Hartford to Portland in four photos

Le Grand Depart.

The farm roads out to Ellington were gorgeous this early in the AM.

People at this Whole Foods in NH were really interested in & supportive of what we were doing. This does not happen in CT...I wish our culture was more like NH's or VT's...

On the bridge into Portland. 236 miles in 24 hours. No sleep, lots of food.

You should check out randonneuring. It's pretty rad. http://nerandonneurs.org/

Read more!

Returning to randonneuring in New England

This weekend will mark my official return to randonneuring, the relatively non-competitive style of long distance cycling that has been around since the end of the nineteenth century, tracing its origins to Italy and France.

I got interested in randonneuring events early in graduate school when my girlfriend at the time had a very odd roommate named Mike who had a passion for the sport and had completed the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris a few years before. Mike was into safety meetings and riding the Marin Headlands on week days. I had way too flexible of a schedule and was often up for ticking off the miles along the Pacific coastline with him while everyone else was at work.

The San Francisco Randonneurs were a wonderful group to ride with and begin to explore California by riding longer and longer distances. I got up to a 300K, about 190 miles. It was a great ride, but also made me question why I wanted to ride such long distances. Why end with sore ankles and a desperate need to get in a hot tub to ease the muscles when we could just stop at 60 miles and have a beer?

I'm a much better cyclist now and ride a more appropriate bike for the work, so I'm looking forward to getting back at it with The New England Randonneurs, a very well-run group based in Boston and Vermont that hosts a variety of rides in both Massachusetts and Vermont, dipping into NY, CT, and NH at various points.

Brevet card. Sometimes it seems that half the fun of randonneuring is receiving actual pieces of paper in the mail that are not a result of failing to turn on e-delivery at my bank.

This Saturday my teammates Hans, Sam, and I will depart Hartford at 6am and aim to make it to downtown Portland, Maine at 6am on Sunday morning--about 226 miles in 24 hours. That's plenty of time to do the ride, but the rules of this event--what randonneurs call a Fleche, modeled after an original, social, Easter ride organized by Velocio in France, requires that you complete the last 20km after hour 22 to discourage rushing to the end and encouraging (requiring really) longer breaks. I really like the idea of riding from the city in which I live to another city, albeit a much hipper one, over the course of a day. I'm lucky that teammates were also up for a Hartford start.

2/3 of our team.

I attempted a Fleche (minimum 360km, must ride it over 24 hrs) in California with three friends, several years ago; we tried to ride from the foothills of the Sierras, through Napa and Sonoma counties, out to the ocean, and home to San Francisco. We didn't make it when one of our team members started to have some knee issues and we were tempted by the prospect of abandoning at Calistoga Hot Springs.

My California Fleche team: Jill, Jade, Kelly, Justin, plus large gold miner (in Auburn, CA)

There are no hot springs between Hartford and Portland, but there are a lot of good places to stop for food and drink. Our first stop will be Chickpea Diner in Worcester for brunch, about 70 miles in, just the first segment of a very big day on the bike. There are five other teams riding different routes to Portland and we'll all get together for some food and a beer on Sunday morning.

Team 'Bash Bish Brothers' will be leaving from the Maple Ave Dunkin' Donuts in the South End this Saturday if you want to come wish us luck and grab a very early donut.

- Justin

I'm riding this VO Pass Hunter I built up this winter. It has been a great bike.

Read more!

In Praise of Expedition Speed: A Sort of Ride Report of the 115km route of D2R2.

A guest post from Dario about the D2R2, because I wasn't there to see how it was:

The ride couldn't have begun better. Sandy Whittlesey (D2R2 founder and promoter) and his progeny, Fin, smiled at our motley, nearly arthritic crew. We knew then and there that it was going to be a great day of riding. Accompanied by friends Dave and Ken, Peter, Bruce, and I rolled out at about 9 am on one of the most perfect days of riding this summer. The different routes of the D2R2 all have their challenges, namely many steep hills and lots of loose gravel and sand. There is also the most incredible scenery and certainly some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, anywhere. I saw other riders, more fit than I, young and old, hammer up and fly down hills with 6%, 8%, 12%, 15%, 20%+ grades. (Personally, I refuse to go down anything steeper than 20%, even if I make it up the hill to begin with.) D2R2 is renowned for the hard men and women who tackle the 150km and 180km routes. But it's chief accomplishment is to bring together under one tent (literally) the different kinds of cyclists (racers, experienced randonneurs, tourers, and supposedly fit recreational riders, such as my companions and me), in what is easily one of the great cycling events around. (Granted I don't do big group rides much and I don't get out much.) So, rather than sing the praises of the seasoned racers and the bikes of the famed frame builders present at D2R2, I'd rather chant the virtues of expedition speed and its well-intentioned practitioners.

What is expeditions speed? It's all relative of course, but it's as fast as you can ride in six inches of snow without blowing up. It's making it up Patten Hill Rd. (a very steep, longish hill on the D2R2 course) with a smile at the top. It's riding the flats at conversational speed. You have to be able to chuckle, if not laugh, at expedition speed. It's making sure that you are all together especially when someone is a little slower. It's when the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. It's stopping when you can because you can. You know that you are at expedition speed when one of your mates stops to take a pee and before he can say "go on, I'll catch up to you guys", everybody is stopping for a nature break. Expedition speed is about the clock, but not about besting your record, but about making sure you're home for supper in time. "Chi va piano, va sano, e lontano" goes the Italian saying (He who goes slowly, goes safely, and far) is the way I put it. And, there is, very fortunately, different ways of riding at expedition speed.

For example, my fellow expeditionists and I recall the amusement provided by the jeep track, just off Packer Corner Rd at about mile 19 of the course. Y'know, the one that's marked with a very evident "Posted" sign on the tree. By the time we reached the exotically named Abijah Prince Rd, which according to Sandy W.'s cue sheet, reads "Jeep track gets more civilized", we were already nostalgic for the barbaric singletrack section we had just ridden. Bruce, I realized, is a consummate artist at riding in surplace. Using less than one to one gear ratio, he is able to negotiate obstacles and steep pitches by keeping up a consistent rhythm. It isn't as easy as it sounds. If I were to go that slow, I'd fall over.

If you ride slow enough in any case the major climbs begin to resemble one another and this in a curious time-warp continuum way can prolong your ride and, hence, your life. You can try to go fast up Ames Hill Rd (mile 29), Pennel Hill Rd. and Phillips Hill Rd (miles 49, 51) and the previously mentioned Patten Hill Rd (mile 58) and then when you realize that you've used up all your gears you stop, lean over the bars, feel like you can't go on, catch your breath, and then pedal some more. And if you apply this tactic assiduously, you eventually get to the top of the hill. I hadn't realized that Ken had perfected this art. He was our trailblazer and he frequently paid for being so avant-garde. Once recovered, he bounced back to his immense credit and deep satisfaction.

Now let me tell you how real expedition speed cyclists approach Pennel Hill Rd., which is an excuse for a road, by the way. It's really a long sandbox set at a 15% pitch. Turning right off of Rte. 112 S, Bruce declared that we should gear down. As Sgt. Rock might say, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em". I mean it's not like I had been in the big ring all day. So, we made lots of crunching and grinding noises while sliding around in a few inches of sand as we rode in circles at the bottom of the hill. A flock of ducks crossing the road? Or more likely, we resembled the newly arrived souls on the shores of Purgatory. We knew we had to go up the mountain, but we would rather have hung out at the beach. As each of us tried to make our way up the hill, I happened to remember (about 100 meters up, DUH!), Jan Heine's advice about very very steep hills: Sometimes it's faster to get off and walk. Sage advice. So I walked fifty yards or so. I cleared the rest of the hill, but only because I wouldn't allow myself to roll backwards.

There were many other memorable moments in which our well-honed expedition speed techniques were put to good use. As Sandy emphasized in his pre-ride email, try to stay within your limits and you will enjoy yourself immensely. This we did. Thank you Sandy!

Look at that smile! And that was before the ride.

Read more!

Sorry, guys

I know that votes were tallied and it said I was supposed to go ride the D2R2 again this year despite my dithering. However, I'm too broke and $125 is too steep for a bike ride. I mean it's not like anyone wants to ride with me anyway. I know that it benefits all sorts of nice parts of Massachusetts, so maybe when I'm not so broke, I'll go do it again.

Read more!

D2R2 poll

D2R2 is coming up again. Should I ride it? I can't decide.

I haven't been paying to ride things so far this year. I haven't even renewed my USAC license.

So, vote on the right. Read more!

PTDD

That stands for Post-Traumatic Detour Disorder, but I kid. The route of this year's De Tour de Connecticut was the same pleasant route as years' past (mostly) and the weather was beautiful, but the pace was bordering on traumatic at times. And since I don't ever want to consult a cue sheet, I hung with the lead group all the way until we rejoined the Air Line Trail in Goodwin State Forest. I probably would have hung longer (despite my growing opposition to the pace), but I got a stick in my wheel and didn't have the fortitude to sprint back up to the group. I rode the airline trail back into Willimantic in solitary and found about half of the lead group at the spring. We also picked up two riders and I couldn't figure out how they got to the Spring before me, because they never passed me. Shortcut.

We got some quasi-substantial food in Willimantic center, Lance smoked a cigarette and we were off once again. We rode the new section of the Airline Trail that a farmer had tried to appropriate by adverse possession for several years (can't acquire property from the state by adverse possession (public policy reasons) & the state can't acquire property by adverse possession either (that's a taking under the 5th Amendment)). The false flat into East Hampton never gets any easier.

We stopped at the library to fill water bottles, pee and wash faces. I was eating WAY better this year and finally conquered Champion Hill without blowing up. I was surprised to discovered that it's not actually that steep of hill when you still have some energy in your body. I parted ways in the Meshomasic and rode home.

I'm not sure who ended up finishing with Salem, but they must have beat last year's time by like a half an hour. According to Strava, even my laughing group (after my leaving) finished in under 9 hours. It took me about 10 hours because I rode out to the start.

Then, I showered and drove to New York to go run as one on Sunday.

Read more!

Salem cancels Detour so that he can go ride around in circles at Winding Trails

That was my terrible attempt at an April Fool's joke. Even to the eight people who would get that joke, it's not even funny.

Anyway, Salem sent out his annual email alerting people to the upcoming Detour de Connecticut. You should come do it. Here's what he had to say:

With the long tail end to winter this year, it took some time before I could check on the route, but all is pretty much well and The Basics for this year's ride have been posted. From last year on, the date is the last Saturday of April (Sunday rain date) which puts us on 4/27 for this year. Again, any questions should be posted to the blog as a comment to the most recent post and I will answer it there for you and all. Hope to see many of you out there in a month.
detourdect.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Salem

So, there you have it.

Also, the Winding Trails race is actually the week before the Detour, so you can do both. Read more!

One man's D2R2 is another man's R2D2

As the New England cycling blogosphere is no doubt atwitter, D2R2 was yesterday. As you probably want to know, my gearing was (463:2973:9i)/y=mx+b; my tires were ovoid, 900m wide and filled with nitrogen and I tattooed the cue sheet to my tongue in Hebrew.

Actually, there is a funny story about my bike. No wait, it's not that funny. The Jake the Snake had some weird flat tire problems. I don't know why. It seemed like it was just a puncture and I removed the sharp, but Johanna and I went for a ride a month or so ago and she got three flat tires in five miles. That precipitated me picking her up and getting followed by the Wethersfield police for the very suspicious activity of picking someone up from Mill Woods Park. I wonder if the cops follow all the moms picking their kids up from Little League, too.



Anyway, I put in a new tube, it held air over night, so I took the bike for a longish ride on Thursday. It was working well and I was having a good time riding the Avon town forest trails, until I shifted my derailleur into the spokes. The derailleur was ok, but I bent the hanger somewhat. I got it back, though I couldn't pedal backwards too well. Although, it's rare that one needs to do very much back pedaling beyond a half a stroke or so. I pressed my luck and kept going out to Neapaug and then up Breezy Hill. I explored some of the Canton Land Trust trails, which are very cool. I should take some other people out that way. My hope was that Thursday was Benindorm's late night and I was in luck. I was also in luck in that they're a Kona dealer, so they'd probably have the hanger in stock and I wouldn't need to get one of those stop gap universal hangers. They did and I rode home. I also ended up getting sort of lost, or at least on the wrong roads in Avon. I figured growing up there, I'd know better where to go.

I swapped out the hanger and everything seemed to be working ok drivetrain-wise when I rode up and down the driveway a few times Friday evening.

Johanna and I had pizza at Park Lane. Thankfully, she gave me a ride home, so I didn't have to ride in that flash flood-inducing thunderstorm Friday night.

I drove up Saturday morning in the drizzle and the ride (with chip timing!!(??)) commenced with drizzle. As you may know, the first stage of the ride has like 7,000 feet of climbing. Drizzle and cool temperatures were perfect. The sun came out around a little before the first checkpoint in Heath. While there was some steam rising off the road on the climb to it, the temperature was still low and the effect was just pretty. Sadly, the sunflowers were gone from the Heath checkpoint.

The rest of the ride followed pleasantly enough. I ate a lot of pickles to avoid cramps and generally felt pretty good. I ate less than I thought I would, but I've been eating less on rides lately. Unless I ride with Salem, riding with him makes me wicked hungry and I'm always feeling like I'm going to bonk. I think that's true for the most part, though, because if I ride the pace that my body is comfortable with me riding, I can manage food and fatigue better. This is probably why I'm a terrible racer.

Patten Hill is no longer my demon and I'm convinced that Hillman is the hardest climb on the course. It's right  after Archambo and it just gets looser and sandier the deeper you get into the climb.

At times I rode with others and chatted, but I've never really got anything interesting to say.

I got back around twenty to four, drank a FLT Preservation Ale (not a porter day), ate some macncheese and a pulled pork sandwich, packed up and drove home. Even with a stop to pick up some miller lite, I was home at 5:15. Just felt like another day at work.

Thanks to the Franklin Land Trust & Sandy.

The end. I didn't take any good pictures this year.

Read more!

How to ride a long way without really noticing it

No one has written to the beat bike blog asking for advice about riding. Ever. It's not surprising, considering I don't really have any idea how to ride a bike. Yet, I feel like I should dispense some unasked advice anyway.

People often want to ride their bike a long way, but it seems like a difficult undertaking. Yesterday, I rode a pretty long way (95-100 miles), but it wasn't a big deal. I broke it into several different rides of various reasons throughout the day. I rode to Peter's house and then rode with Peter and Doug for awhile. Then I ate some pasta and drank some seltzer and went home via the ferry. I made a bunch of pesto and puttered around the house for awhile. Then, I rode to my parents' house to feed the cat and do some other puttering. I stopped at the grocery store and bought a few things and then came home around 6:30pm. While I was just under the minimum randonée average speed of 10.5mph, I still got things done and rode a long way.

Read more!