles. Having said that, it was good to make it up here as this was all new to me compared to my ad hoc 76mile loop last year. The second loop that’s added onto the 200K off Dutcher Creek is a bit of an anticlimax – you get some more gentle climbing/rollers but not much payoff. Once you pass under the highway the scenery returns and that gets a bit more enjoyable.

The scenery on the return loop is very pleasant, and there are more opportunities to drive the pace a little higher. Unfortunately, my backside and foot were pre-occupying me a little, so I didn’t spend as much time taking in the surroundings. However after the final rest stop at 110, I started feeling a bit more chipper and we finished strong. Chalk Hill really wasn’t much of an issue and we turned in to the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Center riding on pretty fresh legs.

Kudos also to ahmose, he rode a great pace and had good endurance, and was also good company for the day. Now, you just need to work at shaving off rest stop time, my friend!



A few random thoughts:

It’s cool to see fields of cows sleeping when you’re driving up to the start. It’s not so cool to drive through a cloud of bugs and pepper your car+bike before you’ve even turned a pedal.

Good job put on by SRCC hosting.

Surprising how many folks choosing to ride with helmet mirrors didn’t seem to make use of ‘em. Routinely came across folks riding two abreast across the whole lane but unaware of cyclists riding a faster pace trying to squeeze by. To be expected I guess when you have all the routes overlapping.

One of these rides, I’m going to treat myself to a massage.

Halfway through I started to get a click from my bike (possibly pedal/cleat?) and I became “that guy” who closes from behind with a steady tick-tick. Made me think of the crocodile from Peter Pan.

DiabloScott

I enjoyed myself a lot, but got some pretty bad leg cramps early on... E-caps didn't help this time. Tailwind after lunch was really nice though.

OH! and then I got a flat at Chevron station right before the finish! Literally like 500 meters from the parking lot. Jeez I couldn't catch a break.

Anyone remember the site of the photo guy right after the bridge?



Matching hats from the 1985 WCC.

RayP

Much better weather this year! Warm but not too hot.

Managed to get around soon enough to mainly have a tail wind after the lunch stop. That was nice.

The worst part was the rider from a Santa Rosa cycling group that wasn't paying attention at the back of his riding line as they passed and barrelled into my brother-in-law from behind at full speed, knocking them both down. BIL has a broken arm, scrapes, and bruised temple. He gets the Ironman award, though, as this happened on one of the descents just before the Chalk Hill climb and he got up, climbed the hill and rode on to finish the 100 mile ride.

I told him to be sure and send all of the medical bills to the rider and to make sure his insurance knows who was responsible. Maybe if he has to pay up he will be a bit more careful in the future. Kind of ruined an otherwise great day.

Ray

Beaker

That sucks, RayP. It sad to say, but it's amazing how much common sense is lacking in a lot of riders. Hope your brother in law heals up soon.

Beaker

Only one I've got was the one from the route sheet

https://milesjohnphotos.ifp3.com/#/page/home/

who also did last years. Not sure if that's the same guy you're referring to Scott?

DiabloScott

Yeah thanks. Checked the SRCC website but not the rout sheet. No photos up yet though.

Philipaparker

The Wine County Century was my first 100-mile century. I started cycling last year and did the 2009 MS150 Waves to Wine. At 58 years old and 240 lbs the route was challenging but not really that hard. Weather was cool in the morning and warm and windy in the afternoon. About 12 of us got together for the ride some carpooling up from SF and joining up with three folks from Sonoma. First the support and volunteers were really great. First rest stop at 26 miles was just right. The countryside was outstanding birds chirping, cows in meadows, and riding through a cold redwood forest. I'm glad it decided to wear my arm warmers.

The only serious climb was somewhere around mile 33 where a hard steep hill. Some of the guys in our group who had ridden the first half of the course about a month before and one shouted out here it comes. He was right it went from a 7% grade to about a 28% grade! We stopped at the top for our group photo. The steep accent up was followed by and equally steep decent down.

I can’t say enough about the county up there absolutely fantastic, meadows with cows and horses, wineries, great company, open roads, few cars and lots of cyclists.

Ran into people I met on other training rides in Marin.

Then mile 75 fatigue set in, the final rests stop was a long break for me I had slowed down and got there just as my group was leaving. I had slowed down, way down I finished an hour behind every one else in the group my time 7:10 of saddle time. The rest of the guys finished in 6 hours and change. Oh well there is always next year and I plan on being there again. On a good note around mile 92 the last climb of the day up Chalk Hill many people were walking their bikes up but I made the climb. That was an accomplishment!

Overall a great ride and a great time see you next year.
https://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

DG Going Uphill

I think I experienced that group. A paceline, doubled up in spots, passed me in another paceline while cars were also passing in both directions! They were the only idiots I encountered throughout the day and I would not be surprised if that was the group that got your brother -- there were some squirrelly folks on the back of that group. The other odd incident was almost being clipped at two miles per hour by a sheriff at a stop sign -- he had an unruly passenger in the backseat in cuffs. The funny thing was that he had come from behind with deliberate caution and cleared the intersection visually numerous times before he started rolling, so I won't hold it against him.

For only two super minor incidents of note over 100 miles, I am pretty impressed; usually I have that many in the first block of any ride I do out of my home. I definitely need to do more riding up in that area.

ahmose

Tremendous and throughly enjoyable day on the bike.
This was my very first organized ride and i have been looking forward to it for many weeks, anxiously checking the weather forecast and hoping for good weather (especially given the spell of rain that we've been suffering from this winter/spring, and the wet weather that i've read about from last year's event).
Met with Beaker in the Wells Fargo parking lot (i was glad i didn't wear the jacket as it got considereanly warmer as the day progressed).


This was definetly one of the most scenic rides that i have ever done and i'm glad i decided to tackle the 200K course as the extra coast loop was truly breathtaking.



Countless vineyards and wineries


Definetly enjoyed the food on the rest stops.
This was the first rest stop:


The Santa Rosa cycling club did a great job with the food and the rest stops in general.



Some of the food included: Fruits( strawberries, bananas (ofcourse), oranges, melons), cookies (several kinds), PB&J sandwiches (awesome and i had some of those), roasted potatoes (also great), M&Ms and nuts (filled a bag of those and munched on them).

Here Beaker is enjoying some cyclist specific food:



Drinks were a different story for me though: i was hoping for something other than Gatorade and that EFS drink.
I had to do with what they had since i didn't pack anything else (lesson learned for the future), and i also didn't feel like schmoozing any of the Heed or perpeteum that Beaker generously offered.


I thought we made very brief stops, but beaker alerted me afterwards that we almost spend 2 hours on the rest stops !!


Some random thoughs on the ride itself:
I was under the impression that there is not much climbing on this route. However, there we a few steep but short sections for sure i think my Garmin showed some grades in the teens. Overall i think it wasn't too bad at all added some extra spice/challenge to the ride.
I did get tired of some of those seemingly never ending rollers though. Garmin showed total ascent of about 7500 ft when all was said and done.

The wind by the coast was pretty rough. Such a shame because the ocean views were spectacular but i kept wishing to get back inland to escape the wind. Beaker egged me on to try to form some sort of paceline/draft thing going, however i was too slow to keep up with his blistering pace.
More gratuitous coastal picture:



The lunch stop at Lake Sonoma came at the perfect time and the made to order sandwiches (with the extra avocados for me) really hit the spot.



Surprisngly, felt great towards the end of the ride and the chalk hill road climb was not a problem at all.


The bbq at the end of the ride was really great. Really enjoyed those turkey sandwiches.

Well done Beaker, thanks for the great company.


Me after the ride enjoying the feeling of finishing my first ever organized ride:

1jacktripper

Fantastic job, bassem!

ahmose

Was hoping to meet up with you during the ride. Hopefully on a future BF Norcal ride.

BlastRadius

Great reports guys. Wish I were there.