# Strawberry Fields Forever



## kevinridesbikes (Feb 8, 2006)

Hello all,

I heard about this ride through some friends that are planning to do the 65 mile route on unicycles, however, since I don't have a suitable long distance unicycle, I'm thinking about doing the ride on my road bike.

Please pardon my ignorance. I've never really trained as a roadie, although I have been an avid XC mountain biker for almost 10 years. I just got my first road bike this past summer, and I rode a solo century around the Bay Area in September just for fun. Altogether, I was gone for 10 hours which included getting lost a couple times, navigating through a couple traffic jams in the mountains surrounding Half Moon Bay (crazy tourists!), a lunch break, and catching BART from San Francisco to the Dublin station.

So, in the description for the 100 Mile Route, it states:

"You need to be in mid season form for this ride."

What does this mean? Has anyone done this ride? I'm looking for some idea of how long it should take to ride 100 miles with 6,000 feet of climbing if I'm in "mid season form."

Thanks,
Kevin


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

I think "mid season form" means don't show up having done only a few rides. You need to be in reasonably good shape. I've ridden it a few times. It's a good century ride. Great food. Many of the roads are lightly traveled. The climbs are significant but not massively steep. The descent down Eureka Canyon is very bumpy and there are a couple suprise hairpin turns. For some reason this ride attracts freds who think it is a race and hammer from the beginning. Don't fall for that. Take it easy and save your energy for later.

I saw your unicycle friends there last year. Riding those things looks way hard.


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## Creed (Apr 3, 2003)

*ditto*

I ditto eric's comments, 
It isn't a tough century and you don't need to be in top shape but you do need to be in decent form, 
On other point is the weather, if your from the bay area then you already know this but th temperature can vary probably 15-20 degrees from the under the trees on eureka to out on the flats outside of watsonville, so be ready for that
all in all I've had a great time the 2 times I've done it


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## kevinridesbikes (Feb 8, 2006)

Cool. Thanks for the feedback.


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