The Ride:
Chico Wildflower Century riders can choose from 7 route options designed for riders at all ages, stages, and abilities. This Gran Fondo style event features well stocked rest stops, beautiful views and some challenging climbs. Entry Fees covered a pint glass with stickers and wildflower seeds, lunch on course and a post ride meal in addition to the well marked routes.

Lucia Stuart (Wildflower 95 +5):
I started prepping for the ride a few months in advance with indoor trainer workouts twice a week and several long endurance rides leading up to the big day. This helped build my fitness and allowed me to figure out what works for me in terms of nutrition.  

I started fueling for the ride the night before the Wildflower Century with delicious carnitas tacos home-smoked by our gracious host. I drank a liter of water with hydration mix the night before, and another half-liter the morning of. During the ride, I set a timer and was consistent about eating at least 30 grams of carbs every hour and nibbling at rest stops; the pickle juice really helped! I refilled my water and hydration drink at every rest stop. Mile 65 was our lunch stop and I ate the provided sandwich which held me over the rest of the ride.

Riding through the beautiful scenery, sharing the experience with teammates, cracking jokes, and drafting as frequently as possible helped the miles pass by. The free espresso that a local along the route offered riders was clutch! If our energy waned or muscles started to get angry, we communicated as a team to adjust our pace and switch leads. The encouragement and knowing we weren’t in it alone was crucial to keep a positive mindset throughout the day. The hot conversation topic of the day was food and beer. Bikes, food, and beer: the greatest trifecta of all time and we got to enjoy all three!

Sierra (Wildflower 95 +5):

To prepare for the century I tried to get a couple of 1 hour long trainer rides a week during winter months. Leading up to the wildflower I was only able to get one long ride in with only 1500 feet of elevation gain. I was worried about not getting enough climbing in because the century promised at least 4800 feet of climbing. 

A few nights before the ride I focused on getting at least 8 hours of sleep and drinking 4 Liters of water a day. The day before I used a liquid Iv in my last liter of water before bed. I used Twisted Spoke’s CBN oil to help me sleep. I also used  Twisted Spoke’s cooling gel and Chamois Cream the morning of the big day. While the ride was fully supported with a fair amount of aid stations, I brought a majority of the fuel I was going to need. I did this in part because I’ve been to races where aid stations ran out of supplies and also, I wanted to make sure I had stuff I knew my stomach could handle. My goal was to eat around 80 carbs an hour using TS chews, dried mangos, cheez it’s, Kram and bpn carb electrolyte mix in my first bottle. One thing the aid stations had that I didn’t know I would appreciate was cans of coke. After the last climb, table top mountain, my legs were cooked. After smashing a coke at the top after the climb, I felt like I could ride again. 

This ride was by far my biggest day on the bike. 100 miles, 5300’ of climbing and almost 7.5 hours in the saddle. I couldn’t have had a better experience (except maybe a little more climbing practice and mid ride chamois cream). The team aspect made it the best by far; taking turns leading drafts, making new jokes, being silly and just the overall support and appreciation of one another. I was super proud of myself for being able to finish that ride but even more proud of the people I rode with. Almost everyone hit a PR that day and it was pretty rad to share that experience with them. 

Hannah Duff (Wildflower 95 +5):

In the spirit of our team name, my approach to the Wildflower Century was very much a loose program compared to my teammates. But knowing that this would be my longest ride to date, I knew that I needed to be physically and mentally prepared. While I got a few 30 mile rides in on my own, I have Lucia to thank for planning a 70 mile and 55 mile ride in the weeks prior.  These rides were an opportunity to dial in nutrition strategies, make adjustments to my bike setup, and break-in a new saddle.

I am notorious for forgetting to hydrate and eating too little during a big day on the bike, so I made sure to start well hydrated, well rested, and well fed. Since I struggle with eating on the bike, I used a double strength electrolyte mix with carbs to get some easy calories on the move. Having ridden the metric century at this event last year, I knew the aid stations would be well stocked with baked goods, bars, fresh fruit, sandwiches, and sugary drinks, so I only brought 2 Kram pb&j’s and 2 packs of chews and had 1 of each left over at the end of the ride. I made sure to eat at each stop and if my bottles were still full I drank half of each and topped them off, one with mix and one with plain water.

The route was beautiful, passing through rolling hills, along waterways, and up twisting roads with amazing views! Riding as a team, the early miles ticked by with moments of conversation and laughter as well as all-out effort tucking and descending or grinding up a climb. When the course flattened out, we took turns battling the head wind and maintaining a pace that suited all of us. Along the way we found moments to document the journey and the jokes, including a Rapunzel style tow! 

Around mile 85 I began struggling with neck and shoulder pain, but I put on some music, focused on cadence, and rotated through a few different positions on the bars to find some relief. We ended the ride still cracking jokes with winding laps through the venue to close the gap between the 95 mile official route and our goal of 100 miles to make it a true century.

Hannah Spendlove (Mega-Flower 125):

Leading up to this event, weather and schedules made getting base-miles very difficult. Regardless, I did my best to get time in the saddle wherever I could leading up to this event, including a few higher mileage days. The week prior, I DNF’d, so I knew that my mental game was going to be one of the most important things to dial in, only second to fueling, to finish this monster of a course.

I personally am not good at fueling on the bike and get sick easily from commonly used on bike fuel. Because of this, my strategy was to bring a very diverse offering of fuel with me including the caffeinated energy chews from Twisted Spoke, Orange Cream gels from PNG, a Kram PB & J and the single serving olive packs from Trader Joes. I also used a high carb drink mix which was a huge gamechanger for getting calories when my stomach was not having more food. In addition to the fuel I brought, I drank pickle juice at several aid stations and enjoyed 2 pieces of bacon at the top of sterling city. One thing I learned was that carbonation helped ease my stomach, so I drank two La Croix at different aid stations as well. At the second to last rest stop, I ate a sandwich and that carried me over until the end of the race.

As for the riding the Mega-flower features just shy of 8k of climbing, so my strategy was to focus on keeping a steady and maintainable cadence up the climbs. I made sure to get out of the saddle at least once an hour to help my body rotate through different positions and give my butt a break from the saddle. Every time we rolled up to a climb I would cheer myself on mentally, as my Wahoo computer would chime, I would say “It’s climb time!” This was huge, and kept me positive all day. After conquering 8/10 categorized climbs we hit a long flat section where I drafted Kent and we upped the pace to take us to the next aid station 69 miles in.

At this point, We were able to catch back up to the group on the main Wildflower course and I was able to ride with the group until the end of the course. At this point I was feeling pretty good still and was able to give some long pulls on the front to bring the team in on the final flat stretches.

All in all this was my longest day on the bike, but fueling regularly made it very doable. My only huge mistake was forgetting my Twisted Spoke Chamois Cream, but the product is so great I was able to use it like a salve on some of my chaffed areas and they healed up so fast!