Touring Around

Samuel Langehorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, once famously quipped that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco, but if the father of American literature had stuck around for a few weeks and gone north less than 100 miles, he may have been tempted to leave his typewriter behind and jump on a bicycle.

Autumn is the time in Sonoma County when the offshore airflows decrease and the weather turns California mellow, just in time for the harvest season. The smells of the earth mingle with a shade of light that makes it obvious why California is known as the Golden State.

Sonoma County has been blessed with topography that lends itself beautifully to bicycle touring. One can design flat rides for beginners and less experienced riders or brutal verticals for those experienced riders who don’t mind punishing themselves.

At the end of the day—or during the day, depending on one’s preferences—there is opportunity to relish the beauty of the Mediterranean climate, and to imbibe the excellent wines of one of the world’s finest wine regions.

But for those who don’t have time to plan their own biking adventures, Sonoma County is blessed with many touring options, from custom designed full-service B&B bike tours to single-day rentals in the heart of wine country. One such local company is Getaway Adventures of Santa Rosa, which has been providing leisurely wine tours for nearly two decades.

Getaway’s owner Randy Johnson started the business in 1991, and over the years has groomed excellent relationships with many out-of-the-way, superior wineries. Johnson also has a staff of tour leaders who not only know the region and love the local wines, but many of them are also gourmet foodies in their own rites.

“One of the main things we have is a great relationship with the wineries,” he said, which allows tour participants a different view of the region. Johnson says that, by far, his high season is from Labor Day to Thanksgiving, a time in Sonoma County that is synonymous with beautiful sunsets and harvest.

Getaway also offers kayak trips during the summer, when families tend to travel together and are not so interested in wine, but when fall rolls around travelers’ thoughts return to wine.

“It’s pretty amazing how people are interested in active lifestyles these days,” Johnson said. “It’s good to see them on bikes because it gets cars off the road and gets them thinking about fitness.”

Getaway caters to people who may be “borderline fit” and Johnson says that one of his greatest job-related satisfactions is seeing his customers realize that they can really get around by bike. “It’s always fun to see people realize that they can do it,” he said.

His tours feature leisurely 15 to 20-mile days that are perfect for wine tasting and the gourmet lunches created by Getaways multi-talented—and in one case, multi-lingual—staff.

Johnson moved to the area in 1989, and decided that he wanted to do something different. He was riding his bike one day and realized that Sonoma County needed a good regional bike touring company.

“Travel has been one of my primary motivators, but I had a family to support, so I decided to do something locally to showcase Sonoma County wines,” he said. “It was a hobby initially that got out of control, and now it’s a part of me.”

Johnson says that the main strength of his business is his staff’s knowledge and love of the wines and of the region. He has plans in the pipeline for tours geared more toward advanced cyclists who enjoy their wine after the bike ride, to complement his “sip and cycle” style of tours.

If leisurely catered tours aren’t appealing, there’s a company in Healdsburg that supplies other biking experiences. John Mastrianni moved to Sonoma County 13 years ago when he was managing a professional women’s cycling team. He was so impressed with the area that he felt he had to move here.

“Healdsburg is such a perfect place for cycling and the weather is great too,” Mastrianni said. “We saw a need for bike rentals in the area.” So seven years ago, Masrtianni and his wife Heather—who retired from a prominent racing career that included completing the Women’s Tour de France three times—began renting bikes out of their house and supplying bikes for local hotels. They opened the shop three years ago, when their business outgrew the house.

The Mastriannis faced a challenge because there was not a business model for what they wanted to do. “We wanted to offer a wider range of things,” he said. “It’s been fun creating something unique.”

As far as bike touring goes, the Mastriannis’ Wine Country Bikes is quite unique. It’s not a bike shop, but a touring center that’s dedicated 100 percent to touring. The shop even has showers for people who come from outlying areas such as Vallejo or the East Bay for day rentals. They can clean up after biking and then enjoy dinner, a movie, or any other entertainments that Healdsburg has to offer.

Wine Country Bikes offers fun, flexible types of riding. Not just a map tour package, but something that explores the farms and arts of Sonoma County as well as its world-class wineries. Mastrianni and his crew will tailor bikes tours for any experience level or interest in addition to their traditional bike tours, and they offer a wide range of options, from multi-day, full-on luxury tours to single-day rentals for $33 a day.

Advantages to booking tours through a specialty company include preplanning, roadside assistance and pickup for worry-free cycling adventures. The whole support system is designed so that all one has to do is get on the bike and ride. And eat. And drink fine wine.

For visitors and locals who want to set out on their own without the expense or limitations of touring companies there are other options. Several shops in the area rent comfortable bicycles and offer regularly scheduled rides with local cyclists who have intimate knowledge of the area. Bicycle maps are available from the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, online at bikesonoma.org.

The Santa Rosa Cycling Club also offers a ride calendar that spans the year with group rides for people of all skill levels. For more information, go to srcc.memberlodge.com.

No matter what one’s skill set, socio-economic or comfort level, there are sufficient resources to get out on a bike and enjoy the best that Sonoma County has to offer during the most golden season of the year.

[RESOURCES]

HOP ON A BIKE

 Touring Companies:

Getaway Adventures
2228 Northpoint Pkwy., Santa Rosa
568-3040; 1-800-499-BIKE (2453).
getawayadventures.com

Wine Country Bikes
61 Front St., Healdsburg
473-0610; 866-922-4537
winecountrybikes.com

Sonoma Valley Bike Tours
520 Broadway, Sonoma
1-877-308-BIKE (2453)
sonomavalleybiketours.com

Undiscovered Country Tours
2625 Middlefield Rd. PMB 562
Palo Alto, CA 94306
1-877.322.1667; udctours.com

Backroads
801 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA 94710-1800
800-GO-ACTIVE (462-2848) or 510-527-1555
backroads.com

Rentals:

Spoke Folk Cyclery
201 Center St., Healdsburg
433-7171; spokefolk.com

West County Revolution
6731 Sebastopol Ave., Suite 130
Sebastopol; 829-2192
westcountyrevolution.com

Other resources:

Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition
545-0153; bikesonoma.org

Santa Rosa Cycling Club
srcc.memberlodge.com