Two great rides on the horizon

My dudettes and dudes!

I have had two great ideas for rides in the coming months.

1. The Eel's Return to the Connecticut River. It's happened before and it's happening again. 60 miles of trails up and down the CT River starting in Hartford. Same route as 2014. I'll dig up a gpx file or write a cue sheet. 9:30 a.m. start in Hartford first Sunday of November. Just like old times.

2. The Old Mountain Bike Omnium. Bring an old mountain bike and do two laps of Cowles Park (~20 miles). I'm going to work out some kind PAX-esque timing to handicap the race. Year 2000 bike gets straight time, time off for older bikes and steeper time tacked on for newer bikes.  Race on a high zoot 2016 bike and get 16 minutes added to your time. Race on a 1985 Diamond Back Apex and get 7 1/2 minutes shaved off. Something like that. The goal is to favor the older bikes. I haven't quite worked the system out yet, but I think it'll be fun. Date TBD and prizes TBD. Read more!

Thought You Should Know

If you haven't been paying attention, I'm on a bike tour and not at all in Hartford.  That said, I'm keeping an electronic toe in the water.  There are several things coming up that deserve a long distance shout out.  Bummed that I can't be there in person, but take lots of photos and make me jealous.  Post the photos to Transport Hartford.

1. Sunday, September 6th - Hartford Slow Roll.  3pm meet up at 1429 Park Street.  7-12 miles at a leisurely pace.  Often followed with beverages at a local establishment.
2. Sunday, September 13th - Traffic Skills 101 in New Britain, CT.  Hard hittin' New Britain was recently recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community and they are upping their game by bringing this comprehensive bike safety course to the city.  Just in time for the Discover New Britain Ride.  Last day to register is September 9th, but don't wait until then.  These classes sell out.
3. Meandering Mondays - As recently featured in the Hartford Courant.  Sort of like the Slow Roll, but much shorter, it starts downtown, and there is a lunch stop.  Slow pace.  Work clothes.  Every Monday.  Fair weather only.  Meets at 11:45am (sharp) on Prospect Street where the Travelers flyover walkway is, near the Hartford Club.
4. Saturday, September 19th - Hartford Family Bike Tour and Envisionfest.  A full day of awesomeness in Hartford wouldn't be complete without a family bike tour.  Pretty darn cheap.  You can also volunteer, and ride marshals are needed / ride for free.  Registration should open soon.  Keep an eye on the CCAP page for registration.
5. Bike Share? - Saturday, September 18th, 19th, & 20th - Maybe, just maybe there will be a "bike share" demo in Hartford.  It will be a weekend full of bicycles, new folks in Hartford (Envisionfest), and a need to get across town to check things out.  Stay tuned!  Watch Transport Hartford for announcements.
6. CT Cycling Festival Race Day - Sunday, September 20th - A day full of criterium racing in downtown Hartford.   It's a great race for spectating, there will be an expo area, and we always need more cowbell.  Spread the word and bring a crowd that knows how to holler.  You can also volunteer.
7. Sunday, September 27th - Discover New Britain Bike Tour.  Check out all the bike lanes and drool. Register here.  You can also volunteer.

As always - You have been hereby deputized to spread the word.  To keep this to yourself would be criminal neglect.  Do the right thing.

And now I'll return to my regularly scheduled cross country bike tour.  Right now I'm taking over a friend's home in Columbus, OH.  They're out recording a record or something.  All my clothes are in the washer and I'm walking around... like I own the place.  Noticed I've lost a bit of weight.

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Cross Racers Will Descend on Hartford

Cross racing.  Have you seen it?  Not a horde of queens sprinting in heels, although that would be equally awesome.  Cyclocross is a newer format of bicycle racing where masochists on road-like bikes hammer around a snaking route through a field or park.  Consumerism has morphed the road bikes into race specific rigs with carbon wheels and tubeless low pressure tires.  The course is set up to maximize punishment and spectator viewing.  Weather be damned, the event runs in rain, sleet, or snow.  The obstacles and mud/sand pits have cyclists running with the bikes over their shoulders.  The crowd is encouraged to ring bells, holler, and even heckle the racers to eek out their deepest energy stores.  It's a hoot, and "Hartford Has It."

When there is an obstacle, you'll see running.

Just announced!  

Hartford will host the 2017 Cyclocross Nationals.  

We were chosen over many other cities based on an impressive cooperative bid by Connecticut Cycling Advancement Program (CCAP), the City of Hartford, and the Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau.  Hartford is well situated in the Northeast where cyclocross racing is booming and the population density allows for many nearby races, racers, and spectators.  This is a big deal folks.  The influx of bike racers and spectators to Hartford, up to 20,000, for this national event in December will be a great off-season economic boost.  Hartford gets to show off as a destination on the national stage.  Leading up to the Nationals, there will be more regional races in Riverside Park and Colt Park in 2015 and 2016.   With the 2017 race on the horizon, the regional races will have increased exposure.  To get full bang for the buck on a national race, we need to grow and expand the regional races both before and afterward.

This national opportunity didn't materialize out of thin air.  In 2013 and 2014 there were two cyclocross races in Hartford proper and a series of other races across the state.   One of them was right next door to my home in Colt Park.  You may have missed the races in Hartford.  For some reason the larger cycling community in the area didn't mobilize and show up to cheer and spectate.  I'm still trying to understand why.  Connecticut has a bevy of bicycle shops.  Those shops have mailing lists and Facebook pages.  Growing cyclocross as a racing and spectator sport is a clear way for our local bike shops to extend their customer season into the otherwise quiet Fall and Winter.  I'm imploring our cycling community, riding clubs, and bikes shops to do better publicity in 2015.  Let folks know that this is an engaging spectator sport.  There are always beginner races for those that want to try it out for themselves.

There should be a hipster bike category.  Single speed required.

In addition to the racing community the event publicity must tie into the advocacy groups that promote bikes for both recreation and transportation.  A cyclocross racer who enjoys riding a skinny tired bike through cold, semi-frozen mud would be a champion bicycle commuter.  Bike commuters, like myself, often got their start as racers.  Explaining to a cross racer that bike commuting year round results in free and efficient training miles is an easy sell.  Also bike commuters and recreational (non-racing) riders love bikes, and often enjoy watching them being ridden in circles by others that are suffering (schadenfreude or sadism?).  Bikes aren't just toys, although they are really fun all around - for racing and commuting.  I'll do my best to connect Bike Walk Connecticut and Transport Hartford to the 2015 cross races.  Cross promotion and cooperation between racing and advocacy is the next step in Connecticut.

Another item to improve for 2015 - food.  These cross racers are hungry and thirsty.  I didn't make it to the Riverside Park CCAP race, but I noticed a lack of food and drink at the Colt Park Veteran's Memorial Race.  We've got great food trucks in Hartford.  They will show up if you put a call out and let them know there will be hungry customers nearby.  If you need suggestions, here are a few - Whey Station (gourmet grilled cheese), Amor (healthy, vegan), and Lucky Taco.  It's also relatively easy to get a permit for beer sampling or a beer tent at a park event.  Let's get some Hooker, City Steam, or Burnside beer out there for the 2015 races.  For the Colt Park race, there is also a nearby grocery store, C-Town, for racers looking for Gatorade or some hot rice and beans.  Just across Wethersfield Avenue.

Excited for this announcement.  We need to ramp up the events in 2015 and 2016 so Hartford is ready to blow the doors off in 2017.  Let's do this!

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Cyclocross Racing in Colt Park - This Weekend

First - a big deal announcement.  Hartford is a finalist city for the Cyclocross Nationals in 2017 or 2018.  There are four finalist cities, and two will be selected, one for 2017 and the other for 2018.  It's time to start ringing our cowbells, as this is a competition and Hartford has to WIN it.  The other finalist cities are Bend (OR), Louisville (KY), and Reno (NV).  Hartford (in the city proper) hosted two cyclocross races in 2014, and a downtown criterium race.  There is a growing bike racing scene in the Hartford metro area, and our fair city is an excited and helpful host city.  Stay tuned to the Beat Bike Blog for more info on how you can help secure this national cyclocross race.

Cross racers mounting the stairs at the base of the Sam Colt Statue.

For those that don't know much about cross racing, this weekend is your chance to get a crash course.  On Saturday, November 8th there is a full day of cross racing in Hartford's Colt Park starting at 8:30AM.  There is still time to register (REGISTER HERE) and it's a cheap entry fee (only $30).  There are races for all skill levels, and even a kids race.  If you don't race, you can just stop by and spectate.  Bring a cow bell (marathon left overs) or a kitchen pan and holler at the riders.  They need the aural flogging to reach peak performance levels.  Cyclocross has a tradition of goodhearted heckling. I'll see y'all out there, I'm going to volunteer in some shape or form.  There is more info on the Team ERRACE facebook page.

Heckling is part of the fun.  

In the vein of healthy hecking, I challenge any of the racers or attendees to actually ride their bike to the race. Imagine that.  Using your bike as transportation in addition to a shiny fast toy.

There are obstacles on the course.  And crashes happen.

And now for something not bike related.  It could be bike related though.  You can ride your bike there.  Next week there is a week long series call The Thread.  You can find more info here.  Four consecutive days of story telling right here in Hartford.

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A race report, strangely

I haven't raced a mountain bike in awhile. The last time I did that was at the Circumburke. That was a pretty high note, because I won. In fact, it's memorialized on their website in a pretty funny way (I'm lying there because I tweaked my back, not because of exhaustion. I swear!). I really like mountain biking, but back when I was a Cat 2, it sort of sucked: drive to race, ride on mediocre trails for and an hour and fifteen minutes as if it were a 'cross race with some rocks and go home. Circumburke was cool, because that took a long time. Racing for over five hours means you got your money's worth. I upgraded, because I had some good finishes awhile ago, but I hadn't really done anything with it. The entry fees had also gone up, which wasn't particularly attractive. Also, I sort of suck and didn't want that to be further proven by getting my ass kicked by all those fast guys.

But lo! A race that was only $25 and it was on those weird New Haven trails I rode with Marko a few weeks ago. And, I've finally started getting up the gumption to ride a singlespeed bike in public. I should enter that one. So, I did. The start time wasn't too early, but it wasn't too late. It was 20 miles and for $25, that seemed like a reasonable deal.

Preregistering didn't have too many people registered and no more registered day of for singlespeed. It was a field of four. One of whom, Gary Hoehne, I have raced the cyclocross bikes against and two I didn't. One guy was older than me and friendly and the other guy was wearing jorts. I like riding in jorts, but not when it's so muddy.

The start was on payment and we were spinning at our crazy maximum speed of ~17mph right quick and then dropped into the woods. I was in second, but all four of us were tightly packed until the little ascent, where I took the lead. Then we crossed a road and there was some more ascending, but there was also a bog, so there was some walking for a minute, then back on the bike whereupon it turned into stone steps and then there was a guardrail where people were helping lift your bike over said guard rail. Afterwards, there was a climb on the road for like a half mile, then a little bit of rocky single track to climb and finally a this nuts rocky, steep descent. I think it dropped like 400 ft in a tenth of mile. The rest of the course was mostly gravel paths with another rocky single track section that had one mildly steep ascent that caused me to drop a chain on laps 1 and 3. On lap 1, I got passed by the guy who was older than me and friendly. I didn't realize that it was him at the time and thought it was the leader of the 50+. So, when I caught him at the beginning of the second lap, I was all confused and he said that he passed me when I dropped my chain. Then I felt really bad for having sort of accused him of cutting course.

He never caught me again and I kept on doing my thing. The course deteriorated and so did I and I ended up walking a few more steeps than I would have liked on lap three (well, really just one more than the previous laps).

So, that was that. It was a good race and I was really impressed that the New Haven parks and rec people came out and opened up their facilities for us: two hoses, a bathroom and a little spot for me to stash my messenger bag (I parked really far away) in the nature house.

Apparently, CT singlespeeders haven't been doing great this year, because winning one race also made me state champ. I wish I could do Winsted Woods, but I have law school graduation that day. Stupid law school ruining my life some more.

Photos stolen from the Root 66 facebook page and taken by Geno Esponda.

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