Once considered a rite of passage for recreational cyclists—riding one hundred miles in a single shot—the century ride is gradually becoming a relic of another era. Century rides no longer seem to captivate cyclists’ imagination the way they did during their heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s. General interest has been trickling down in the Bay Area and probably elsewhere in the US as well. That is reflected in Different Spokes too. Greg Lemond’s wins in the Tour de France in the 1980s and then Lance Armstrong in the late 1990s and 2000s really propelled interest in road cycling. Next thing you know cycling is “the new golf”. It seemed there was a century ride almost every week in or near the Bay Area from April through early September. Although many have survived, there is a trail of defunct rides such as the Hekaton, the Banana, the Holstein, and Mt. Hamilton, which are fondly remembered. Centuries were regularly selling out and each year clubs were striving to increase the number of riders they could accommodate. A ride with 2,000 cyclists wasn’t unusual. Although some centuries still seem to have good numbers; for example, the Wine Country Century regularly sells out its 2,500 spots but instead of selling out in a matter of days as it used to it’s now taking months.
Century rides are/were usually put on by local cycling clubs. But we know from the experience of putting on the AIDS Bike-A-Thon for ten years in the 1980s and ‘90s that running a big event like a century ride is a substantial amount of work even when you have it down to a formula. A lot of volunteers is absolutely essential not only for planning but for pre-event logistics and day-of-event work. If your club doesn’t get burned out from doing all that, you at least need a year to recover! Keep in mind that the bigger the event, the greater the number of volunteers you need. If you’re a small club, this is a real stressor. When we were putting on the AIDS Bike-A-Thon the club was somewhere just under 300 members at its height. But many of those members were passive, ie. donating a paid membership but not doing much else to support the club. The clubs nearby that continue to put on century rides all have memberships that are much greater than ours, which currently hovers near a hundred. Although they manage to pull it off, even large clubs like Valley Spokesmen and Grizzly Peak Cyclists have to beg their members pitiably for volunteers.
On top of that onus—declining interest in volunteering—is the increased cost and effort of putting on an event on public roads. Permitting, police time, venue reservations, and portable toilets all have increased in cost and difficulty in getting arranged. Food isn’t cheap anymore too. Insurance costs for events have also gone through the roof. That the registration fee for a century can be $100 shouldn’t be a surprise anymore; that’s a long cry from the $25 back in the day!
Amateur racing clubs have it a little easier. Licensed clubs are supposed to put on a race annually. Where do they get their volunteers? From their members who, if they want to race for that team, have to put in drudge hours to support the club. Since they want to race (or at least hang out with the cool kids in cool kit), they have to volunteer. No such luck with recreational cycling clubs. Requiring volunteering as a condition of membership is a fast way to zero out your membership. I don’t blame you all. Let’s face it: life is stressful in the Bay Area no matter how well paid you are. Traffic sucks, work hours are often ridiculous, and affording a place to sleep practically involves submitting to indentured servitude. The last thing you want to do is fritter your precious me-time on helping a broke-ass cycling club put on a century even if it’s just one or two days of unpaid work in a year.
And on top of all that, road cycling has other kinds of cycling competing for your interest. Bike touring is still lurking in the background (no one in the club does self-supported bike tours anymore except Phil and David). But the trends du jour are bikepacking, gravel riding, and even mountain biking, which is getting long in the tooth. And don’t forget “gran fondos”, which are just competitive centuries in that you get a timing chip so you know exactly how slow you are. By the way did you know that Levi’s Gran Fondo in Sonoma asks $295 for the pleasure of riding in its event?
While recreational cycling clubs may be backing away from putting on century rides, other entities with more enthusiastic members may be taking up some of the slack. First you have professional businesses who look at big riding events as potential cash cows. Event promotion is a way to earn a nice living as Dan Pallota can tell you. Apparently Levi Leipheimer, Jens Voight, and George Hincapie would agree as well since after their pro racing careers they’ve gone on to put on gran fondos. But other charitable organizations have noticed the turnout and our willingness to fork over dollars to ride a road bike for a day. Best Buddies, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Lung Society, the Alzheimers Association, and many others put on day rides for road cycists and you can either pay the money upfront or promise to raise a minimum amount of money to participate. Another organization that has tossed its hat into the ring is Rotary International. This service organization with local branches all over the world has a number of small fundraising centuries around northern California. What’s nice about them is that they are on the small side—a turnout of 500 is considered big–and locally sponsored. Rotary in Santa Rosa sponsors the Giro Bello—that’s pretty close to the Bay Area—but Rotary in Yreka sponsors the Siskyou Scenic Tour, a much smaller community and quite far away. The Almaden Lions Club has been putting on the I Care Classic for many years. What I like about the newer and smaller rides is their homey and community feel as well as a chance to throw a little bit of money their way. Of course these organizations exist in order to serve, so finding volunteers to run their events is less chancy than pleading to your cycling membership.
You may not realize it but regardless of whether a century is put on by a local club or by an organization like Rotary or the Friends of Feeney Park, it’s really a fundraising event. Clubs like Valley Spokesmen and Grizzly Peak Cyclists plow the money they pull in into donations to local charities after they’ve paid their not insubstantial bills. But keeping your volunteers jazzed and willing to come back year after year takes some secret sauce. And when you’re a club that’s basically devoted to me-time and having fun and when helping other people involves more effort than submitting your credit card number, that is a hard sell! Some of the fee money that other clubs collect is plowed into the general fund to pay for their club events like picnics, club meetings, and travel that benefit everyone in the club even if just a small percentage volunteered. I think one of the reasons that the AIDS Bike-A-Thon practically killed the club was that we took NONE of the money that was collected—all the millions of dollars went to beneficiaries. What we were left with was the momentary high of pulling off a massive charitable event and the awesome burnout afterwards that slowly drove the volunteer base down and the club was still broke with never more than about $1,000 in our treasury (if that). Dedication and commitment can get you only so far. And then you need me-time. We’ve always been a broke-ass club and we continue to be to this day, depending on the kindness of its members to dig a little deeper into their pockets to keep the bills paid. Part of what sustained our motivation was that this was all before protease inhibitors came on the scene. Prior to Crixivan in 1996 HIV medications were of limited effectiveness. Raising money for palliative care, treatment, and research was literally a way to stay alive and to keep hope alive. That was a powerful motivation to keep putting on the Bike-A-Thon!
The history of Different Spokes and centuries is mixed: although the club was founded primarily by bike tourists, as the club was forming in 1982 the club leaders ended up doing the Sequoia Century and according to Bob Krumm had a bonding experience as well as enjoying it. As the club grew a new cohort of “avid recreational cyclists” came on board and they routinely did centuries around the Bay Area. Of course back then there were quite a few to choose from. That generation of Spokers were the ones who entertained Walter Mitty fantasies about riding with Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten (and perhaps doing more than riding with them!) This was always a small group within Different Spokes but it happened to contain many of the club leadership through the years. That shouldn’t be a surprise because we had the AIDS Bike-A-Thon, a club event, and this regularly became the goal for the year. Even members who weren’t preternaturally interested in riding a hundred miles would gird their loins and participate in the Bike-A-Thon.
Today the Spokers who show up at the local centuries are the same faces I’ve seen for years minus those who’ve aged out or who realize that paying $100 to ride roads you ride anyway is kind of stupid. I’d rather think of it as a contribution to another local cycling club or a charitable donation to a non-profit so that they can fund their programs. I just hope their volunteers stay happy and jazzed to put on a whole-day event year after year.
I’ll still keep showing up at the start even if I’m down these days to riding metrics. At least until I age out as well. Riding centuries has long been akin to a religious ritual for me. And going to church is what some of us still do.
The Chain Letter 