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Bill  On The Road

 by: Bill Oetinger  1/1/2000

God's Cycling Theme Park

There was an interesting thread on the Ultra e-mail list recently. (For the uninitiated, an e-mail list is a cyber forum where subscribers to the list exchange views relating to a particular list subject...in this case, ultramarathon cycling. And a thread is a string of e-mail messages on one specific topic.) This thread was begun by a fellow posing a wide-open question...

He said he was an avid cyclist and that he had found himself at a crossroads in life. He apparently had the sort of career qualifications that would allow him to live almost anywhere and he was looking to relocate...but where? He asked the list participants to suggest which region of the country might offer the best possible conditions for happy road cycling. He was concerned as well about all the other things that contribute to quality of life--cultural activities, schools, shopping, etc.--but his main concern, with this question at least, was the quality of the cycling.

The responses poured in from all over the country, from New England to Virginia to Arizona. Most were in the form of boosterism by locals for the quality of scenery and backroads in their own backyards: all those folks so pleased with where they live, convinced it must be the chosen place on earth. Typically, someone would praise the great climate of their region and then brag about the two or three really awesome roads that they use over and over again for their training rides. This basic theme popped up again and again: "We have this really great road that winds up into the hills from the edge of town..." Message after message, the talk was of one or two or at best a handful of nice roads to ride as the chief selling point for a region.

Finally, after watching this hydra-headed discussion wend its way through cyberia for a few days, I put in my two cents' worth. I briefly listed Sonoma County's other quality-of-life assets (which are, in my opinion, about on a par with most other contemporary American areas), and then I addressed the cycling possibilities: we have in Sonoma County not two or three or a handful but many, many dozens of prime backroads, adding up to more than 1200 miles of scenic, usually quiet byways ideal for serious cycling. But that's only the beginning. If you draw a circle with a radius of 30 miles, centered in Santa Rosa, you enclose an area that spills over into Napa, Marin, Lake, and Mendocino Counties, and the list of great cycling roads soars into the hundreds...over 3000 miles' worth of backroad smiles for two-wheeled exploration. I noted that it's theoretically possible to do three training rides a week and not have to do any given ride more than once in a year. Add in a great variety of scenery and a benign climate and you have a cycling heaven.

After my message was posted to the list, two or three other people weighed in to essentially support my view. After that, the only subsequent entry on the subject was a short one: "How soon can we move?" Although my brief message listing just the numbers of roads and miles was enough to put a capper on the thread, it doesn't begin to do justice to the region known variously as the North Bay, the Redwood Empire, or the Wine Country. I can't claim to have a comprehensive knowledge of every region in North America, but my travels have taken me to a wide range of places, from the Green Mountains of Vermont to the Canyonlands of Utah, from the ice fields of Alberta to the hill country of Texas. While I love visiting many of these places, there is nowhere else I would rather live--and cycle--full time than Sonoma County.

Beyond the sheer volume of little roads, the real key to the greatness of this area as a cycling venue can be summed up in one word: variety. In most of the other regions of this vast country, you may see some gorgeous scenery, but in all likelihood, everything in one region will all look pretty much the same. You will have to go a long way to see any significant change. Here though, on a single ride of only middling distance you can pass through several distinct ecosystems with vastly different scenery and ambience, not to mention changes in climate. You can ride in the cool shade of towering redwoods, out along miles of rugged, rocky coastline, and up over hilltop, sheep-cropped ridges. You can ride through rolling hills covered in vineyards, visit esteros and wetlands home to stalking herons and egrets, or dawdle along next to lovely old stone walls enclosing fields of waving, golden grasses and stately, sentinal oaks. Dairy country right out of Wisconsin. Valleys of broadleaf hardwoods reminiscent of Appalachia. Stony hillsides that feel like Tuscany. Sea-girt cliffs and coves evocative of the Oregon coast. Bays and esteros that would not look out of place in Scotland (although they would call them lochs and burns). The list goes on and on.

And that's just the eye candy. All that varied scenery goes hand in hand with a great variety in the terrain, from flat valley floors to rolling hills to steep--sometimes extremely steep--mountain pitches. (We have a rating system in the Santa Rosa Cycling Club that attempts to assign an index of climbing difficulty for our rides--numbers ranging from one to five--but I always find it tricky to pick a number because at some point or other, almost every ride includes almost every level of difficulty.) Riding here is never boring.

Our climate allows year-round riding, with summer averages in the 80's, and it was an amazing, record-setting 80° this past year on Winter Solstice! Usually, the winters are a bit nippier than that, but anyone with a little spunk and determination can keep on riding, twelve months a year. And while we who live here tend to bemoan our growing pains--suburban sprawl, traffic, etc--the fact remains that even in the densest heart of what passes for our most metropolitan city centers here, you're never more than about three miles from quiet country riding. You may not be able to access all of those 3000 miles of backroads from just outside your front door, but you can quickly and easily get to something nice. (I know folks who live in real urban centers where they say they have to load the bike on the car and drive at least 50 miles to get to any decent riding. There used to be an ostensibly "rural" double century in Southern California that featured over 100 stoplights...an average of one every two miles! Folks, that is not quality cycling.)

There are many other regions with scenery that is spectacular. There are many other regions with wonderful roads to ride. There are many other regions with minimal traffic and congestion, and a delightful climate. In fact, if I were asked to name my personal favorites for most scenic ride, best downhill, smoothest pavement, etc., not one of them would be in Sonoma County. But I have yet to discover another region that combines such user-friendly weather, such varied topography, and such consistently diverting scenery with such a dense and tangled tracery of lightly traveled backroads. It's not simply one or two highlights, but the overwhelming totality of our local cycling inventory that makes this area so special. After having ridden and traveled far and wide, I've come to the conclusion that for day-in and day-out riding, Sonoma County is the best locale in the country. Those of us who--by good luck or good planning--have ended up living here can count ourselves among the most fortunate cyclists in the land.

By the way, the title of this essay, "God's Cycling Theme Park," was not my invention. It's a quote from a Los Angeles-based cycling journalist...his assessment of Sonoma County after having done a few rides here.

Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net



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