10-15-06

by: Paul Grube

Foxy Fall Classic (Davis, CA)
I traveled to Sacramento, CA last weekend. I went up on Thursday night and met up with the Sacramento bike hikers club  Friday morning.  They have at least 1 ride every day of the week!  10-13-06 I did a ride along the American River Parkway (APR) The ARP is a beautiful 33-mile long (one way) trail along the river.  On this ride I saw deer,turkeys and all manner of waterfowl.

Saturday 10-14-06 I rode with the   

Sac bike hikers again and rode

the “Bud-to-Bud Tour”. 

This ride started and finished at the Budweiser brewery (no, I didn’t take the tour, though some did) and had a rest stop at the Wooden Valley Winery. 

I recommend the pinot noir and the port.  

This ride was a preview for my ride Sunday as parts of it were on the same route as the Foxy Fall Classic.  Again, I saw both turkeys and deer.

Saturday evening I did another short ride with the Sac bike hikers on the ARP called the “pizza ride”.  You can guess what we ate when we finished the ride!  Yes, I saw more deer and turkeys.

Finally, Sunday 10-15-06 and I was ready to go at 7:00 for the Foxy Fall Classic.  The ride was well hosted by the Davis Bicycle Club  The food and support were well above average and all for just $30!  I would have liked to have a timing chip etc, but for $30 I wasn’t complaining!  The roads were good for 95% of the ride, but where they were bad they were skull jarringly rough.  The route traveled through the rolling vineyards of Napa Valley and past beautiful Lake Berryessa.  There was little traffic and I enjoyed the scenery.

In the first 8 miles I fell into a small fast pack lead by two guys named  “Rock Star” and “Mojo”.  There names made me think two things; one, I want a nickname, two, this should have been a tip that I shouldn’t be there…but I didn’t get the hint.  Rock Star and the others in the group were riding fixed geared bikes very, very fast.  As I took my short 30 second pulls on the front compared to their 4 minute pulls I found out that they are the founders of the “Big Fix”.  The Big Fix is a cross country ride using fixed geared bicycles.  At 25 miles we reached the first rest stop.  They stopped, I didn’t.  After I was out of their draft I realized my legs were already pretty tired.  I rode alone until 45 miles in when a group of 30+ riders from the Cal-Berkeley team, and the SRAM team went screaming past.  Literally, I heard them coming and thought it was a truck.  I instinctively pulled over to let them pass.  I had to sprint all out to hang onto the back of the pack!  I hung onto this group for about 5 miles until we hit 3 consecutive hills and I was toast.

LUNCH at 58 miles.  Still more deer and turkeys!

The next 30 miles of the ride I rode pretty easy and enjoyed a few steep climbs and several long descents back to the flats.  Once I hit the flats I hooked up with another group of riders.  We took strong, equal, 1-minute pulls with 3 guys while a guy with an upright bike with a wood and wire basket on the front sat on our wheels.  How he did this I don’t know, but I secretly guessed he must have been Floyd (Roid?) Landis.  With about 5 miles to go “Roid” pulled around us and went by!  The four of us stopped pedaling long enough to exchanged looks of disbelief.  To our great relief he pulled into a driveway just ahead of our weary pack.  Finally, we pulled into the tree-lined roads of the Davis campus for another tasty meal.  108 miles in 5:31