Wine Country Century (100 miles)

This Saturday was the Santa Rosa Wine Country Century, a really gorgeous ride that manages to capture most of the flavors of Sonoma wine country.. quaint towns, vineyards, rolling hills, redwood forests, the Russian river valley, etc. This is the second year in a row I’ve tackled the century route (I did the metric a few years back) and it remains one of my favorite rides. This year I definitely felt stronger than last year, when I felt so relieved when I crossed the finish line that I actually had tears in my eyes. It’s a relatively flat ride for a century, about 3500 feet of climbing, but it’s still challenging enough to feel like a real accomplishment. Next year I’d really like to do the double metric route, their 120 mile option that mostly follows the century route but includes a loop out to the coast at Bodega bay.

I traveled up to Santa Rosa on Friday night and stayed at the Fountaingrove Inn, just 2 miles south of the ride start. Parking at the ride start is a bit of a pain, so it’s nice to be able to ride there directly from the hotel. Side note: this was my first stay at the Fountaingrove Inn, and I was quite pleased. It’s a nice low-key upscale hotel, and the room was really well insulated. Even though I was right next to the lobby, I didn’t hear a thing all night and was able to get a great night’s sleep.

Saturday morning I left the hotel just after 6:30 and was at the official route start by 6:45. The first 20 miles of the route are really flat and easy, and really the only part of the ride where I’m able to take advantage of the pseudo-peleton effect. That is, I can tag along with big groups of riders and go at a very comfortable 20 mph pace before the first climb of the day. While riding with one group I chatted with a guy from Alameda who was doing the Wine Country Century 100 mile route and then, the following day, doing the Grizzly Peak century back in Berkeley. That’s what we call hard core.

The first hill of the day was on Graton Road, a nice steady, easy climb. After Graton there’s a quick decent through forested river valley to the first rest stop in Monte Rio, at mile 26. I had wanted to be at Monte Rio by 9:15, but I actually pulled in at 8:37! So I really managed to cover a bit of ground that first leg.

The Wine Country Century has some of the best rest stops, with lots of great food, both hot and cold. Something that they had this year that I thought was brilliant were banana slices with a spoonful of peanut butter and an M&M on top. Simple, but really, really good. Everyone was crowding around this guy constructing the PB&Bs, and he couldn’t make them fast enough.

The next segment of the ride, from Monte Rio to the Wohler Bridge rest stop (mile 48.5), passes through the Russian river community of Guerneville and then snakes through back roads to head back towards Santa Rosa. For the most part this is rolling terrain, although there are two short steep climbs here. The worst is on Green Valley Road, where I managed to get three quarters up by zig-zagging across the road. When that became impossible (too many cyclists, a car or two), I had to stop and walk the bike the rest of the way. I had to do this last year, too, but at least this year I got much farther up before having to go into my lowest gear. Progress! I was talking to a guy at the top of the hill, and he thought the grade was 14-17%, maybe even 20%. So, I’m not surprised I’ve had to hoof it up that hill; it’s definitely outside of my comfort zone.

I arrived at the Wohler Bridge rest stop at 10:50, having left the first rest stop at 8:50. I covered 22.5 miles in 2 hours, definitely slower than the first segment of the ride, but still a decent pace. I left the rest stop at 11:10, and began heading north through classic wine country terrain: lots of rolling hills, past vineyards, along very poorly paved country roads. Last year this section of the ride killed me, mostly because of steady headwinds. This year there was a very light tailwind, so it was smooth sailing all the way into the lunch stop at Warm Springs Dam at Lake Sonoma (mile 70). At the lunch stop the ride organizers build delicious made-to-order sandwiches; I had turkey with avocado on a whole wheat roll. Perfect! I couldn’t believe how great I felt at the lunch stop, and briefly wondered why I hadn’t tried for the double metric route after all.

Naturally once I hit the road again after lunch, I returned to reality and realized that fatigue was starting to set in. Those light tailwinds while heading north became somewhat strong headwinds traveling south for the final 30 miles. In addition, my Terry saddle really started to bother me quite a bit after mile 75 or so. I struggled a little for the final leg, and was quite happy to pass the cowbells at the finish line at 3:50pm. I did feel much stronger than last year, but also glad that I had not done part of the longer 120 mile route.

I do think that if I had not had the saddle pain on the final leg, I would have felt much better those last 30 miles. I’m going to take the brooks saddle from my other bike and try it out on the dolce, to see how it feels on some long rides coming up. Hopefully that will do the trick.


Event begin and end: 6:47am – 3:53pm

Total Distance: 100 miles
Elevation gain: 3500 feet
Time in the Saddle: 7 hours 46 minutes