What's Calistoga with no wine tasting?

Fun bike riding, that's what!

Last Sunday, two of the Jills and I went out to Calistoga to meet the Santa Rosa team. We got up at 5 a.m. to do so. What was I thinking? The drive over turned out to be pretty fun -- Vanessa drove her gigantic car and I don't like driving anyway, but it was great to ride over with Vanessa and Jen. Although, my dumb decaf coffee didn't do much for me. I needed one of those shots of caffeine (it's like a nap in a cup!) drinks. The farther we drove west, the foggier and more drizzly it got. At least fall is happening somewhere, if not here.

We found the Santa Rosa group and listened to some words of wisdom from their Coach Julie before hitting the road for a gorgeous route down the Silverado trail from Calistoga to Yountville. As soon as we started riding, I had to pee. No rest stops for 29 miles, lots of hills, and lots of bumps. You do the math.

Some girls stopped to pee in the bushes and after 3-4 of them had traipsed down, one of them exclaimed that there was poison oak down there and that people had been grabbing on to it (but not using in in uncomfortable ways, as far as I know). I looked as we were leaving, and I think that what they saw was oak, not poison oak, but it's nice to be looked after (of course, I might be wrong -- did you get a rash Vanessa?). I might not have believed them, but I also didn't pee in those bushes.

We had two groups of people -- I led the first group on a 16-20mph pace (it turned out the first group also split into two groups), and there was a second group that stayed around 13-15 (I think). This means that we got to the rest stop first and had first dibs on the restroom. A good reason to pedal faster.

A few highlights:
Jen's new jersey from Washington (and a goofy grin, but I think that's California-made):

[psst, Mom -- where's my Colorado Jersey?? :) ]

Here's the Sacramento Jills on the side of the cute little market where we stopped for water, etc. (some girls went to the deli and got chicken strips or nuggets or something -- a great ride food -- all that protein and plenty of breaded nuttiness on the outside to pack some energy. I sort of wished I were eating meat right now. Sort of). I brought my Trio bars and some Emergen-C. Good enough.


I also brought V & Jen some chocolate milk for after the ride -- supposed to be a great recovery drink. Makes me wish I were drinking milk. That reminds me: I need to find a good electrolyte replacement. Everyone has a suggestion of his or her favorite -- I guess I need to find mine.







Lots of bikes hanging out waiting to hit the road again.

















The ride back was more uphill then downhill, but it was shorter, so we just put our heads down and went for it. I missed all sorts of photo-ops, but there's a lot of pressure to be at the head of a group of 16 riders, so pulling out my camera was secondary.

The fog burned off just as we were getting to the rest stop -- so our last 20 miles or so were sunny and warm and not too breezy. I'm trying to think of something better than wine country in the fall, but nothing comes to mind.

Of course, you can't see from this shot, but the grapes are all ripe and low-hanging, and smelling sort of like fermenting fruit, and ready to be picked! Bright purples and some gold. In a few weeks, the leaves on the vines will be changing and mark my words, I'll be back out there soaking it in -- maybe next time for some wine-tasting! Anyone want to go?

After the 50-mile ride, we had a picnic with the Santa Rosa team -- it was very quiet, considering there were 16 women there, while people chose among the fantastic options and settled in for some calorie-replacement.

Someone got a group shot of the two teams -- I'll try to track that down.

The ride we're training for is only 2 1/2 weeks away! Hurray for us all!