Between vacations
I’m resting up a bit this week having returned from Canada on Monday night, and leaving for Colorado on Saturday night.
Or rather, I should be resting up.
I arrived home in time last night to make the Monday Night Small Ring Ride at Full Moon Vista Bike & Sport. Shana decided we’d ride the “finishing loop” for the upcoming Rochester Road Race, part of the Rochester Omnium. We followed up with a couple of loops of the Criterium course. Of course, since neither course was closed, we rode them recreationally.
The Road Race course is finally public. The whole thing is a nice ride. What I haven’t ridden already, I’ve ridden on nearby roads. The first 89 miles of the 101-mile course dumps into Genesee Valley Park at the East River Road entrance.
Then it takes two laps of the “finishing loop” up through the park, across the University of Rochester River Campus, around Mt. Hope Cemetery, through Highland Park and out Goodman St to Elmwood, then Kendrick back to East River.
These are all roads familiar to TNUA riders, and I ride them year ‘round. It’s really hard to say where the best spectator spots will be. There are just too many to choose from.
I followed that up with a fast commute on Yellow Bike today. Set a new personal best by exceeding 17 MPH average bot ways. It’s fairly common for me in the morning, but I’m slower coming home. Given the stops and starts, and getting stuck behind pokey cars on Park Ave, it was a real accomplishment.
Bicycling says I’m cool
I’m a trend setter. It’s true. Bicycling magazine says so in the September issue, which arrived today. Page 68 has an article on mixing dirt with your road (bike) rides. They call them “blends”.
That’s exactly how I spent last week. I took the Portland to my family’s place in Ontario for a week of cycling. I took both wheelsets—one with my road tires and 12-23 cassette, the other with my cyclocross tires and 12-27 cassette.
Every ride but one started at the cabin, 4½ miles from the nearest pavement. Mostly, I used pavement just to connect dirt roads. It was the most fun I’ve had on a bike in a good long time. There’s something about keeping out of the gravel, avoiding chuckholes and bald spots in the Great Canadian Shield, and flying over washouts that, um, focuses your concentration to a pinpoint.
It takes a whole different set of skills to ride like that. I learned them riding the TNUA, and used them all last week.
Eeek! Paging through the article just now, There’s a sidebar, titled Do It All. “Riding on dirt can be rough on your road bike—and your body. If you plan to blend your rides regularly, consider buying gear that can take you anywhere.”
It features the Trek Portland, all-conditions high-speed commuter and my preferred ride. Says Bicycling, “The Portland also works well for blends. For added stability it features a longer top tube, a taller head tube and a slacker head angle than Trek’s cyclocross bikes, as well as disc brakes for enhanced stopping power.”
They screw it up by suggesting some Specialized tires for it. Last week, I quickly became a fan of my Bontrager Jones CXR cyclocross racing tires. The little baby knobbies are just enough to hold gravel in place as I roll over it. It’s when the gravel moves out from under your wheels that you lose speed and stability. They worked well in the mud, loose sand and on the pavement too.
Lets see if I can put one of my rides into Bicycling’s format.
WESTPORT, ONTARIO, CANADA
BRUCE WILBUR, all-conditions cyclist: Here’s a nice 50-miler that’s over half dirt roads. The climbs are challenging, the descents exhilarating and the biting flies will have you screaming for your mommy in the first 20 miles.
Length: 50.25 miles, with 4,025 feet of climbing.
START: At the Wilbur’s cottage on Wolfe Lake, Zimmerman Lane then left on Lee Road.
Left on Westport Road in Fermoy, pavement begins. Descend to Wolfe Lake, through the twisties then towards town.
Right on Devil Lake Road in Salem, dirt resumes.
Left on Canoe Lake Road, still dirt.
Straight through Snug Harbour on a nice descent to the bridge, pavement begins.
Right on Desert Lake Road.
Right on Highway 38, to Godfrey.
Right on Westport Road.
Left on Burridge Road, dirt resumes.
Right on McNeil Road, careful of the washouts on the descents!
Left on Lee Road
END: Right on Zimmerman Lane, back to camp
And boy, did we get dirty. I still have to strip down and clean the Portland. It’s encrusted with mud, which explains, in part, why I took Yellow Bike to work today.
We did take one pavement-only ride. On Saturday I put on the road wheels and my dad took me in the boat to the “Bike Launch Ramp” at the end of the lake.
It was a nice 50-miler up towards Perth, but turning at Narrows Lock Road, where I spent an hour watching the hand-operated lock and swing bridge between Little and Big Rideau Lakes. Then it was down to Crosby, right on Hwy 42 back thorough Newboro (where I had my first flat of the year) and Westport, and Westport Road back to the Bike Launch Ramp where I waited for my ferry.
I turned in a respectable 3:05 for a 16.21 MPH average on 50.05 miles.
Pics forthcoming.
By the numbers
I put on nearly 200 miles during the week. With a third of the month left to go, on Sunday I blew through my July goal of 550 miles. On Saturday I passed 10,000 miles since I got my first cyclometer in May 2006, and before I leave for Colorado, I’ll clear 3,000 miles on the year-to-date.
As of 11:36 PM ET I’m ranked 794 of 7,101 riders at BikeJournal, closing in on my goal of being in the top 10%.
I’m 150 miles away from the Portland becoming my most-ridden bike. It took me well over a year to put 3,778 miles on my Giant hybrid, when it was my only bike. I’ll do it in just 10 months on the Portland, and that’s with 15% of my rides on Yellow Bike in those same 10 months.
Although my road tires (Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase) for the Portland now have the most miles (2,863.4) of all my tires. I had the first puncture on them on Saturday afternoon in Newboro—bottle glass in the rear. Interestingly, Yellow Bike arrived home tonight with a staple sticking out of the sidewall of its rear Ultra Gatorskin. I plucked it out and it’s still holding 100 PSI.
