The Wildest Ride: Suffering In Solitude To The Snow

America is vast. As a European expat, i am always amazed by America's ability to go on and on for hundreds of miles without any variation in scenery. In a car, this scale is dazzling, but on a bike it is amplified. Want to see some scale? Then the Wildest Ride Gran Fondo is for you.

Setting out from Auburn, CA, about 40 minutes north-west of Sacramento, the 110-mile loop (there is also an 80 and an eye-watering 140 mile route offered), heads north towards Colfax before heading east up through the Tahoe National Forest towards the highest point at Robinson Flat. From here, it's more or less downhill to Foresthill and then on from there to Auburn.

The Wildest Ride is a little daunting, to say the least. With over 13,000ft of elevation gain, the vast majority of this climbing coming in the first half of the ride, I was ready for a day of steadily grinding uphill.

I can already tell from the tone of my first few paragraphs that some of you are getting put off. While us cyclists may moan and scold long days of climbing before we set off and when we are out on the road, we always relish it and afterwards these sort of rides become part of our ever-expanding personal cycling lore.

The Wildest Ride is one that encourages tales of lore and epic efforts in the mountains as, after all, you're in for quite an epic day.

I set off early from the Auburn County Fairgrounds, heading north towards Colfax and what it knew was going to be the first real test of the day; an ascent of Iowa Hill. Iowa Hill's reputation amongst Northern California cyclists as one of the toughest climbs in the area is well known and well earned.

After a stunning and curvy descent from Colfax, the road sweeps over the North Fork of the American River and immediately ramps up. With a 12% average over 1.6 miles, the climb is a beautiful grind. The thin single lane of tarmac clings to the side of the hill and laces its way up to the point where the gradient eventually eases off. The climb is not over there though. In fact, it has only just begun.

From the top of the steep part of Iowa Hill, it's another 20 or so miles of varied climbing before you reach the turnoff for the Foresthill Road. This slow and steady crawl through the forest is what defines the Wildest Ride. The sense of meditative solitude and a solidarity in suffering you have with the occasional specter of the other riders you pass or who pass you is strangely relaxing to anyone who is used to living a busy life of cycling on crowded roads. Once you reach the Forest Hill Road one's aptitude for physical and psychological toil is really put to the test. "Only 18 miles to the top of Robinson Flat," I thought to myself, not fully recognizing that this 18 miles would also be entirely uphill.

After around six miles of climbing through yet more trees, the landscape opens up, mainly because a massive swath of the trees around Robinson Flat appear to have succumbed to a forest fire. Here the true scale and majesty of the Tahoe Forest landscape becomes perfectly apparent.

Hills of countless trees roll effortlessly into the horizon without the sight or sound of any human interference. The beauty of this landscape is what kept me going to the snow-covered turnaround point at Robinson Flat. That and a steady supply of trail mix, issued by the ride's fantastically well staffed and stocked feed stations. Once you reach the turnaround point at Robinson Flat much of the hard work is done, despite the fact there is still 50 miles left. The fact that much of the second half of the ride is downhill is certainly a psychological boost, especially as by the time you reach Robinson Flat, you have likely been cycling uphill for four or five hours. The long and leisurely downhill to Foresthill is pretty straight forward, both literally and figuratively, and the return to civilization that this 45 minute stint of downhill brings is certainly refreshing. When you reach Foresthill, it's back to the small lanes through the trees before a final 10-mile blitz along the Foresthill Road to Auburn. The ride is capped off by a crossing of the amazing Foresthill Bridge, whose stunning height will make your head spin if the previous 100 miles have failed to do so.

Upon returning to the Auburn Fairground staging ground, you are greeted by friendly cheers and more importantly, an incredibly tasty Mexican buffet. This buffet also helped to serve the purpose of lining one's stomach in preparation for the Auburn Beer Festival that followed the Wildest Ride in the Fairgrounds. A day riding bikes and an evening drinking beer is not a bad way to spend a sunny Saturday in June.

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