When more than 2,500 cyclists take to the roads of Sonoma County on May 4, it will be a birthday party of sorts.
The rolling fete will celebrate the 50th running — or riding — of the venerable Wine Country Century, an event believed to have started in 1973 as a rollicking, but tough, get together among friends who loved to ride bikes and ride them a really long way.
The story goes that the 100-mile group ride started in 1973, not too many years after the 1967 establishment of the Santa Rosa Cycling Club, according to current club president Steve Saxe.
“In 1973 there was enough of a club to put on something called the Santa Rosa Challenge Ride,” he said.
Saxe said he’s done some digging, trying to find out more about those early years, the routes, the rules, the whole deal.
He did discover that finishers were awarded not jerseys or T-shirts, but sew-it-on -yourself patches.
And back then there were no road closures, no competition, no timing.
Funny thing is, the same goes for today. This has always been a ride, most definitely not a race.