EPIC Recumbent Rides Reports

Erie Canal Ride 2011

Here is my story about the Erie Canal ride I just did with pictures.

Hope you enjoy!!!

 

Great report Jon, and great pictures. I have no idea what that structure is.

 

Wow, that was some interesting history there Jon. The photos were pretty neat too. Amazing what people could do back "in the day" when they only had horses/wagons eh? I may have to put N.falls on my bucket list too.

 

NorthWest Tour

This took longer than I expected to get written up, but it is what it is. The trouble with socializing every evening is that you don't spend time writing down all the interesting tidbits from the day's ride, which subsequently gets forgotten. At least I got some pics.

http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/rides/nwt2011/nwt.html

 

Looks like a fun ride and a good write up. I'm still working on getting mine from BikeVa together.

 

John,

Looks like a lot of HARD riding and crummy weather. But sounds like you had fun anyway! Congratulations and thanks for the write up!!!!

 

If you look at the route profiles, it's not all that hard, less than 3000 feet of climbing per day. But I wasn't quite in shape for it, and each day got me more tired without recovering. The long weekend sure knocked me for a loop! But, I'm finally starting to not only recover, but it feels like my legs are finally coming around. It was tough, but that ride may have helped me turn the corner on the training.

I'm waiting for that report on BikeVa, Wade. I've looked at it in the past, but the hills scared me off. It seems it was a bit more expensive, too. BRAT should be awesome this year. Hills shouldn't be any worse than what I've already seen on NWT. And, they're feeding us almost every day at the park hotels' buffets. I'll probably gain weight on the tour.

 

Bike Virginia tales day 1

There were two things that I liked about BikeVa this year, the fact that it was not going to be an across the state tour and that it was going to be difficult with all of the climbing. I have never been too crazy about the cross state tour with having to pack and unpack every day. So the thought of just getting one hotel room for the week appealed to me, more time to just chill out. The climbing represented an in-your-face Challenge to me the recumbent rider. I feel that I climb well on both the Dragon and the Venom but this would be either confirmation or well....not. The other factor about all of the climbing is I knew my old riding pal from Athens would be interested.

A bit of background about karl. When I moved to Athens eleven years ago he was my next door neighbor. At the time I was riding maybe two times a week 15-18 miles at a time on my old Cannondale hybrid/mtb. I rode with Karl one day and soon I was chasing him around Athens on ever increasing rides. A year or so later I rode my first organized ride, the MS150. Over the years we usually get together to ride one or two times and always he is the stronger rider. Twice he came to Columbus and we rode the local century charity ride and both times, even though I was stronger the second time, he easily was my better. We rode the Silver Comet trail from beginning to the state line one year and I was still the much weaker rider.

Last year during the Tour de France Karl went to France with a few friends from Athens and they rode many of the beyond category climbs like the Tournalet. Knowing he loves to climb I knew he would want to try his hand at some of the best climbing in the Appalachians.

So, on to the Tour itself. Registration went well, the Super 8 turned out to be a bit nicer than some and we found a great yogurt shop just down the hill from the hotel that had the best selection of fruit. This would turn out to be out late meal of the day every night.



Nobody I know here but just a shot of a FEW of the tables of food they had out every morning for breakfast. I had purchased that option, Karl didn't, and he was very sorry.

The first day started beautifully with the temperature about 66 degrees when we pulled out at 7am. Hundreds of riders already out on the course and we started climbing almost immediately. There were 9 category climbs listed 7 category 4's and 2 category 3's. The first climb was a very good warm up with 200 feet of elevation gain in 1.5 miles. The second climb was a category 3 and it climbed 240 feet in .6 miles. This wouldn't be our steepest climb but it certainly set the bar. With an average of 11-12% and in the middle it jumped up to 15-16%. People were getting off their bikes right and left. I passed twenty or thirty riders on the climb and that was sort of the way things would go. I didn't get passed at all on a climb until the century ride...but thats another story right.

The real story in my mind that day were the views. It was my first time riding in that area and I was blown away. For so many of you living in the mountains I'm sure you understand.
We stopped here for a minute at the top of one climb just because.:wideeyed:

Thats karl on his beautiful Cervelo R3. As usual, he was the stronger rider (at least on the climbs) especially on the steep little walls which seemed to be around every corner. He is exceptionally good at descending as well. And I wouldn't be able to make up any time on him in the switchbacks. The long straight-a-way downhill runs though that was another story.

It was a good day. We didn't push too hard knowing that it was a long week and I was feeling very strong when we finished. 64.2 miles with 4679 feet of elevation gain and a moving speed of 15.8 mph.


Lunch was set up just around the corner from the tent city and I saw a LWB recumbent there when we arrived. Other than that one the bent list included a fully faired GRR, a RANS V-Rex, Rans Rocket, a tandem of some sort, (2) Ice trikes and a mid/low racer of unknown breeding.

So, ride 1 finished so we spent the rest of the day eating, reading, cleaning our bikes etc. A good day!

 

Very nice Ward....proud of you. You may amount to something yet.

 

Loved day 1. So what about day 2?

 

Buddy always makes me laugh.

Awaiting Day 2 as well

 

BikeVa tales day 2

Day 2 was the move day from Pulaski to Radford. Only a 10 mile shift so the ride options a 25 mile winding ride from Pulaski to Radford and a 52 mile ride that looped around and back to Radford. Our hotel was in Radford so we drove over to tent city 1 and pulled out with the pack right at 7.

Another nice day with the temperature again in the upper 60's. We again planned on just cruising along in preparation for the century the following day. Even though we started at 7am when the ride officially began, we passed tons of riders on the road yet again. However by the time we hit Radford there wern't many ahead of us.

We stopped just for a second at the rest stop there before we headed out on the second part of the loop. Almost immediately we hit a REAL climb. 320 feet of elevation in .6 miles with an average grade of 14-15%. This is probably the steepest section of road I have ever been on! Karl walked away from me on this and I was just happy to have made it.



Another day of great views but the ride turned out to be a bit harder than we anticipated. We ended by adding miles to go back to the car in Pulaski so we ended up with 60.86 miles and 4500 feet of climbing our average speed was only 14.2 mph.

 

Thank you Ward!!! Now, I want to hear about your Day 3 Century!!!!

I know.... I am worse than a bad wife about nagging....

 

I guess BRAT qualifies as 'epic.' I still haven't even started a ride report for DALMAC, but here is BRAT's.

http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/rides/brat2011/BRAT2011.htm

I also took a few videos. Nothing professional, just some downs and ups. I'll probably add more pics to the Photobucket folder, since I have lots more than the ones in the report.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e135/blazingpedals/Bike Rides/BRAT 2011/

 

Very nice reporting John!