Woody Y Century & Family Fun Ride: 04-10-2010 07:00 AM - 04:00 PM

[herbm]

Originally Posted by DanteB

I'll be at the registration Friday evening and over the BBQ Saturday.

Perfect....we are going to reg Fri so we dont have to deal with it Sat AM

Hows the weather?

[DanteB]

Originally Posted by herbm

Perfect....we are going to reg Fri so we dont have to deal with it Sat AM

Hows the weather?

National Weather Service, 73 mostly sunny light wind from the northwest 4-7mph. Northwest would mean tailwind coming back.

[herbm]

Originally Posted by DanteB

National Weather Service, 73 mostly sunny light wind from the northwest 4-7mph. Northwest would mean tailwind coming back.

Excellent!!!thanks

[MarkAJ]

It is only 2 hours and 10 minute drive to this event from Burbank. I was in a hotel for $47 a night. The room was good with all you needed. However, it was butted against the 99 freeway on one side, a train staging depot on another and in the front was miniature golf with not my kind of music playing. I did not sleep well, but it was $47 with tax for the night.


I did my pickup for the ride Friday evening and I thought it was well done. I have never gotten my route slip in my goodie bag, I like that. The goodie bag had some nice stuff in it. I saw tubes, patch kits, tire levelers and everyone got a Woody Y patch. Some rides I have attend I wondered why I got an empty bag. (Don’t answer that question.)

The start had plenty of parking and easy to access. The sun came out right away and casted your shadow. Starting out the first 7-miles on a well persevered bike path was a great warm up and scenic with small lakes and green parks. Good route especially for first time century rider. I thought Granite Road was good, but Woody Road was even better. This is where the climbing was, first 40 miles. AGAIN (meaning like last Saturday), it was 15-20mph head winds for some 50 miles and then again off and on to the finish. The first 40 miles are scenic hills with cattle and horse land. I did see one meadow covered in white flowers that looked like frost on the ground. After rest stop two and 55miles or so it really got flat. This is where you get a good aerobic workout. Being there were no down hills or stops that mattered at this point you pedaled and pedaled or you went nowhere. I rode with my own shadow all day. Unzipped the vest and arm warmers came off in the later part of the ride. I don’t mind that kind of riding, but if I had two other riders with me doing a pace line we could have finished this century in under 6-hours. I thought the rest stops were spaced out correctly too. The stops had plenty of food, water and bike racks. There were a lot of volunteers and all were nice and willing to help. It is comforting to see SAG vehicles. I have been on many rides where I never see one vehicle.

All road conditions were good. The century route did not require a lot of markers and they were their when needed. However, not being from anywhere around Bakersfield I could have used a few more makers I will call “confidence makers”. Confidence markers are those ground markers you might find 150 feet after the proper turn or transition threw a big intersection just to let you know you did do it right. Also, found midway on long stretches to let you know you did not space out and missed a turn. Those table grape farm roads go on forever. You have some time to think.

The route slip was good. Large easy to read font, folded in half without cutting off information and best was the separation of Total Distance numbers from the Next Turn numbers with the street names. This makes reading what numbers easy while riding. Mileage accurate, nice.

Included BBQ at the end was good. I am not a big fan of baked beans, but I got my share of chicken (1/2 chicken at a time) and salad. And I could have had seconds, wow! Everyone from volunteers to other riders made me feel welcome especially when they found out I was from out of town.

They had a raffle and music at the finish. The music was good. I grew up with rock’n roll from the sixties and seventies so I would of course liked more of that. (I am going to see the Eagles perform next Tuesday night.)

I would recommend this ride. BTW: Without support you could never ride this route. No water, stores and probably too hot in the summer.

[herbm]

Well I finally got meet Danteb after all these years....
What a great guy, and he has a super wife as well....They are both the nicest people.

As Mark said , easy drive up, noisy rooms...my room was even closer to the freeway...
But I did get to see tprevost, who I havent seen in way too long a time.
She had her son who wanted to do an organized ride. Good for him!!
They joined us at out pre-ride special dinner...KFC...yum...

It was cool to start, but not bad at all...
The bike path was really nice....it traverses the entire city from what I heard...really nice parks and wetlands along the way...
I was able to hang onto Marks wheel for the 1st 12 miles..then we turned into the wind and uphill and I had to drop back...I was then alone for the rest of the ride...no biggie...I saw sag pass me many times...
I passed a few riders and some passed me on the way to Woody.
The ride up thru the oil fields was really nice, but the climb to Woody was spectacular...really beautiful area.
By the 2nd stop at 45miles I asked if I was last...they said there were 10 behind me...I only saw 1 other rider who caught up at each rest stop.
After that, the flat farmland.....wow...these fields went on forever....never seen fields so large....make the Oxnard plain look like a backyard patch!
But that did require you to pedal constantly....after some turns I had a good tailwind and could ease off a bit.
Finally go thru the last rest stop and back into town, then back on the bike path...lots going on in the parks along the path.

A quick change then onto the BBQ...OMG...Dante has one of those huge pull along bbqs...and he knows how to use it...the food was fantastic!
Of course Mrs dante made sure I was well taken care with fresh food (chicken and tri-tip) and drink!
I could see Dante entering one of those BBQ contests I see on TV, he could win that!!!
BTW, he also has asbestos hands, no tongs, just some gloves he uses to turn and test!

My overall impression is this was a great ride and one I would definitely do again. While the headwinds were tough, they could have been worse!
The roads for the most part were very smooth and nice...scenery was great.
I agree on the route slips, one of the easiest to read I have ever used.
Marks' "confidence" markers are a good idea, I would also liked to have seen some markers a bit sooner before the turns...
All the volunteers were awesome....a few real characters at some of the rest stops made it even more fun!!
The usual sag stop food was fresh and plentiful. They even would fill my bottles for me!

Cant wait for next year!!