Solvang Double Century
A spectacular 200-mile route in Southern California’s most popular and scenic cycling region!
This is a double century only. No century option is available!
We do have an awesome century in October! Click here to learn about it!
Limited to 500 Riders ▪ Staggered Starts: 5:00am to 7:30am** ▪ 17 hour time limit
General Information and Ride Rules – Please Read!
Click here for 2013 Results
Click here for 2012 Results.
Here’s our 2013 jersey. We will likely have a new design for 2014. We’ll also have technical t-shirts (not cotton) for sale at the ride for $20.
Solvang Spring Tour: Don’t just spend the day in Solvang, spend a week!
Entry Fees
Double Century – $109, HOWEVER, take advantage of our EARLY BIRD SPECIAL and save $15 by registering six weeks before the event! Online registration ends two weeks before the event. Thereafter, you may make an online reservation and bring your confirmation and entry fee to packet pickup.
Registration for the 2014 Solvang Double Century will open in mid-November 2013.
Click here to see who’s on the roster!
Click here for a PDF file of the 2013 route.
Start/Finish Host Hotel
Our host hotel is the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott located at 555 McMurray Road in Buellton, 800-638-8882. The Marriott will be offering a discounted rate of $169 per night. Mention Planet Ultra / Solvang Double Century to get the rate. You must make your reservation by March 2nd to get the special rate.
Check-In
All riders must check in Friday evening from 6:00pm to 9:00pm or Saturday morning between 5:00am and 7:00am at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott. Please do your best to check in Friday evening, not Saturday morning, especially if you want an early start time.
Come Prepared
Please be in shape for this event. If you cannot complete a moderately hilly century within 8 hours, you’ll struggle finishing this ride within the time limit. An “I can do it” attitude is a wonderful plus, but only if you’re already conditioned for this type of challenge.
Solvang Open Start Window
As always, we will have an open starting window, from 5:00am to 7:30am. Riders will be electronically timed using a RFID chip attached to a number plate which hangs on the handlebars. Riders must attach their number plate to their bike. Any rider who does not receive a chip timed start will be presumed to have missed the Start Window and will be listed as DQ in the results. Please choose your start time based on how long it will take you to complete the course. Planet Ultra suggests the following start times:
5:00-6:30am* – Pre-dawn starting window: Riders who may require more than 15 hours to complete the course are encouraged to start in this window. Please remember that checkpoint opening times are generally based on the first-light start – so if you start super early, be prepared to take care of yourself if you get to the first checkpoint before it opens. This probably means carrying a camelbak. Of course, you will also have to carry your lights and wear reflective ankle bands on both legs.
6:30-7:00am: All riders who will require 13-15 hours to complete the double century should start in this window. Please sleep in a bit more if you can complete the course in under 15 hours!
7:00-7:30am: Riders expecting to require 10-13 hours to complete the double century should start in this window.
7:30am: If you plan to complete the course in under 10 hours, you MUST start at 7:30am.
**PLEASE NOTE: Checkpoint opening and closing times are based on the first-light start time of 6:30am. If you’re a fast rider, and you start super early, you’ll probably beat us to the first and the second checkpoints. Remember, the pre-dawn start times are meant for those riders who really need the extra time, and not for those riders who want to get home before dinner…
Time Limit
Regardless of start time, the course closes at 10pm. No exceptions. Riders who fail to make the 10p32 cut-off will be listed as Unofficial Finishers.
Parking
If you are staying at a hotel in Buellton other than the Marriott, please leave your car there and ride to the start. If you are driving into Buellton on Saturday morning for the event, please be very careful how and where you park. Also, allow more than enough time to find proper parking. Do not park at the Marriott unless you’re staying there.
Twilight
Twilight begins at 6:26; Twilight ends at 19:45. Sunrise is at 6:51; Sunset is at 19:20.
Lights and Clothing Drop (Bring your own bag – we don’t supply them)
If you leave your lights and reflective gear at the start, your bag will be waiting for you in Guadalupe. That said, this is a fairly flat course, so carrying your lights yourself – if you need them – should be part of the adventure. Rest assured that it is a MYTH that an extra pound on your bike will slow you down in any significant way for this type of riding.
If there is any chance that you’ll be out past sunset, you MUST have lights and a reflective ankle band on both legs – so please do not under-estimate the time you will need to complete this event. Come prepared with a very good light and backup bulbs and batteries, plus at least one non-blinking taillight and lots of reflective gear. We repeat: BRING LIGHTS.
Support Provided
There are five checkpoints and a mini-stop along the route. At these checkpoints, riders can expect to find bananas, PB&J sandwiches, granola/fruit/energy bars, Hammer Gel, Sustained Energy and/or Perpetuem, Hammer HEED, Endurolytes, and many other wholesome edibles. Subway sandwiches will be served at the Laguna Lake Golf Club checkpoint in San Luis Obispo.
Routing and Navigation
Planet Ultra route sheets include lots of useful information to help riders navigate the course. For example, we’ll let you know if a turn is at a stop sign (SS), traffic light (TL) or T-intersection (T-int). We know that riders like to have the course marked. However, many of the towns/cities/counties specifically request that no markings are placed in the road. Our permits are contingent on NOT doing this. Further, Planet Ultra events are held way far away from where we live – and we travel to the destination the day before the event to make everything happen. We can’t mark the course in advance. If we have the manpower to send someone out before the riders in the morning to mark the course, we’ll do our best to make that happen (unless it’s forbidden by our permits, otherwise illegal, somewhere that locals would be really upset about it, or the turn is at a place that’s very obvious, like a big green highway sign). Our experience is that riders get lost whether the course is marked or not – because they’re not paying attention. Fewer riders get lost when they’re mindful of where they are on the route sheet. Please understand and take responsibility for navigation. Make it part of your experience.
Route Sheets and GPS Files
Route sheets and GPS files are available to registered riders if requested via email between two weeks and five days before the event. We cannot guarantee that advance route sheets will be 100% accurate.Though not anticipated, last-minute routing changes may be required.
Please note that advance route sheets and gps files are provided as a courtesy and you use them at your own risk. Planet Ultra does not guarantee accuracy. Please further note the following very important caveats:
- The ROUTE SHEET is gospel. Whenever the route sheet and the rider’s GPS unit disagree, the route sheet is correct.
- A GPS can (and will) route a rider over a cliff. They’re good at that. There’s really no substitute for the human brain. Riders should use theirs.
- One should never depend solely on a GPS unit for navigation. Riders should have a route sheet with them, and know how to follow it.
- After CP5, the riders will go under 101 and ride on a small vineyard road. That road is NOT on the Garmin maps. Riders using a Garmin should take note here. Their GPS will likely be squawking at them to get onto the 101. Follow the track and reread #2 above.
- GPS batteries on most “bicycle” GPS units will not last for a full double century. Riders should understand that and make arrangements to supplement the GPS power, learn to read a route sheet, or have the phone number of the local cab company with them.
- Click here for the RideWithGPS.com map. You may download a GPS file from this page.
Personal SAG Vehicles
Not allowed! If you bring one, you will be disqualified from the event without a warning. The definition of a personal SAG is any vehicle (motor or otherwise), anywhere on the route, operated by someone other than Planet Ultra staff, that is providing any type of aid, assistance, or motivation to any rider, or taking photographs, or simply out cheering. Please understand that our permits simply don’t allow dozens of extra vehicles on the roads or at the checkpoint locations. Imagine the traffic from all those cars! If you’re bringing someone with you who wants to be out on the course helping, please have them contact us and join our volunteer staff. We can always use extra help out on the course.
Volunteers / Sunday Staff Ride
We always need volunteers!!! We can only put these events on with the help of loyal, trustworthy, motivated individuals running the checkpoints along the way. To provide a little incentive, when you volunteer for a Planet Ultra Double Century event, you receive a free entry into any other Planet Ultra single-day event. It’s a simple formula: “work one, ride one free!” So please contact us to let us know when and where you’d like to help. Please note that the intent of the “work one, ride one free” offer is to encourage riders themselves to give something back to the sport they love. However, we also appreciate when riders bring along family and friends who they’ve recruited to help out, so we’re offering a one-half ride credit to the recruiter if the volunteer doesn’t want the ride credit. Ride credits must be used within a year of the date of volunteering. Volunteers at Solvang may also choose to ride the route, unsupported, on Sunday to receive Triple Crown and Grand Slam credit. In the past we offered a supported staff ride, but we’ve had no interest in the past few years – and now only offer the unsupported option.
Route Description
The ride starts and finishes just a few miles down the road from its namesake town, Solvang, a quaint, Danish village with great restaurants, window shopping, real shopping, horse-drawn carriages, parks, people in costume, wine-tasting, vineyards, and lots of fun things for the whole family to see and do. Bring your family and make a weekend of it. We promise they’ll all have a great time while you ride your bike!
Starting with a wave start, you’ll do a short warm-up in the eastern Santa Ynez Valley, then heads up world famous Foxen Canyon. You’ll then essentially bypass Santa Maria by jogging around that town on dead quiet Bull Canyon to Hwy 166. Next you’ll more or less parallel the 101 as you head north. After some really neat back roads, the route skirts the edge of San Luis Obispo, then goes down to Morro Bay and through Morro Bay State Park. After lunch in San Luis Obispo, you’ll head south through Pismo Beach to Guadalupe. From there, you’ll stay southbound on this desolate and beautiful stretch of Hwy 1, bypassing the whole Lompoc area, and then continuing onto Hwy 135 to the neat little western antique haven of Los Alamos. From Los Alamos, riders head back to Buellton via the beautiful Alisos Canyon and Ballard Canyon. Once you reach the top of Ballard, it’s mostly downhill all the way back to Buellton!
The route is 198 miles. And truly, these are the best miles available in an already spectacular riding region. This route is among the fastest, most scenic, and most popular in the entire California Triple Crown series! Total elevation gain: about 8,300′.
Directions
Use Hwy 101 to get to Buellton from either north or south. Take the Hwy 246/Solvang exit. Head towards Solvang; and make the left turn onto McMurray Rd. The Marriott is on the left.
Fun Event Shots!
