Giro d'Vino 2008 100km

Some months ago, while looking at lists of organized rides in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, I spotted an intriguing ride called Giro d'Vino, which tours wineries in the Lodi appellation, and purported to offer wine tasting along with the usual organized ride features.

A little bit of research at MotionBased.com found logs of previous rides, which indicated the ride is as flat as I suspected. Little thought was required before signing-up for the 100km ride. Early on, I wondered "do they really taste wine during the ride?" but I never asked - I figured I'd find out soon enough, and I started thinking it would be fun to ride briskly from one wine stop to the next, taste/expel and move on.

This year, the 100km ride had stops at Jesse's Grove, Ripken, Micheal*David, Vino Con Brio, Harmony Wyneland, Vino Piazza, Chocoholics, Heritage Oak, with start/finish at Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi. Sounds like fun, eh?

I've made a number of new friends since I started cycling last year, surprisingly even on FaceBook - so it was an cool twist to discover that FaceBook friends Kimi and Julianne were also planning on doing Giro d'Vino.

After a very wet Saturday, I was happy to see a dry and relatively clear Sunday morning on the 60-mile drive to Woodbridge winery; parking and registration was smooth, with no delay. There wasn't even much of a line for the porta-potties!

Roll-out from Woodbridge, 8:44a

After meeting-up with the color-coordinated duo of Kimi and Julianne, we rolled out at a pleasantly moderate pace; it was still a bit cool and pavement was damp in many places, so I really wasn't inclined to push it much anyway (particularly after a spooky get-off the preceding Thursday coasting down a mud-slickened stretch of road, I didn't feel like crashing again). We averaged perhaps 15MPH and warmed-up a bit; finally, I promised to re-group at the next rest stop and kicked the speed up to something around 20MPH. There were a lot of riders on the road, and it was easy to find a paceline, and I just couldn't resist the temptation... kicking the speed up to 22-23MPH for a bit - before a railroad-crossing dampened my drive around 16.2 miles. You ever notice how freight trains are endless when you're waiting? OK, so it was only a minute and a half...

Jesse's Grove, 16.2 mi, in at 9:40a, out at 9:51a

I made a quick pit-stop here, only one hour into the ride, eating a chunk of banana and shedding my arm/knee warmers and my vest, stuffing it all into the back pockets, prepared for rain and cold that never materialized. Note that the driveway here is long; it took me 4 minutes alone just to ride in and out on the wet, rough pavement, with a stream of cyclists coming the opposite direction.

Ripken Winery, 18.7mi, in 9:59a, out 10:09a

Here I made a quick stop, tasting Ripken's very nice Rousanne/Marsanne, Tempranillo and Port. I was a little surprised that other cyclists weren't expelling as they tasted - I was the only spit-bucket user.

After rolling-out from Ripken, I found a good paceline to ride with, a couple of tandems and several one-up riders moving along nicely around 20MPH. Later, I hooked-up with another paceline where we traded pulls at 22-23MPH for a few miles. Did I mention this ride was *flat*? Before I knew it, we were rolling into the "lunch stop" at Vino Con Brio.

Vino Con Brio, 32.5mi, in 10:53a, out 11:03a

On rides, I'm not a believer in a single stop where you eat a lot. Your fuel needs are tied to the ride, not the clock, so you should eat approximately the same at every stop - loading-up with too much food will slow you down as blood is redirected to the task of digestion. So I ate another banana chunk here and a quarter of a peanut butter/jelly sandwich. Also, one of my Camelbak Podium water bottles was now emptied of Accelerade, so I filled it with water and added a couple of the Zym tablets thoughtfully provided. After chatting a bit with other riders, I headed-out to find the density of riders substantially drop after the 50k route turned-away.

It was a little more challenging to find a good paceline or even another rider at the right pace, and a light but persistent wind was kicking-up. Heck, I even found some rolling elevation change (though nothing that really counted as a climb). Nonetheless, I kept the average speed up over 18MPH on the way to Chocoholics.

Chocoholics, 47.1mi, in 11:51a, out 12:06p

I was sure tempted to buy a few chunks of the excellent dark chocolate doo-dads they were offering samples of; this alone was a pretty good reason to not give into the samples :-) Another banana chunk, some more water/Zym, and I chatted with a couple of riders that had crossed paths on Foxy's Fall Century two weeks earlier.

After rolling-out, I noticed the rider density had dropped quite a bit; the remainder of the ride, I'd basically be on my own, even as the nagging wind seemed to grow stronger, but I still managed to keep my average speed above 18MPH.

It was just a couple of miles after Chocoholics where I found the only real climb of the ride, a short grind that might have peaked at 10% right after crossing the Mokelumne River. My legs were accustomed to high-cadence spinning, so it was a bit of a shock ;-)

Eventually, I spotted a tank-farm off in the near distance, and I knew the end was near.

Roll-in to Woodbridge, 62.8mi, 12:58p

After loading my bike up and changing, I found a nicely-done pasta lunch and pleasantly good
Woodbridge Fish Net Creek Old Vine Zinfandel as well as a surprisingly nice Petit Verdot that I suspect was originally bottled for winery use (winemakers sometimes bottle component wines and hold multiple blending sessions - you don't normally find Petit Verdot bottled as a varietial).

I'm already looking forward to next year :-)