Yesterday I completed the Solvang Century. It was my first century and first 100 mile ride. The route was beautiful, winding around through the Santa Ynez Valley from Solvang, through Buellton, up to Lompoc, over to Santa Maria, and then back through Foxen Canyon and Los Olivos before returning to Solvang.
It was a great ride, featuring a fairly hilly 5,000 of climbing. None of the climbs are especially difficult in and of themselves, but since they mostly come after the 65 mile point, you have to do them tired, which makes them a bit more challenging.
Overall I felt excellent through the ride. I was a little worried that once I hit the 80 mile point I’d be really tired (since my longest ride previous was only 68 miles). However, although I did slow down some, ultimately I felt good and definitely wasn’t suffering unduly at all. I finished feeling good and energetic, if a bit tired from being on the bike for seven and a half hours.
It was definitely something of an adventure, as my riding partner Bill has been having some trouble with cramping in his calves recently. The cramps hit him big time just after the rest stop at mile 60 and ultimately we had to part ways because Tessa and the boys were waiting for me at the finish line. Happily, Bill was able to continue and ultimately complete the ride, coming in about 45 minutes after me. He definitely had to dig deep and ride through a lot of pain, so hats off to him!
This was my first big group ride and it was pretty interesting. There were lots of tandems, a few recumbents (including a really sweet carbon lowracer that was really impressive) and even one dude riding a unicycle. Riding in the big groups was a little freaky for me, up to the 40 mile point I felt a lot more comfortable riding in the gaps between. It was definitely cool to see the long line of riders stringing off into the distance… really amazing.
I saw a number of bike crashes, none especially bad, but a lot more than I expected. The thing with a century, I guess, is that everyone sort of comes out of the woodwork, and a lot of them don’t have nearly as much time in the saddle as others. It’s a full cross-section of bicycling humanity, in other words. I didn’t have any close calls, but it definitely could have happened.
Between the stop at mile 40 and the stop at mile 60 we fell in with a group slipstreaming behind a tandem. Bill had told me how tandems tend to pick up long lines of riders who take advantage of their large wind profile to slipstream, and boy was it true. People would just suck onto them like “remoras” (Bill’s phrase) and you’d end up with a train of 20-30 solo riders behind each one. Definitely helped the miles go by, though!
A few miles before the 60 mile stop, I stayed clipped in at a stoplight (yay for fixed gear trackstand practice) and was able to sprint to the lead of the pack when the light turned. Being a big guy, I’m almost as good as a tandem in terms of slipstreaming so I ended up leading the pack into the 60 mile stop. I was quite proud when I got complimented on a “nice pull” by the rider behind me as we rolled into the parking area. One more step in the evolution of my cycling career!
The scenery of the Santa Ynez Valley is amazing and even though the day stayed overcast nearly the whole time, everything was green and beautiful. I was so glad to learn some new roads up there and look forward to returning and doing a lot more riding up there in the future. It’s like cycling heaven!