Ride thru Wine Country ~ 55 miles

This Saturday morning, I arrived in Windsor at 8:15am to meet IronTeam mates Sedonia, Megan, Helen & Margaret for a training ride. I'm glad I made the 90-mile trek because we had perfect riding weather (blue skies, no wind, temp 48F). I was getting a preview of the first loop of the Vineman course that I will ride 112-miles on 8/1/09. I wanted to actually see what I was getting myself into and understand the potential difficulty/challenges of the route.

Living near wine country, I've been to Napa & Sonoma many times by car. This was the first time that I've gone further north to the Dry Creek Valley area and riding 55-miles through this territory on bicycle was amazing. I couldn't help snap photos as I rode of the wild mustard sprouting up in the vineyards, the happy California cows grazing on the green hills and the bright pink cherry blossoms.








I rode over a one lane bridge that took me over the Russian River where I'll be swimming 2.4 miles next August. The water level was really low. A fisherman was standing in the middle of the River and the water only came up to his knees. Hopefully, we'll get a lot more rain soon! Here are views of the river looking to the left and right of the bridge. The little dot is the fisherman.








Around the halfway point, we regrouped at the Dry Creek General Store, established in 1881. Unfortunately, as we were leaving, Helen's spoke popped out of her wheel and she was unable to continue. Fortunately, Megan, who works at a winery two miles away, was able to go get the winery's van and bring Helen back to the start. The rest of us continued our ride.








We rode a total of 55-miles in 3.5 hours. Overall the hills were a lot easier than I expected. Our training rides seem much more difficult than this course. So other than a great ride with new friends, today I gained further confidence that my Ironman goal is becoming more and more possible with the strength that I am building and putting in the bank.