Last Sunday, Salem & Peter Waite organized a ride off into the hinterland off towards Lake Pocotopaug. It was fun, friendly and ended with a pot luck (and it was quite wet). Maybe that's what the next Eel should be like. Or maybe not. Competitive is cool, too. However, the problem I'm having figuring out to do a competitive Eel is that people may get lost with what I'd to do.
A view from the Keney tennis courts.I've
prattled on about "mountain biking" or at the least the dirt to ride in Hartford and closely adjacent places. It'd be really cool to make a race of it, but like, everyone would get lost or at least they'd be focusing on a map a lot. It'd also be cool to just do a group ride with a pot luck. Which is preferable? What do you think? Is racing actually fun? At the first Eel, it was pretty tough to keep everyone going the right way, thus I rode the first lap with everyone. Even then, I think I recall Josh ending up on the railroad bridge. Also, it's hard to disperse prizes if participants aren't time. Maybe there's another way to judge: ride this route and come back with the coolest photograph or object? Best story?
Another view from the Keney tennis courtsI think you can do like a 30 mile loop. Or, maybe a
50 miler if you head all the way down to the ferry in Rocky Hill. So, does anyone want to do this. Can it be done as race? Does anyone care? Does anyone want to help me? I think there was something cool about the first Eel, I'd like to keep that going.
Crazy maple trees!
A view from the Keney tennis courts.
Another view from the Keney tennis courts
Unfortunately, I believe that the ferry that you mentioned doesn't run in the late autumn or winter.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=1380&q=259738
I know. I mean the ferry landing/ferry park.
ReplyDeleteYou try to find somewhere in the hinterlands of CT where there are a bunch of dirt roads and lots of climbing and do you your own Gravel Grinder/D2R2. If anything, good practice for that event.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I want to do it in Hartford. Everybody is already riding in suburban/rural CT.
ReplyDeleteI still say an elimination style race in heats on the East Hartford boardwalk would be really cool.
ReplyDeleteYou just want to get everybody killed!
ReplyDeleteIf the trail is marked better, it will be easier to follow. And do the event while there's enough daylight so you don't get caught without lights. Those were my two personal gripes about the first eel race.
ReplyDeleteInstead of using spray-painted markers (which get rubbed off, moved,lost and destroyed) maybe mark trees and such with tape or fabric ties. Tape stuff off like in the cross race.
Oh yeah, when marketing it, don't tell people that they can ride it on a track bike if the trails are really designed for mountain bike. There were a few folks that dropped out because they were told it was race-able on a road bike and it clearly wasn't.
Competitive or not, I like you keeping it Hartford-centric. I've been riding in Keney Park more often lately, and I think there is a lot of potential to work more Keney, North End, North Meadows and riverfront action into the mix. I'm in no physical condition to compete, so these are fun events for me. Anything better than last place is a nice surprise. I don't mind the navigation aspect so much, as my geography skills were all that kept me out of last place in the Eel 2.
ReplyDeleteI share Skullhead's opinon on racing after dark in the first Eel, especially when the rain on my glasses made for some frighteningly blind stretches on the second lap. I do think that it was raceable on a road bike, as I completed it on my commuting rig and Josh's 20" folding bike and other fender-equipped bikes went the distance as well. Just because a track bike can be ridden on the road doesn't make it a road bike. They are called track bikes for a reason.
@skullhead & interstatement- hopefully, you'll believe that my trail marking skills improved, evidenced by the 'cross race. I've found that trying to do the whole thing yourself makes it pretty difficult. judging/timing on the other hand... I don't think I'm culpable in that regard ;)
ReplyDeletewith the track/road bike thing, I mean, I ride with a guy who rides a track bike with a front brake over everything of the eel course with 700x21's. while I go faster than him with my 'cross bike, he clears everything. when we ride singletrack, he rides fixed but with lower gearing and 26"s. I don't know how/why he does it, but more power to him.
ride and potluck!!!
ReplyDeleteand keep in in da beat!! keney park is wonderful.