Who says there’s no free lunch? Whoever it is, they haven’t been hanging around the Santa Rosa Cycling Club lately. The grand old tradition of the Free Lunch Ride is being revived. It has been awhile since we did one of these rides, so many of you may not even be familiar with the concept. A little history is in order. Way back in the 20th Century, we used to have a Stamping Bee at the February club meeting: putting stamps and address labels on all of the fliers for the Wine Country Century and Terrible Two. As a reward to all the folks who showed up to help out with the work at the meeting, we gave out vouchers good for a meal and a drink at El Sombrero Taqueria in Healdsburg.
Where the Ride part of Free Lunch Ride gets into the frame is that we spliced the lunch date onto the end of the club’s original multi-tempo rides: three tempos and three routes, all cleverly crafted to bring the riders on all routes back to El Sombrero at the same time (noon).
When the Stamping Bee went away, the raison d’etre for the Free Lunch Ride evaporated. But now we have an excuse for bringing it back. When we were forced—relunctantly—to take the free pizza out of the Pizza, Politics, & Prizes format for the January election meeting, we felt we needed to replace it with some other fun occasion for the members. Enter—or reenter—the venerable Free Lunch Ride concept. This time, we offered the sweetener to all the people who showed up for the pizza-less election night. We wanted to thank them for showing up to vote, even without the lure of free food. How did we thank them? We give them a voucheer for free food later. Deferred gratification.
We took down the names of everyone at the meeting—everyone we could see—and those folks are entitled to a free burrito and drink at El Sombrero after the Second Saturday Ride on March 10th. You are of course welcome to come on the SS ride(s), whether you have a free lunch waiting for you or not. If you were at the meeting, we have your name. Find Bill Oetinger before or after the ride and he will check you off the list and hand you some cold, hard cash, which you can then convert into an order of excellent food.
The rides are always fun. Some of the biggest crowds of the year for these mellow runs up and down Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. And the social scene at El Sombrero is fun. We pretty much take the place over. Once I overheard a woman at the front door (to her husband): “Oh, I don’t know Frank: the whole place is full of bikers!”
This year’s WCC Volunteer Appreciation Ride & BBQ will be held on Saturday, May 12th (the weekend after the WCC). The Clo-terium Downtown Crit Race is scheduled for Sunday, May 6th, so we decided to move the WCC Worker’s Ride to avoid a conflict. There will be four full rest stops along the standard WCC course and a great BBQ spread for your enjoyment after the ride. Please mark your calendars and RSVP to your Committee Chair.
The rest stop crews are either full or almost full. Areas still needing help are: Registration on Friday and Saturday; Course Hosts; Wells Fargo Center-Food Service; and Clean-up/Equipment Handling.
We still need a Course Host Committee Chair. This person would recruit and organize 15 to 20 volunteers to be course hosts out along the routes. Many of the past volunteers will help again, and I’m sure past Chair Tom Bahning will give lots of guidance. We need someone to step forward and take on this project.
The volunteers who staff the Wells Fargo Center have a great chance to hear first-hand how much the riders love our ride. It’s fun seeing all those smiling riders. We have three shifts, five hours each, three volunteers per shift. 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, Noon to 5:00 pm, & 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Talk to Michele Kane (kearykane@yahoo.com, 877-892-1823) to volunteer.
In past years, an area where we have always needed more help is Cleaning and Equipment Handling (after the ride). Often it’s the same volunteers who have worked all day at other jobs who end up doing the bulk of this work. This year we are trying to do a better job of organizing these chores and recruiting fresh volunteers.
This job includes cleaning, sorting, and loading the equipment and supplies returned from the rest stops. Then on Sunday we will be unloading and returning all the rental trucks. We will have three shifts, five hours each, and need five volunteers for each shift. Saturday at WFC: 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm or 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm; Sunday at the club locker, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Talk to Doug Simon (577-0113, desimon@sbcglobal.net) about this crew.
March means many things to many people. For most (in this region anyway), it means the onset of spring. The cold stone of winter is rolled away from the door, and cyclists have at least a better-than-average chance of enjoying decent weather on their bike rides. In a few bike clubs, March also means a many-miles mania. The Davis Bike Club started it with March Madness, and we followed suit with our own spin on the deal: March Magic.
The premise is simple: set a goal for yourself for how many miles you want to or hope to ride during the month. In keeping with the bold, heady expectations that accompany spring fever, set a lofty goal...a wild and crazy agenda for yourself. Go for it! Once you’ve set your goal, post it to the club’s on-line March Magic page, so that all your friends and fellow riders can see just how big a maniac you are. Then get out there and ride the miles so that you can come back and enter them into the on-line log...to prove you really are that crazy.
In theory, you will have plenty of support for your goal-chasing from the company of all your club mates who are also taking part in the same quest. And in collusion with the MM program, you also have the AA program (April Alpina) and the CC program: the year-long Century Challenge. And as long as we’re talking miles here, let’s not overlook the CM (Commute Miles) program, which also has its own on-line log. Between the four different programs and their logs, you can stay busy non-stop, logging miles in everything from large, wholesale job lots to little, round-the-corner commutes. All miles are good and they all count. Now get out there and start pedaling!
The mileage feeding frenzy that is March Magic traditionally finds its closure with the MM Picnic, held in April...this year on Saturday, April 14. But this MM Picnic will be a little different. The club has decided to open the party up to all club members, whether they did the MM thing or not. Participation in MM is still very much encouraged, but the picnic is there for everyone.
All food and drinks provided by the club. Noon to 3:00 PM (or possibly 1:00 to 4:00); Riverfront Regional Park (off Eastside Road). This will be our Second Saturday multi-tempo date, and rides will be listed for A, B, & C groups, all designed to arrive at the park in time for the feast. Do the rides, log the miles, and enjoy the picnic!
2007 is a Paris-Brest-Paris year. This is the equivalent of the Olympics for the world of randonneuring: it comes up once every four years. PBP is the biggest and oldest and most prestigious of all the 1200-K enduros...the crown jewel. To qualify to participate in this famous event, riders must complete a series of shorter endurance rides called brevets over the months leading up to PBP in August. The Santa Rosa Cycling Club, under the guidance of Donn King, our RUSA representative, is staging a full slate of qualifying brevets this spring, beginning with a 200-K and 300-K this month (see ride list for more info). Donn, a two-time PBP finisher, gives us his insight here into the world of PBP and randonneuring...
Randonneuring is an interesting bicycle phenomenon indeed. In a way, it isn’t that difficult to do. You don’t have to be fast, since the time allowances are pretty generous. You do have to be fit, but speed and quick twitch muscle fibers are not necessary. What you need to have is the “muscle of endurance,” and that muscle is found in the brain, embedded in the personality—determination is the common trait found in all randonneurs. Just as fast twitch fibers are mostly a feature of genetics, maybe the willful determination of the randonneur is a genetic gift as well?
One night, on an all-night brevet, the woman that I was riding with, Lois, a four-time PBP finisher, said, “this isn’t for everyone,” meaning that riding through the night, randonneuring, ultra distance riding, spending days on the bike is not to everyone’s tastes. Even other bike riders have a tendency to hold long distances in awe. This can be surprising to the randonneur because he or she knows that what they are doing isn’t fancy. It’s just settling down to the task of spending possibly several days in the saddle; sort of a yeoman’s job of bicycling. You don’t need talent, you just need desire. You also don’t need a support crew, as in RAAM or Furnace Creek. Randonneurs are self-sufficient riders and travel without accompanying support cars. They carry extra layers of clothing to deal with the weather and lights to illuminate the road at night.
In this way, Paris-Brest-Paris is a classic cycling event that is accessible to the masses. Anyone can go to Paris and feel famous. Having countless people cheer for you at all hours along the route is something very special. And when you finish, you will have joined a very elite fraternity of endurance athletes. You have to qualify, but it’s all part of the experience. Rare is the person who doesn’t think it was all worthwhile in the end. Just remember, as you head on down the road toward Paris: be nice to your family, because they will have to tolerate and support this idea. The hours of preparation and qualifying take a lot more than normal club cycling. To be a PBP finisher leaves memories and personal pride that last a lifetime. It is to be hoped that the riders’ families will see that it was worthwhile too. It all takes effort and a lot of time and determination, but it doesn’t take brilliance. All that is required to get to Paris and beyond is a good bicycle and a strong work ethic .
If you want to try PBP, join Randonneurs USA before the 200-km brevet, since membership is required if you want to go to Paris. (Membership is not required if you merely want to ride SRCC brevets). If you join RUSA, you will also get a useful “how to” handbook that will tell you lots more about this sport than this space can allow. Annual dues are $20; go to: www.rusa.org. For more information on the SRCC series of qualifying brevets, go to the club website (srcc.com) and click on the Brevets link under Events.
The Tour is full...booked to capacity
Any further entrants will be placed on a waiting list, and while it is possible that cancellations will allow some of those to move onto the tour roster, it should not be considered a likely possibility.
Six stages • 410-250 miles • 29,000' (or less)
Still about 10 spots on this Tour...
Slightly more accessible than our Northern Oregon Tour: a little closer to home and a little shorter on bike miles, with some form of shorter, easier option on each of its six stages. (The longest, hilliest options each day will still be quite challenging.) Also one day shorter than the Oregon Tour. Remixed from selected stages on the 1997 Central Coast Tour and the 2001 Condor Country Tour.
E-mail Bill Oetinger for a detailed stage-by-stage preview (pdf).
Entry fee: $350. (Includes camp fees and most meals.) To request a pdf entry form, e-mail or call Doug Simon (desimon@sbcglobal.net or 577-0113).
We left our club riders last month in the deep freeze of winter: the Second Saturday slate for January, where it had dipped to 20° or even a little lower overnight, and where it had only climbed to 30° at the start of the ride. Brrrr! In the month since then, things have changed a little, as in a heat wave that set records with days over 80° and conditions just about as nice as you could possibly imagine. It hasn’t been one seamless transition from ice box to balmy over the intervening month, however. We’ve had good days and bad. Let’s look back and see what we can reconstruct of those days gone by.
We begin on January 20 with Susan Noble and Randall Ray staging their Survivors and Supporters Ride, which also happened to be the Century of the Month. Here’s a report from the ride leaders: “It was a spectacular day and experience. Just prior to the start, Susan explained the odd name of the ride to our gaggle of 37 riders, gathered in the 35° clear-weather morning. She said there couldn’t be a better way this month for her to celebrate her five year cancer survivorship than to do a century bike ride with club members. Much to her surprise, many cheered and applauded! We stayed together through Chalk Hill, then split into smaller groups at Hwy128 and dealt with 19+ miles of 25+mph headwinds to Cloverdale. After some maneuvering and smart riding, several small pods formed into pace lines, providing breaks for each rider. The overlook above Lake Sonoma was spectacular, with crystal clear skies and quiet winds. Over 5000' of climbing...so much for a ‘flat’ January century. Two stops: a short one in Cloverdale and lunch at the Dry Creek Store. It was hard leaving the store after enjoying chatting, eating, and hydrating in the warm sun. What a great way for Susan to start the next five years of cancer survivorship and to start SRCC’s 2007 Century Challenge! Thanks to all who joined us, including several new members.”
The next day, Rose Mello led a ride from Sebastopol out to Korbel and back...an AB ride. Rose reports two dozen riders in attendance and perfect weather, at least by January standards. No problems at all. Just a pleasant ride.
The last weekend of the first month began with Ken Russeff’s South County Meandering ride out of Cotati. No, the ride didn’t go to Tomales...for a change. It meandered out into the Penngrove Gap, danced around the edges of Petaluma, and then returned to Cotati on the little lanes north of Penngrove. Ken checks in: “Last Saturday’s A ride out of Cotati had a limited turnout, due to the threat of rain. We had six enthusiastic riders, including a visitor from Napa. Fortunately, the day was dry, but we experienced clouds, fog, wind, and a fair amount of sunshine, which led to a continuous effort to balance the number of layers with the temperature. All in all, a good day. I recommend the café at the Petaluma Airport.”
Annie and Denise had a ride scheduled for the same day, but I never heard a word from them about it. It went from Annie’s place in Green Valley out to Valley Ford and Tomales. Always good stuff.
On Sunday, Brian Carroll and Mark Sedgwick listed a ride they called the Emerald Triangle Ride. This one carved a big, ragged, 70-mile loop from Santa Rosa south and west out into the dairy country north of Petaluma and then the rolling run up Hwy 1 north of Marshall, and finally back to SR through more hill country south of Sebastopol. One look at the green-as-Ireland pastures out in the west county was all it took to understand the name of the ride. I did this one, and while it was moderately nippy at the start, it was tolerable, and it warmed up nicely as the day went along. Most of the 20 or so riders who showed up were tilted toward the faster end of the club’s demographic, but the group worked together well, at least in the early going, with a smooth, medium-fast paceline heading south. Once out into the hills—Spring Hill, Wilson Hill, Marshall Wall—things broke up into little pods of riders...the usual shaking out. There were long, lazy regroups at Helen Putnam Park and in Tomales that brought folks back together, if only until the next hill loomed. All in all, one couldn’t really ask for a better day for a ride in mid-winter. It was a pleasure to be out there, all day long.
After having tooled up Hwy 1 along Tomales Bay on the Emerald Triangle Ride, we had a bit of deja voodoo when we did the same run—twice—six days later on the February Century of the Month. But who can complain about this sort of repetition? Riding along Tomales Bay almost never gets old, unless there’s a battle with a headwind on the card, and that was not the case on this ride, in either direction. It’s a curious fact of our local environment that the calmest days of the year out on the coast are often in the middle of winter, and such was the case for both the Emerald Triangle and what became known as the Heart’s Desire Ride on February 3. Where did that name come from? Imagine you’re riding along a lovely country road, and you see a turn-off to a side road, marked by a little sign with an arrow and the words “Hearts Desire.” How could anyone pass up an opportunity to ride directly to the place of their heart’s desire? And yet that’s what most of us have done for these many years: we’ve ridden right past the turn-off to Tomales Bay State Park, with lovely little Heart’s Desire beach as its centerpiece, at the end of a very sweet road leading into the park. This was the turnaround point on what was essentially an out-&-back from Willowside School to the Point Reyes land mass. We had another substantial crowd on hand for this century offering, and by the time we had scooped up additional riders on our transit of Sebastopol, we had over 40 folks on the bus. Not all were in it for the full 100 miles. Some bailed after the first rest stop in Tomales. But the majority hung in there, down and around the bay and back, with the beautiful National Seashore looking its best in this greenest and cleanest of seasons. (I was saying to myself, this is so beautiful, it ought to be a national park...and then I remembered—doh!—it is a national park.) Anyway...what a fine ride on a perfect day of warm weather and no wind. Heaven. Hearts desire.
In contrast to the big century ride, there were three other rides on the weekend that all offered their riders a lot less. But less can be more, if that’s what you need. On the same day as the century, Ken Russeff listed an A/AB ride out of Healdsburg: “What started out as a fairly cool morning turned into a nice day. (What else in Sonoma County?) The majority of the 17 riders formed a fairly quick B-level group, as most of them completed the extra 8+ miles on the AB loop and were long gone before the A group returned to the parking lot. A good day without major problems.”
On Sunday, Janice Eunice offered one of her Welcome Wagon rides, about which we did an article last month. These are entry-level rides, designed to bring beginning riders up to speed and into the fold. Janice didn’t send in a report on this ride, but George Gallegos did: “Janice Eunice’s beginners’ rides have proven to be successful, as she has had from eight to twelve riders each Sunday going out and doing eight to ten miles. The riders are beginners or experienced riders who have just been off their bikes for a long time and want to get going again. If you know anyone who needs a little support to get started, let them know about Janice’s Sunday Rides.” Two more of them are on the schedule this month. The same day, Rose had an AB ride out of Cotati that did go to Tomales: “There were 22 riders with a lot of hills to climb but no complaints. Everybody enjoyed the ride and the weather was perfect. It was another great day for riding.”
Then, after all that pleasant riding under clear if somewhat crisp skies, we hit our first official rain-out of the year. Poor Steve and Jessie Kroeck: every year they list their Valentine’s Sweetheart Ride, and in about half of those years, it rains on their parade. It happened again this year on February 10: rain early and often, and not even the slimmest chance that the ride could be squeezed in between the storm fronts. The next day though—Sunday—turned out to be lovely. Only problem was that we had no rides scheduled. This was because the day was ostensibly devoted to our semi-annual litter pick-up project. This one was a bit out-of-season. We normally do our spring cleaning in May, but because of the Tour of California coming to the region, we organized a clean-up that would tidy up some of the roads being used in the the tour, specifically Bennett Valley and Warm Springs, the start of Stage 2. Litter leader Gordon Stewart reports that 30 stalwart troopers showed up to scour the roads clean and then to revive themselves afteward with a lunch at Johnny Garlic’s. If you didn’t do the litter detail, you probably went for a ride on your own. (You could even have done both, with an afternoon ride, post pick-up.) If you did get out, you know it was a gorgeous day. Just one day too late for the Sweethearts.
The subsequent week ushered in an unreal heat wave, with records set for various dates and locales around the Bay Area over the next few days. These are the 80° days mentioned at the top. The February 10 rain-out was the last day of a whopper storm that had dumped heavy, steady rain on the region all week. This big infusion of much-needed water, coupled with the succeeding heat spike, jump-started springtime in the north bay. Streams were running at full spate, with our assorted seasonal waterfalls and cascades going strong. Numerous flora went into full-launch mode. Acacia, Scotch Broom, Oxalis clover, mustard, daffodils and crocuses were all firing off their brilliant yellow blossoms, followed in short order by the blushing pink of plum trees. Showtime!
Into this heady brew we leaped, beginning with the Tour of California Preview Rides on February 17. The weather was beyond perfect...some sort of meterological satori on the far side of perfection. The parking lot behind SR City Hall was swarming with riders at the start...A, B, and C contingents all mingling together. I doubt anyone got a good head count, but a safe guess would be at least 30 riders in each of the three groups. Many in attendance were out-of-towners, so the plan to lure visitors onto this ride appears to have worked. All three routes sampled at least some portion of the route of Stage 1 of the Tour of California on its approach to Santa Rosa. The C gang went all the way out to Hwy 1 and tackled the fierce ascent of Coleman Valley, which is the most exciting section of the stage. (By the time you read this, we’ll all know how that played out on Monday, February 19. But this has to go to the printer that very morning, so it’s all still in the offing as this is being written.) However the pros handle Coleman Valley, it was a tough challenge for at least some of us on the club ride. We all did it, and we all enjoyed the absolutely dazzling scenery, but the climb is definitely stout work. Those out-of-towners, new to our area, will have gained a deeper appreciation for the quality of the back roads in Sonoma County, and for the challenge facing the pros on Stage 1. And we weren’t the only cyclists out on this glorious day, with the added excitement of the Tour on the horizon. Everywhere we went, the roads were thronged with riders, sometimes in little groups and sometimes in larger mini-pelotons sporting team and club colors. It was a day for bikes, all over the map...the way it should always be.
In case you were wondering, this third Saturday ride took the place of our usual Second Saturday ride as the multi-tempo, all-inclusive ride of the month for February...all part of the excitement leading up to the big race in the following week.
On our last date in this reporting cycle—February 18—Wayne Kellam was the ride leader: “My Dry Creek Valley ride had an interesting makeup for only eight riders. We had three recumbents—one a streamliner—one tandem, and three non-club-members. The sky was bright and clear, but there was a wind out of the north that made the ride up the valley a chore. The group decided to have a rest stop at the Dry Creek store and forget the last few miles into the wind. The store is great, but they have some very sharp speed bumps out front. On our way out, this ride leader had just taken one stroke and was preparing to sit on his saddle when he hit the bump. My front wheel stopped cold, which meant I got to ride the bike over the handlebars and then do a roll-out (me rolling, not the bike). The landing was soft—no harm done—but I’m too old for this! The ride home with the tailwind was a joy.” Never too old for a helping of humble pie, Wayne!
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