About Us

So here we are today working on the 9th Annual Ojai Valley Century, the 6th year under reorganized management with a clear intent to make your cycling experience in this area enjoyable and to make these rides one of the premier rides of choice for avid cyclists. 

Ojai Valley Century bike ride has five (5) routes: half metric (approx. 30 mile) metric (62 miles / 100 km), TWO full century’s (100 miles) and a double metric (124 miles / 200 km). All routes include tours of Ojai, past Casitas Lake and up over the double Casitas Pass, a fast ride down the other side into Carpinteria and back down the coast to Ventura.

 The HAMMERHEAD CENTURY and the DOUBLE METRIC take an initial hill climb run up to Rose Valley and back through the Los Padres National Forest in the coolness of the morning. The Metric and HAMMERHEAD CENTURY, after arriving at Ventura, return to Ojai via the Ventura river Trail, while the BASIC and DOUBLE METRIC centurys skirt Ventura on their way to Santa Paula. Out of Santa Paula, the route takes highway 150, up past Steckel Park, St Thomas Aquinas School up the grade, four miles to the Summit. A long gentle down hill rewards the cyclist with sweeping views through the beautiful pastoral Upper Ojai Valley. A short sprint up past Dennison Park gets the cyclist set for a fast downhill with sweeping turns into the lower Ojai Valley and a straight shot back into Ojai.

  Late in 2006, ride director Andrew Bassuk sought to turn over the ride to the Channel Islands Bike Club (http://www.cibike.org). The CIBC, already sponsoring the popular Cool Breeze Century ride, did not want to take on another major ride. One member of the CIBC Board, Jerry Boone—a long time cyclist and BSA (Boy Scouts) Cycling Merit Badge Counselor and Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 103, suggested offering sponsorship to the local Scout troops. Two troops were interested, Troop 103 and 179. Work began immediately to organize a Board, set up a steering committee, incorporate (Ojai Valley Rides, Inc.), get the web page converted, and assemble a team of veteran cyclists to advise the Board on routes, food and all other aspects that make rides desirable to cyclists. Routes and support were improved based on comments from previous year’s riders.