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2001 Holstein Hundred Ride Report
(Sunday, August 19 in Tomales, CA.)
Catherine & I left at 3:45am (yikes!) to meet some of her fellow Sacramento Bike Hikers. After we all had
congregated and loaded up our bikes, we headed out from Sacramento towards the
ride start in Tomales at 4:30. There were 6 of us total, so 4 went in one
car, and Catherine & I followed in mine. 120 miles and 2 hours later, we
pulled into the ride start at Tomales High School.
After checking in and getting my Tshirt, we rolled out at around 7:00. The
route headed south on Highway 1 along Tomales Bay. This stretch had lovely
rolling hills, with great views of the bay. Alan & I rode together at a
pretty good clip, and got to the first rest stop (16mi) in short order. From
there we went east along Point Reyes-Petaluma Rd., past the beautiful Nicasio
Reservoir then turned north to the Cheese Factory rest stop (27mi). We were
making great time. What hills there were were not at all steep or long,
so I motored up most of them. I should have figured out that since this early
stretch was so non-hilly, and the ride was said to have 7,000-8,000' of
climbing, that there'd be much more climbing ahead, but I wasn't thinking
about that :)
From the Cheese Factory, we headed north, along Wilson Hill Rd., and up
Marshall-Petaluma/Chileno Rd. This was the first real climb of the day, but
it wasn't too bad, and I set a quick tempo up it, passing tons of people. At
the top, I stopped to enjoy the view, and waited for Catherine to catch up.
There was a great downhill from the top of this hill, then we went along
Chileno Valley and turned eastward on Tomales Petaluma to the lunch stop at
Two Rock (46mi). We were still making great time here at roughly the halfway
point in the ride, and I (foolishly) was thinking that this would be one of
the fastest centuries I'd ever ridden.
After lunch, we headed north, and things turned sharply upward. There weren't
really any long hills, but there were a ton of steep rollers. After
riding at a fast clip in the first half of the ride, my legs weren't
particularly happy with these short, steep hills. After a while, we pulled in
to the Twin Hills rest stop (63mi). From there we headed west along Barnett
Valley Rd and more rollers. This was lovely countryside, with dense forests
all around us. We headed north on Jonive Rd. to Occidental Rd., enjoyed a
lovely 2 mile descent, then turned on the Bohemian Highway (I love that road
name :) and went through the small town of Occidental. From Occidental, we
turned on Bittner for a mile or so, then continued west on Joy Rd. This too
was a beautiful road, but had quite a lot of climbing on it, which was
starting to really rather hurt after nearly 80 miles! It didn't take
too terribly long, however, to reach Bodega Highway and a short ride to
the last rest stop in Bodega (79mi).
The last leg of the ride went south along Highway 1, beautiful as always, to
Valley Ford, then headed further west and continued south towards Dillon Beach
on Franklin School Rd. This road was quite steep in places. The fog had
descended on us by this point, and it was rather surreal climbing these
coastal hills in such dense fog. From Dillon Beach (which we couldn't see due
to the fog), we went inland back to Tomales, then made a 10mi loop to get the
full 100 miles. There were some more rolling hills as we headed north on
Highway 1, but they weren't too bad, and I had the usual energy boost from
knowing that the end was in sight. We finally pulled into Tomales High school
and met up with the Bike Hikers who had done the 100km route. The food at the
ride end was very good, served up by the beneficiaries of the ride, the West
Marin Senior Services. After chowing down and chatting for a bit, Catherine
& I headed back.
This was overall a very good ride. We saw thousands and thousands of Holstein
cows (hence the ride's name), an the countryside was lovely (though the
hilliness of the second half caught me off-guard!).
Ride Stats:
| Distance: |
99.1mi |
| Total Time: |
9h 14m |
| On-bike Time: |
7h 23m |
| Average Speed: |
13.4mph |
| Maximum Speed: |
45.5mph |
| Total Climbing: |
~7000 ft |
Ride Rating:
| Difficulty: |
3.5 |
| Support: |
5 |
| Food: |
4 |
| Route: |
5 |
| Overall: |
4 - great ride! |
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