Truxton – DeRuyter – 112mi

Last year I considered the Truxton-DeRuyter ride, but thought I would make it into a mini-tour by winding up through the state forests, camping overnight near Truxton, and riding the loop and back home the next day. When my front rack broke off in Shindagin, and rain started to fall, I turned around and bailed on that plan. I was glad to have another opportunity to make it to this route again.

Apparently with the full sun shining, and expected temperatures in the mid eighties, a few other groups formed that wanted a shorter or closer to home route instead. There was no chatter on the list though, so the actual advertised ride only had 3 takers, with no one starting in Truxton. Oops.

Being as warm as it was, I was sure to take enough stops to refill liquids. I actually kept up with drinking enough for once, which kept the riding in the hills possible. Shortly after Deruyter was the only major climb, the worst of which was about 400ft up in 1.7 miles, which is roughly the same as my typical commute home. I stopped at the top in the shade to wait for the others. On the way down the hill, I had a hornet fly into my unzipped jersey, which stung me three times before I was able to stop and get it out of there. I can’t remember being stung in a long time, but at least I had no reaction to it afterwards.

I was still sore from running the day before, so I decided to cut the route short. When it turns to go back up Taylor Valley to Truxton, I continued to Cincinnatus. Then I realized that was a poor decision, since the best route out of there was through some killer hills. I wished that I stayed with the group a bit longer until County Rt 159 to cut off the hills, but this instead turned into a great adventure.

Knickerbocker Road was a fun hill to climb passing by a golf course. I flew down the backside into East Freetown, never seeing anything that looked like a town. Freetown Cross Road leading to Freetown was rough pavement, but with no traffic it was easy to avoid the worst spots. The climbs continued out of Freetown as I approached Hoxie Gorge State Forest. Up and up I went as I was sipping on the water bottles hoping they would last. Then of course after a rather steep climb and coming partway down the back, there is a “Road Closed” sign. The options were to test my luck and ride on the newly graveled road hoping to be able to cross, or turn right to go more north, still through a state forest, and hope it comes out somewhere.

I took the gravel. It was rough on my 28/23mm tires, but I stayed near the tire tracks. Then the road splits, where the construction and closed road heads south away from my route, but ahead of me was smaller gravel and a big hill as far as I could see. I could see horse hoof marks and buggy wheel tracks leading up the hill, so how bad could it be? I struggled for traction on the smooth rear 23, but made it up into the forest. I would love to come back on the cross bike, as the decent was 2 miles long for a 500ft drop on a good dirt road. I took it carefully, but found it hard to either stay seated through the bumps or put all my weight on the pedals while standing.

That section ends with a sketchy path under the interstate, and comes out on state route 11. As soon as I pulled out, I see a cop car with lights on, and wondered what I had done. But they didn’t pull over, and instead a line of classic cars passed me. There must have been some car show they were off to. I was only on that road for a few miles, so on the slight downhill before my turn I sprinted to merge into the slow traffic and made my left turn without issue.

From there, it was back to the aerobars on 392 and 13 back home. I was trying to make up some time, but tired after the hills. I had a few quick stops near Greek Peak to get water from a spigot and stop in the shade. I made it back home after 112 miles in 8.5 hours after starting. It was a fun route, and I’m glad to have explored farther into the northeast than I had gone before.

Strava data: http://app.strava.com/rides/8967254

 

Team Gorges Flechers – 380km in 25 hours

Having advertised some longer rides earlier this year, a few other randonneurs asked if I would like to join their “fleche” team. These rides are similar to brevets, in that there is a certain time limit, a particular distance, and controle stops along the way to prove that you followed the route. The difference with a fleche, is that you ride as a team of 3-5 randonneurs, for 24 hours, and must cover at least 360km in that time. Riders can stop as often as they need, but no stops can be over 2 hours long – presumably to ensure that they don’t just ride fast, sleep overnight, and finish in the morning. These rules necessitate that the ride will go through the night, which can be a great experience.
Our route had us going north between Skaneateles and Owasco Lakes, then east making a large loop around Oneida Lake, and then west headed to the finish in Ontario, NY (near Rochester). I left home around 9am, with plenty of time to spare to reach our 10am start at East Hill Plaza. I was leading the way towards Moravia, and pulled into a parking lot for a quick stop to refill water. We continued along on some great roads, and rolled our way along Skaneateles Lake, which is one of my favorite segments. We had to get our brevet cards signed in town, and while we only expected a short stop, my sugar kept dropping low, so I ordered a few more slices of pizza.

The quick break turned out to be a bit longer than planned, so Jim thought we should make up time. Not having ridden a fleche before, it seemed like a fine idea, so we rode rather quickly for the next section to Baldwinsville. Now about 67 miles in, we found a Dunkin Donuts, and I got a cold raspberry lemonade while Jim and Dan got some food.

After we got further along, I noticed some weird action with my rear derailleur. I could no longer shift onto the right side of the cassette in the small front ring, as I kept shifting around trying to find out why that was. Then Jim’s rear tire suddenly went flat and we found a shaded patch of trees to stop at. Apparently my derailleur was just sticking and not retracting normally, causing the loss of tension on the chain. I dumped chain lube on it, and moved it back and forth many times until it cooperated again. 80 miles down now, and a long way to go.

Again we powered on, rounding Oneida Lake and picking up the pace more than we needed, hoping to save some of the time that we had lost from extra stops. When we stopped, I realized that I had been taking short breaths all day, and my lungs were starting to slow me down. This was a much needed stop at a convenience store for about 25 minutes. After this point, I focused on my breathing much more, and was able to take deeper breaths over time which helped a lot and made me feel less tired.

The next two controls were very close, so we only stopped briefly at the first. The second was in Camden, at a Stewarts Shop, now about halfway into the ride. I took the opportunity to change my base layers, swap gloves, lose the silk tights (for sun protection) now that it was getting dark, and try to wipe off the sunscreen. I still didn’t buy any food, relying mostly on the food that I had packed that I still had more than enough of.

The route continues north for a while, meandering through maybe seven state forests, and was a great stretch of road. Now in the dark, Dan and I had our generator lights on, and Jim eventually turned on his battery lights when the sun was down. We approached Redfield, where the next control was, but were unable to find it easily. We went farther up the road and found the Inn, though it was dark and closed.

Next stop was Pulaski, where the minimart we stopped at had just closed, so we continued to another Dunkin Donuts. The guy mopping the floor had been there a year ago when some other teams came through, so he seemed happy to see this happening again. I got some real food this time – a bagel with ham and cheese. We took a longer stop here for about 45 minutes, since now that it’s dark out, we’re happy to spend a little less time on the bike. About 150 miles ridden now.

We continued directly to Mexico, which has a false turn in the route. The county road we were on veered right, but we needed to continue straight. Fortunately with 3 GPSs, we were easily able to see our route at all times and get back on track quickly. In Mexico, we stopped at a gas station with some interesting characters. One girl came in wearing a prom dress, and a few others that were clearly drunk came in for food. I snacked on my beef jerky, refilled the gatorade, and sat on the curb while we stopped.

The route during most of the night was very easy to follow with few turns, making it easy to cover enough ground and still allow for longer stops. Somewhere after Mexico, I was doing math in my head and calculated that we would still need to take several hours of stops to not finish too early and get disqualified. It was hard to be sure though, so even when we got to Walmart sometime around 1am, we didn’t stop for too long. I did get a chance to lay down and nap for a good 30 minutes though, and slowly prepare for more riding into the night.

I don’t remember much about the rest of the riding at night. I think my mind was mostly trying to calculate our moving pace, and how much time was left, and keeping an eye out for where we should sleep. A park would pass with some picnic tables, but we kept going. Finally I said to the others that we really needed to take another hour off, and shortly after that we saw lights on at an odd stop with an “Information” sign. I think one side was a gas station, and the other was a grungy drunken high school student kind of diner – perfect! We leaned the bikes on the wall, and stopped in for an early breakfast now that it was about 3am. I didn’t get any sleep, but being off the bike gave my eyes a break from the road. We left after an hour, and shortly after that the sky was beginning to light up again as the birds started singing. It was a perfectly timed break to kill some more night time before the light came up.

We followed another long straight section of road, until a turn to Sodus Point. We passed a convenience store I had marked on the GPS, which was the only place I had stopped near the lake before on a long ride from Ithaca last year. We reached a breakfast spot and I got some more sleep as we waited for it to open, and had 1.5 hours to kill. I can only imagine their confusion as to why 3 cyclists would show up at 7am, sleep for an hour on the picnic tables, and then come in for food. Bacon and hashbrowns hit the spot for breakfast #2.

The last stretch was the hardest to get started. I was at the point where my feet were too sore to stand and pedal, so I had to try to stay seated. But my butt was also hurting from a full day on the bike. I would try to lean forward more to ease the pressure, but my hands were starting to hurt now too. Once all 3 contact points on the bike get sore, there isn’t much to do but hope for the best. The terrain was a bit rolling to end, which made it difficult to just pedal along leisurely. Instead I found myself pushing harder up a hill, and resting on a thigh to coast down the other side. We took one last short break just a mile or two from the end, since it’s supposed to be 24 hours of riding. Then we wind through a development, and down a driveway/path to get to the ride’s end, at the organizers house.

24 hours and 45 minutes after I left home, I had covered 235.8 miles. This will likely be my longest ride for a while, since I’m finding that I need at least 2 weeks to fully recover to do another long ride, and the summer weekends are all filling up with other plans not necessarily involving time on a bike. The fleche organizer had some mattresses set up in the living room, so I took a nap for half an hour while the others ate and packed up bikes. It was only about a 2 hour drive home from the finish. I laid outside in the shade and slept for a few hours.

And now for the awards:

Most popular roadside trash: I’d call it a two-way tie between the single workgloves, and piles of fishing lures. Fortunately no one hit the lures…
Favorite food while riding: Bacon and hash browns was the best food stop. I think next time I’d go for a full meal somewhere on the ride though.
Best segment of riding: Camden to Pulaski was a great section with some mild climbing, and fun descending in the dark on smooth roads. Though VanOstrand was also some very pleasant riding near the beginning.
Angriest driver: I think the only honk I remember was from a few motorcycles, when we were kind of in the road before an upcoming turn. I waved and they waved back, so all was good in the end.

TNR May 15, 2012

We finally had a Tuesday morning without rain, so I took the good old Fuji race bike to work, and found out how poorly it was shifting again. Before heading up to EHP for the race, I adjusted all the cables again and it was running smoothly. The past races this year I was on the steel Soma bike, with 32mm tires, fenders, and a trunk bag, which weighs about 32lbs all together.

It was a flat course night, and we rolled out to the start. My legs were feeling great, which was a surprise since I had just finished my 235 mile fleche ride on Sunday, though that ride was mostly about staying awake and rolling smoothly than fast efforts. Quite a few people made it to the start, so I went with the A’s. Last year I often did one lap of the A’s, and the second with the B’s.

The race started out uneventful, but was certainly seeming very fast. I tried hard to stay with the pack, but not make any extra efforts to push it faster like I sometimes would do with the B’s so that it’s not just a bunch sprint at the end. We rounded the turn and I was able to hold on and gain some ground instead of falling back at the turn like usual. I drafted as much as I was able, and apparently was able to store up some energy.

Luckily towards the final stretch, I was still in the front part of the pack as the final lead out was lining up. 10 or so people strung together a pace line, waiting for a move to be made. Danny then launched off the front, while I was maybe 4-5 back. No one immediately chased, so for whatever reason I jumped out of the line and went for Danny. He was flying though, and I wasn’t able to catch him, but I saw that I was off the front of the line and making a gap. I then put all my focus ahead, took very deep breaths, and sprinted as hard as I could. Wacek passed me, with Jeremy following, and then the finish came up quick.

I was ecstatic to finish 4th though! Considering that the guys that beat me are “real” racers that have been racing for a while, while I just do long rides and rando rides, I was surprised that I was able to hold on that long. Where were all the other people that train intervals and time trials? Surely they should have been passing me too! It must have been a lucky day for me, and I don’t expect to finish that well every time.

–

The second lap was considerably slower, and I was just coasting through the last mile before the turn, and soft pedaling for parts after that when everyone bunched up. It was rather annoying being stuck in a pack and unable to move out when I knew I had lots of energy left, but that’s racing I guess.

First lap was 25.3mph, second lap was 23.5mph.

Strava link: http://app.strava.com/rides/8612321. I bumped up to second on the Strava segment, though still 30 seconds away from first, so that seems unlikely any time soon.

TNR May 8, 2012

Just a quick recap from a previous race:

I went with the B’s for a hilly course on Ringwood and Snyder. Coming up Ringwood I think is where the group started to split, and I did my best to hold on. We were down to just 3 people, but I think 2 others caught on before the top. It was a super fast pace for the B’s though. Before Rt 79, a few others joined up and we were up to about 8 or 9 people, apparently way ahead of the pack now.

The climb up Snyder started fine, and then we split up again with 4 of us leading the way as others trailed off. Peter, Dani, and one other and I were preparing for the finish. I drafted Dani as much as I could on the lead up, since it wasn’t going to be helpful to go any faster too early. Peter and the other guy started pulling ahead and I didn’t think I could keep that pace, so I hoped they were giving it too much and would get reeled in. That may have slightly worked in my favor, but they were still up there, so as the final pitch came, I sprinted off.

The other guy was confused about where the finish was, so as he was slowing briefly, I zoomed by. I was gaining on Peter quickly, but he had enough lead that I didn’t catch him. I finished 2nd on the B’s on top of Snyder, with the steel Soma bike and felt great about how well it performed.

Berkshire Brevet – Shelburne Falls 300k

The randonneuring series goes through rides of extended lengths of 200, 300, 400, 600 and finally 1200km. I considered riding an organized 200km (125mi) ride in Pennsylvania, but with a threat of rain, and the cost and hassle of driving far and having limited sleep, I bailed on that idea. As part of my limited training this year, I had already done a 125mi and 175mi ride, so I knew that I was capable of the distance. I had also limited my goals for 2012 to a 400k ride at most, so doing them all in order was not a requirement this year.

I was able to talk Peter into coming with me, since he was planning on the Green Mountain Double (200 miles on VT dirt roads) which required finishing a 300k road ride. I rented a hotel room for the night before our ride starting at 4am, and lights were out before 10pm with alarms set for 3am. Like most of my early morning rides, I had laid out my clothes in order, so that I won’t be going through my bags trying to find everything in the morning. I made an oatmeal packet with the coffee maker, packed up the car, and we were out by 3:45am, with the ride start less than a mile away.

Only 7 had signed up for the 300k route, though another ~45 were coming by 7am for a 200k route that mostly followed the same roads later in the day. Three launched off right on time, and I found out at the end that they finished in under 12 hours, so I’m glad I didn’t chase after them. With the first few miles of the ride, we split off from the other rider who didn’t trust that we were taking the right turn. I think he stopped to check the route, but we kept on rolling since the GPS was pointing to exactly where we should be going.

The first loop into Connecticut was 48 miles, and we made it in good time, trading the pulls. Around 5:20am, it was getting light out, though it was still cooling down until the sun was actually above the horizon. At 7:02am we were back at the bike shop from the start of the ride. I had prepared a bag at the car, knowing I’d want to change up a few things, and that worked well on this ride. I was able to dump the extra jacket and booties, swap gloves, and get fresh shorts and socks. I grabbed some more food and refilled my bottles and we were off around 7:30 for more. I could have swapped the wheelset too, but felt that the wide tires would offer more comfort.

Lately, my low point hits at around 75 miles in, and this ride was no different. I suddenly lost all motivation to keep going, thought about turning around then, and cancelling future plans of riding anything else long. I stopped at the next intersection, saw that my blood sugar was low, and after 15 minutes I had recouped and was feeling great again. Two guys flew by on time trial bikes, so Peter and I had to go chase them, of course. Well, that wasn’t too hard, cause these guys were going oddly slow considering how much they must have spent on those bikes, but we rode with them for a short while. Two others joined in (from the 200k start) and we rode together up a big hill until everyone else had dropped off the back. Oops.

We got to the 2nd checkpoint – a coffee shop called Mocha Maya’s, and stopped for a surprisingly long time. It did feel great to relax for that hour and catch my breath now at the halfway point. As part of our registration, we got a coupon for a free drink and pastry, and while all the food was likely to have eggs and I’m allergic, I passed on my brownie to Peter and got a hot cocoa for myself. My sugar was doing good at that point, though the Dexcom had hardly done much in the past few hours to tell me how my sugar was. We did see a dozen or more of the 200k riders leave shortly after we arrived, and the one 300k rider behind us came in shortly before we left.

Now headed into Vermont, the route just goes uphill for 20 miles. I was expecting more of a mountain, but it was just a steady incline that felt easier than the sharper points on the profile we had already hit. The 200k route splits off before the climb, so we were unlikely to see anyone again until the end. The route in Vermont was great riding, and there were very few turns making the route simple. This was exactly the kind of riding I was looking for – meandering roads through the countryside, into the hills, and with no traffic in sight. We did stop once for a soda and maple candy, and then finished the climb before getting a chance to roll downhill, though for not all that long. There was an information control where we had to write down what was down the train tracks, and we got a history lesson of the 5 mile long Hoosic Tunnel that was cut through a mountain with amazing precision.

The route follows a river for many more miles, and we meandered along it until we were back in Shelburne Falls for the 3rd control point. The stop was at a place similar to the Greenstar food coop, and our coupons provided a turkey & cranberry wrap (an odd combination outside of November), and a “Recharge” drink which is coop lingo for watered down juice. After 40 minutes we were off again, to finish the last 40 miles. By this point, I was feeling good again, just a bit winded and not able to easily continue going nearly as fast, so Peter was pulling the whole time while I followed closely. Well, really, Peter pulled most of the time after the first 50 miles, and I was grateful for the help!

With just 15 minutes before sunset, we made it back to the bike shop for the official end of the 300k, at 7:30pm. Though a 300k is at least 186.5mi, we had a few detours, short wrong turns on parallel roads, and extra segments from the car and were dangerously close to reaching 200 miles in the day. You can’t ride all day long and stop so short of a double century, so with 20 minutes of softer pedaling, we completed a double. I actually felt like given another short stretch break, I’d be good to go into the night, though I would have to lower the pace and take my time. Fortunately for this day, we were done and back at the car.

If you made it this far in the ride report, maybe you’ll enjoy this awards section:
Most popular roadside trash: Mini liquor bottles – I saw dozens of these throughout the day, hopefully unrelated to the ride…
Favorite food while riding: Beef jerky, the good stuff, not Slim Jims this time! I ate a handful at every stop, that I had pre-cut at home.
Best segment of riding: Whitingham, VT to Monroe Bridge, MA – It was mostly downhill, nearly no traffic the whole stretch, and beautifully green
Angriest driver: The guy who yelled “show some courtesy!!” as he honked, passed quickly, and turned into the park not 10 seconds later. Sir, I’m so sorry that I inconvenienced you by half a second. You might also want to learn about courtesy.

200 miles completed!