The Guest Services Center
Welcome to our Guest Services Center.  Guest Services describes the many services that are
available to riders on Wild West Cycling's adventure tours.
 This page details the following services
and topics:  
The Mission and History of Wild West Cycling; Lodging and Accommodations; Pre-Ride
and Post-Ride Meals; Transportation and Vehicle Support; Rider Support;
Traveling to a Wild West
Cycling Adventure
Ride; Shipping Your Bike; Renting a Bike; What to Bring on an Adventure
Tour; Your Arrival and Ground Transportation; Reservations; Contacting Us; our Pick the Podium!
Fantasy Cycling Game; and our Links Page.  Please use the links on this page to obtain more information
about some of the key services and topics.  After reading through these pages, you will find that Wild West
Cycling tries to provide greater services to our guests versus comparable tour operators, yet our tours are
more affordable.  If you need to return to this page, you may use the Guest Services button on the
Navigation Bar (left) or the Guest Services link found near the bottom on each of our webpages.

The Mission and History of Wild West Cycling
Wild West Cycling Adventures offers affordable, supported, multi-day Road Cycling and Mountain
Biking adventures around the San Francisco Bay Area/Wine Country and the High Sierras/Lake
Tahoe Region during the Spring through Fall seasons.  
We also offer Road Cycling and Mountain Biking
in the Las Vegas/Mojave Region during the Winter season
.  Our tours venture into scenic areas that provide
challenging rides through venues of historical significance. Wild West Cycling emphasizes a high level of
customer service and provides comfortable lodging during our adventure tours.  Importantly, our tours
provide 1 to 2 nights of additional inn stays vs. comparable tours, yet are more affordable.  One of our
objectives is to provide our guests with more for less.  
Read More About the History of Wild West
Cycling

Lodging and Accommodations
Our adventure tours stay in comfortable motor inns and small-to-medium sized hotels that have
been positively rated by the
American Automobile Association (AAA).  We believe that it is important to
have comfortable, clean, and complete accommodations after a full day of riding.  Importantly, Wild West
Cycling Adventures offers 1 to 2 additional nights of inn stays versus comparable tours, yet our tours are
more affordable!  Our accommodations are generally Double Occupancy, and we try to match you with a
fitting roommate of the same gender.  However, you may elect a Single Occupancy room for an additional
$75 on our weekend tours and $400 or more for our week-long tours (5 or more days of activity) by
clicking on the Single Occupancy button near the bottom of this page or on the
Reservations page.
Please note that you will have to take some Ground Transportation from SFO (or your point of entry) to the first night's place
of stay.  As soon as we have the minimum number of guests for a tour, we will provide you with the precise addresses of our
places of stay and ground transportation information for your first and last night's of stay.

Pre-Ride and Post-Ride Meals
On every full day of activity, Wild West Cycling provides a hearty pre-ride breakfast and a delicious
post-ride dinner.
 Our meals are  prepared either on-site by the Wild West Cycling staff or by nearby
restaurants.  Both of our daily meals emphasize healthy California Cuisine and quality sports nutrition - all
with a high amount of tastiness.  Our breakfasts focus on endurance-oriented nutrition and proper hydration.
 Breakfasts typically include hot and cold cereals with milk, bagels with spreads, energy bars, bananas, juice,
sports drink, coffee, and on occasion pancakes with syrup and breakfast sandwiches.  Our dinners focus on
post-ride recovery, rehydration and complex carbohydrate loading for the next day's riding.  Dinners
typically include a mixture of Mediterranean, Asian, and Latin American styles of cooking - hence California
Cuisine.  Dinners often feature antipasto, fresh garden salad, pasta with sauce, potatoes with toppings, rice
with garnish, prepared vegetables, and lean sources of protein such as chicken or seafood.  Rehydration
beverages such as juice and sports drink are also available.  While I prefer the alcoholic-free wines and malt
beverages, some light alcoholic drinks such as wine and beer will also be served with the dinners.

Transportation and Vehicle Support
Wild West Cycling's fleet of vehicles includes full-sized passenger vans such as the Chevy Express
3500 Passenger Van and all-terrain vehicles such as the Nissan Xterra Sport Utility Vehicle.  Our
passenger vans are powerful and comfortable vehicles that are in relatively new condition.  In fact, we will
be receiving new bike racks (not shown) for the 2008 season and beyond.  On our road cycling tours, the
passenger van transports our guests, their bikes, and their luggage to the start of each tour and accompanies
our guests throughout each day of riding to the end of the tour! On our mountain biking tours, the passenger
van transports our guests, their bikes, and their luggage to and from the trailheads, but generally provides
limited service during the MTB rides due to the terrain.  The Nissan Xterra is used as an additional transport
and support vehicle on our larger road and MTB tours.  Please note that on some of our MTB riding days,
we will not have any vehicle support during the ride due to lack of road accessibility.  Therefore, Rider
Support (below) during those MTB rides will have to be provided by the MTB tour guides.   

Support of Guests During the Rides
Wild West Cycling supports our guests during the rides through our knowledgeable and
highly-skilled riding tour guides and through our attentive staff members in the passenger vehicles
.  
Wild West Cycling seeks to have one to two staff members on the small group and small private tours.  We
also prefer to have from two to four staff members on our large group and large private tours.  Our riding
tour guides are very skilled cyclists who also have great familiarity with the areas that you will be riding
through.  In addition, our staff members in the passenger vehicles will  provide you with energy gels,
bananas, sports drinks, and water during your rides.  For the MTB riding days without vehicle support
during the rides, guests will have to load up on such items prior to the start of those rides.  During the rides,
the tour guides and vehicle support team will also be able to provide repairs and adjustments to the most
commonly encountered problems, such as flat tires, sloppy shifting, non-centered brake pads, untrue wheels,
and broken chains.  The support vehicles are also a good place for guests to leave a pair of walking shoes in
order to do some sightseeing during the rest breaks.  Importantly, the passenger vehicles are there to support
you if you decide to end a ride early for whatever reason.  Lastly, at the end of each day's ride but prior to
the next day's start, staff members clean and lube the drivetrains, inspect the shifting, braking, and other
features of the bikes, and adjust the component settings of the bikes as required.

Traveling to a Wild West Cycling Adventure Tour
There are a number of convenient methods of traveling that our guests use to arrive into the San
Francisco Bay Area, which generally serves as our reception and assembly area.  On our
Traveling
webpage, we discuss the more common methods of traveling, such as air, auto, rail, and bus travel,
and provide a number of links so that you can compare rates.  
Read More About How To Travel to
Our Tours  

Shipping Your Bike
Whenever you go for a day ride back home, there is always one important part of your team that
shares the experience with you - your bicycle.  This section discusses how you can share the lifelong
riding experiences from our adventure tours with your key "partner" by shipping your bicycle to the
start of our tours.
 There are two main ways that guests use to ship their bikes to the start of our tours and
back.  Guests either bring their bikes with them as they travel, or ship them to Caesar's Cyclery, our local
bike shop, via UPS.  An advantage of bringing the bike with you on the airliner is that your bike will always
be with you.  However, it may be somewhat cumbersome moving around the transportation terminals with
it.  An advantage of shipping your bike via UPS is ease of travel.  However, you must send your bike to
Caesar's at least one week, and preferably one and a half weeks, before the start of your adventure tour.  
This means that you will not be on this specific bike for around 7 to 10 days.  Looking at this positively, at
least you will have given yourself a sufficient taper before the many, full days of riding on our adventure
tours.  Please click on the links in this section to learn more about shipping your bike.  
Read More About
How to Ship Your Bike

Renting a Bike
Wild West Cycling Adventures reserves bikes for our guests from Caesar's Cyclery.  Caesar's
Cyclery is located at 29 San Anselmo Avenue, San Anselmo, CA 94960 (415-721-0805).  They offer a wide
selection of rental bikes, including the following: carbon fiber road bikes for speed and comfort; aluminum
road bikes for speed and responsiveness; full-suspension mountain bikes for comfort and downhilling; and
front suspension mountain bikes for responsive climbing and cross-country riding.  Other types of bicycles,
such as hybrids, are also available.  Most of the bikes in the rental inventory are manufactured by
GIANT.  
Please click on the links in this paragraph to view examples of the bicycles in the rental inventory.  
Read
More About Renting a Bike  

What to Bring on an Adventure Tour
Wild West Cycling recommends that you pack two pieces of luggage for our tours.  The luggage
should be around the same size of the carry-on bags that the airlines allow.  Preferably, the luggage should be
made from a durable, soft material and not hard like a suitcase.  Past guests have often packed their
belongings into a Cycling-oriented bag and a Pre/Post Ride luggage bag.  Please click on the links in this
paragraph to view our recommendations on what to pack.  
Read More About What to Bring

Your Arrival and Ground Transportation
Our Arrival and Ground Transportation page describes how you can travel from your point of entry
into the San Francisco Bay Area to your first night's stay in San Rafael, CA and the Reception &
Orientation in San Anselmo, CA.  
Read More About Your Arrival & Ground Transportation

Reservations
On our Reservations Center page, you may reserve online any of our week-long or weekend Road
or MTB adventure tours and other services, such as Single Occupancy accommodations, Bicycle
Receiving/Assembly and Disassembly/Boxing, and Rental Bikes.  
You may also reserve our tours and
other services via email, telephone, or regular mail by using the contact information on this page.  
Visit our
Reservations Center  

Contact Us
If you have any questions or requests concerning our adventure tours or Guest Services, please
Contact Us.

Pick the Podium! Fantasy Cycling Game
Wild West Cycling Adventures is proud to present Pick the Podium! - a free fantasy cycling game on
the internet that enables you to participate in the Grand Tours and other events by creating your
"team" of professional cyclists.  
Wild West Cycling was particularly excited about presenting Pick the
Podium! prior to the start of the 2006 and 2007 Tour de France events as pro cycling entered a new,
post-Armstrong era.  Pick the Podium! will most likely be presented for all three of the Grand Tours in 2008,
beginning with the Giro d'Italia in May 2008.  A number of riders certainly have a strong possibility to ride
for a place on the Final Podiums, or win the King of the Mountains and Best Sprinter competitions.  The
three Grand Tours  should be some of the most competitive and exciting 3-week stage races in some time.

Links Page
Our Links Page provides associations to the greater cycling world.  On this page are a number of links
concerning Travel, Shipping Your Bike, and General Cycling Information.
Site Search
You may reserve a Single Occupancy room (left) by clicking on
the Single Occupancy button on the right and placing your
selection into your online shopping cart
.  Single Occupancy
rooms are $100 for our weekend tours and $400 for our week-long
tours. A $100 deposit is required per guest per Single Occupancy,
and any balance is due 30 days before the start of your tour.
Please view our Terms of Service page if you have any questions concerning our
cancellation and refund policies.
Please support Pick the Podium!
by selecting one or more Donation
units at $1 per unit.  Your support
enables Pick the Podium! to occur.
Thank you.
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