Erica's story: Belgian Waffle Ride California

BaseCamp athlete Erica Ramos shared her experience at the 2026 Belgian Waffle Ride California.

This past weekend I did the Belgian Waffle Ride Dubbel Header Challenge; for me, that was the 40k road ride (the Roadie-Oh) and the Wanna ~48k gravel ride. Day 1 was the Roadie-Oh and was definitely more in my comfort zone. It was the first time I had a time goal for a road event. In addition to my time goal (1:45), I set process goals with my coach Lorri making a detailed prep plan and schedule for both days, along with a nutrition plan. Thankfully I love to do lists. My other race goals were to pace my climbs, focus on breath and ride to RPE of 5-6. Everything worked perfectly -- I felt very prepared and chill at the start and ended up finishing 1st in my AG and 5th in the women!

Day 2 was tough, mentally and physically, but so much fun. My legs were toast on the last steep climb out of the canyon, but I was very grateful to Lori Thomson for putting together a great strength plan for me and getting my legs much stronger than last year! This was a "complete, not compete" day, and in addition to my planning goals, my race goals were to focus on foot and body position, look where I want to go, trust the bike and my motto for the day: be smart but be brave. There was one descent where I actually said to one guy, "I could have been braver there," but overall I'm really proud of my ride and the weekend as a whole.