Marin Century

Bill Bushnell — Saturday, August 7, 2004

Ron Bobb, Randall Hull, and I rode the Metric Double, starting at the more civilized hour of 7:30. Along with several hundred other cyclists, we began with a short hill (Las Gallinas) through north San Rafael and then began the westward trek on Lucas Valley Rd. I was still wearing my long-sleeves by the time I got to The Rock at the top and was starting to sweat beads. But the descent into Nicasio proved to be rather cooler than the weather forecast had led us to believe: thick, dense fog that obscured the vision of anyone wearing glasses. I moved mine down over my mouth so that I could see. We exited the fog somewhere on the climb over the ridge between Nicasio Reservoir and Hicks Valley and stopped for about 15 minutes at the Lincoln School rest stop for a stretch break.

We rode together past the Photocrazy trap,

The right-hand panel shows Ron Bobb leading, Randall immediately behind, another cyclist we happened to be passing, and me at the far left.

The left-hand panel shows Ron Bobb, middle panel shows Randall on the right, another cyclist we happened to be passing in the middle, and me at the far left.

The left-hand and middle panels show Randall, the right-hand panel shows me.

The left-hand panel shows me.

but became separated on Marshall-Petaluma Rd. as Ron and I tried to stay away from the squirrelly pace-lines. The climb over the ridge to Marshall went relatively quickly; the max speed on the descent to CA-1 peaked at 51.3 mph.

A cyclist stopped at the intersection called out, asking if I was wearing anything “under there”. “Sometimes!”, was the reply. The next several miles I pressed on by myself trying to stay clear of pacelines, but found myself passed by them on the rises only to pass them again on the descents. Somewhere along here I passed Randall who had gotten ahead of me on the climb over the “Marshall Wall”. The road leveled out as it reached Tomales, and I was able to maintain a good pace with the tailwind. Between Tomales and Valley Ford, the road was still thick with cyclists, and I “enjoyed” the same push-me, push-you effect.

We reached the rest stop at Valley Ford and lingered until about 11:20. I saw Peter Borenstadt and Randy Gillette each riding a “Gillette” carbon-fiber high-racer and low-racer, respectively. They had started earlier than we and were riding 100 miles, so they were preparing to return to the start.

We continued north on CA-1 exchanging the crowds of cyclists for the heavy auto traffic making its way to Bodega Bay and the Sonoma Coast beaches to the north. The turn off to Bay Hill Rd. came not too soon.

We climbed moderate grades through eucalyptus groves, reminding me of some of the roads between Aromas and San Juan. Unfortunately, all this climbing came undone on the very bumpy and at times pot-holed descent back to CA-1. The ride north on CA-1 was along the coast at this point. The air was even a touch cold. When we turned off onto Coleman Valley Rd. a few miles to the north the air felt hot and still.

Coleman Valley Rd. climbs steeply and hotly for about a mile and a half before reaching the top of Irish Hill, where it continues a rolling climb to a summit of about 1100 feet—I was beginning to wonder why this road was named for a valley and not a ridge—before dropping quickly into Coleman Valley itself. Coleman Valley Rd. reminded me of the local road, Lobitos Creek Rd., which tops out along Irish Ridge.

After another short climb the road climbs briefly to a T intersection with Joy Rd. Oh joy! Randall was waiting here chatting with one of the other cyclists on the ride, and a short time later, Ron rode up. While we were eating and resting the first group of cyclists on the 200-mile course came through. We saw them come in later at Valley Ford, but I don’t remember passing them. They must have stopped somewhere or got off course somehow.

On Joy Rd. we still had some climbing to do, but not much. After getting caught behind a long line of cars that turned off a half-mile later, we began the fast and bumpy descent back toward Valley Ford. Somewhere along here I bested my previous maximum speed and convinced myself that Marin and Sonoma Counties must maintain their secondary roads to lower standards than the other bay area counties. We continued at a more moderate pace back to the Valley Ford rest stop, arriving around 14:00.

We lingered for a while eating, drinking, and chatting before pushing off on the remainder of the course where we expected a significantly flatter profile. Middle Rd. had one short, steep climb, but the rest of the ride into Petaluma was quite pleasant with a strong tailwind that became warmer—about 20F—as we got further from the coast. We rode together over much of this course, but at one point Randall stopped to check his cleat, I stopped further down the road, and Ron kept going. As I tried to start up I stalled when my cleat wouldn’t release and did what Randall described as the slowest topple he’d ever seen.

After I righted myself we both pressed on and tried to catch up to Ron, but he was too far ahead. I am certain that Ron rides faster when he’s in front of us than when he’s behind us.

Randall and I snagged about 1 bonus mile when I found myself on auto-pilot on the road into Petaluma. We headed for the park where the rest stop had been located previously on D Street and found ourselves amidst a farmer’s market.

We lingered at the Petaluma rest stop for nearly 45 minutes while snacking and otherwise cooling our heels and toes. We ran into Ken Holloway here. My guess is that he came in just behind us but didn’t do the bonus mile we did as I doubt we would have been overtaking him at our more relaxed pace.

The ride out of Petaluma involved a couple of moderate hills, one on I street and another on Pt. Reyes-Petaluma Rd. Along this section we passed many blackberry patches whose sweet scent was pungent in the warm afternoon air.

The remainder of the ride went without incident through Novato and back into San Rafael. We arrived around 19:00 and enjoyed a feast of a dinner.

Overall it was a well-supported ride on a beautiful course.

Ride stats:

distance: 134.3 miles

climbing: 8700 feet

total time: 11:24:11

riding time: 8:38:54

average speed: 14.4 mph

maximum speed: 51.5 mph

average HR: 98 bpm

average power: 150 watts

maximum power: 471 watts

total energy: 4678 Kilojoules (~= dietary Calories burned)

All averages exclude stopped time.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

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