2011 Tour d'Organics

Diablo Wife has been wanting to do this ride for a couple years now. Talked our neighbor friend and her son into coming along too. We signed up for the 35 mile ride.


Diablo Wife thought we should have matching jerseys. Bought some from last year’s Tour of California… the “most aggressive rider / breakaway from cancer” classification jerseys. Hincapie Sportswear… very nice. Good deal too since they were the 2010 versions.

Check in went pretty quick, even with Diablo Neighbor having to “day-of” reg.

The first 10 miles or so went really well, but then it got a little hilly and Diablo Wife started to have some knee problems.

This is not a huge ride as far as number of participants… which is good because these roads are pretty narrow.

The rest stops were kind of quirky; staffed with new agers and old hippies, but that’s part of the appeal of this event.

There was one 16% downhill for a couple blocks in Forestville. I gave everyone a safety lecture and we all made it down just fine, but THEN… (dunt dunt duhn), we regrouped at the bottom under some shady trees and heard this odd high-pitched whining noise and couldn’t figure out what it was. Well a ways down the road I figured out that it was the Schrader valve on the rear tire of the tandem… it got so hot that it started to leak by. I couldn’t get it to stop so we found another shady spot and I swapped the tube. But THEN… (dunt dunt duhn), the spare was bad (spit seam), and I used up my only CO2 cart trying to fill a failed tube. So I put the original tube back in and used Diablo Wife’s mini pump and got enough air in there to get us to the next rest stop. They didn’t have a 20” tube, but they had a good floor pump and they gave me a glueless patch kit for the road.

The rest of the ride went OK, but the less experienced riders in my little group started to fade so it took a while before we finished up.

The post-ride meal was kind of a disappointment. I’ve enjoyed many a vegan dinner so no qualms there, and I’m not really picky about food anyway, but this was pretty bland and uninteresting.

All in all, it was a fun and memorable day. I’m going to say though that the 35 mile route is probably too difficult for most folks who are looking for a family fun ride. Also kind of expensive at $65 for the 35 miler, but kids are free. The full century was $110.

Bonus: Got stuck in unbelievable gridlock on the way home. Took (no kidding) an HOUR to go two miles on the part of Hwy 37 from Lakeville Highway to Sear’s Point. That capped off what was already a really long day.

Update:  The video.


2011 Tour d'Organics, Family Fun Ride from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.