February century ride

Route: Ithaca – Freeville – Cortland – Whitney Point – Rt 79E  - Lisle – Richford – Ithaca
Total distance: 101.08 miles
Ride time: 07:47:47
Avg speed: 12.96 mph
Total climb: 3,920 ft
Low point: 394 ft, Ithaca
High point: 1,380 ft, on Rt 79 east of Richford
Avg climb: 38.8 ft/mile

As luck would have it, I was able to ride on the one day this month that was actually a decent riding day — partly sunny, relatively warm (40s and lower 50s), not much wind, roads pretty dry.

I originally had planned to just repeat my January route, but as I was riding south along Rt 11 I decided to take Rt 79 east, which continues south of Whitney Pt down to Chenango Forks, and just follow it until about mile 57.  I’d ridden it before down to Rt 12, and remembered it as really nice.  I hadn’t yet ridden 79 past where it intersects with Rt 12, but I always like riding new roads.

So at Whitney Point I crossed over the bridge and headed to Chenango Forks.  I continued along Rt 79, along the river, across the Chenango River, and to the crest of a hill, at Richards Road, then turned around, had a nice downhill for maybe a mile, then continued along and headed back into Whitney Point, to Lisle and followed 79 all the way back into Ithaca.

Rt 79 bridge over the Chenango River

The first 20 miles didn’t feel so great but once the endorphins kicked in, and with the sunshine and relatively warm temps it was a really nice ride.  The shoulders were pretty dry, but there was a light layer of mud that accumlated in the fenders, so every once in a while I’d stop and just bounce the bike a few times to clean off the mud.

This century ride was pretty slow, though faster than the January ride.  I consider it my first spring ride of the year.  I’m starting from a pretty low base but you’ve gotta start somewhere!   Winter’s coming back, but I’m hoping spring will be here soon, this century ride really whetted my appetite for some nice warm riding days.

Century route 2/17/2011

Elevation profile

January century ride!

Route: Ithaca – Freeville – Cortland – Whitney Point + – Cortland – Dryden – Ithaca
Total distance: 100.05 miles
Ride time: 08:14:16
Avg speed: 12.15 mph
Total climb: 3,275 ft
Low point: 394 ft, Ithaca
High point: 1,403 ft, on Rt 13 before Dryden
Avg climb: 32.7 ft/mile

Ready to go, 8:15am

This has been a tough month for a century ride! The first couple days were pretty mild, but I didn’t take advantage of them. And then we’ve been hit by snow and extremely cold weather.

I had planned to do my century ride last Friday, but then I woke up to 4-5 inches of fresh snow, and no way was I going to ride my road bike on roads that snowy. So I kept my eye on Tuesday.

The forecast was for temps in the mid to upper 20s, and little snowfall, so I planned on it. That morning I decided to go for it.

In Cortland, looking south on Rt 11

I had eggs, oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, bundled up, put an extra set of top-layer clothes in my bag — base layer wool, cotton turtleneck and sweatshirt — and took off. The roads were wet but it was about 26 degrees so there wasn’t any ice.

I had chosen a route that took me out to Cortland via Fall Creek Rd, then through Cortland on Rt 13 to Rt 11, then following Rt 11 south past Whitney Point to the 50 mile mark, and than back the same way to Cortland, following Rt 13 to Dryden, cutting down Etna Lane to Upper Creek, and back into town on Hanshaw and Devon.

Along Rt 11, looking west

The shoulders were pretty slushy in the morning, especially as I rode on Rt 13 and 11 through Cortland and southwards. But they weren’t icy which was the important thing.

The Rt 11 part of the ride was beautiful. I’d ridden a bit of it earlier in the month on December 31 when I did a loop from Greek Peak (where Lisa was skiing), up to Cortland and back. That was the first time I rode it, and I decided I’d try to include it in my next century ride. It starts out flat at Cortland, then into rollers, and the last part through Whitney Point is pretty flat.

It goes along the Tioghnioga River pretty much the entire way, through forested areas. The river is on the west side of Rt 11, and on the east side of the road for much of the way is a big cliff, which was covered in ice sheets. There was very little traffic up to Whitney Point. All in all a beautiful route.

I went through Whitney Point with its traffic, continuing on Rt 11 to almost the 50 mile point. At the start of a climb I cut the route a bit short, turned around and headed back north, stopping at the McDonalds in Whitney Point.

Muddy jacket

When I stopped I realized I was covered with mud. The back of my jacket was caked with mud, as were my bike, jeans, boots and bike-bag — and I had fenders on my bike!  I left my jacket outside, changed into dry top layer, had lunch, and took off. By then it was 1:15pm, and I realized I’d be cutting it close in terms of finishing by sunset.  I felt great in terms of cardio and wasn’t cold at all, but my legs felt beat. My average at this point was 12.1mph. I wasn’t so concerned about my speed, but I did want to finish before sunset.

I went back north on Rt 11, back into Cortland, where the traffic had picked up. Then onto Rt 13 to Dryden and towards Ithaca. By this time there was very light frozen rain, and lots of traffic. I cut down Etna Lane, and came back into town on Lower and Upper Creek, Hanshaw and Devon. As I approached home I realized I was a couple miles short of 100 so I did a 2 mile loop around the high school and middle school. I got home at 5:30, right around sunset.

Overall the ride went really well. Most of the route was really beautiful, I was plenty warm, and felt good. My legs didn’t feel great, but I haven’t ridden much in the past month. The important thing is I finished. I’d considered not doing my January century, breaking a three year century-a-month streak. But I’m glad I went out and finished it.  Now I just have to hope for a good February day.

Update 1/28: The cleanup. Our outdoor garden hose is frozen, so I had to do indoor cleanup. The bike itself I left in the garage. All the other muddy stuff I took up to our bathroom, and set it into the bathtub: my boots, jacket, jeans, the bike bag.   Using our long shower head hose, I cleaned off as much of the mud as possible, which really was most of it. It left a very impressive amount of dirt and grit in the tub. Then everything into the washer — the jacket and jeans each in their own load.

The bike I tackled the next day, I brought it outside with a big bucket of warm water and splashed the water on the bike. I had to bring out about 4 buckets.  Then I put it in the basement to dry off.  The following day I brought it back out and using a brush tried to get as much of the dried dirt off of the bike as possible, then brought it back to the basement and did a thorough chain cleaning.  It’s still a bit dusty, and the tires and fenders have some dried mud on them, but it’s ready to roll!

2010 Recap

Welcome to the new home of Finger Lakes Biker blog. I like WordPress more than Blogger, mainly because it’s a lot easier to insert photos and captions here. I’ve imported all my blogger posts into wordpress, and will eventually be cleaning up the results, but for now I’ll just start out recapping 2010.

My total stats for the year: 5,626 miles; 298,992 feet climbed (avg climb 53.1 ft/mile); 234 rides.

At Richford on a ride with Doug and Jim N.

2010 was the third full year of cycling for me — I’d been bike commuting since the mid-1990s, but didn’t get into road cycling until summer 2007. I’d set my 2010 goal at 6,500 miles, with 330,000 feet of climbing. Though the mileage was down from what I did in 2009, I wanted to set a doable goal, and I knew that I wouldn’t have as much time to bike in 2010.

My overall mileage was indeed way down from last year. My total for 2010 — 5,626 miles — was down from 7,133 in 2009 and 7,648 in 2008. I rode only 87 percent of my goal, about 900 miles short of the goal, and 1500 miles less than in 2009. What happened? A bunch of stuff — weather, travel, changed job situation — meant I got out less than I’d hoped this past year. Counting only my non-commute rides, in 2010 I did 118 rides over 4,995 miles for an average of 42.3 miles/ride. (In 2009 my ride average was 45.6 miles/ride; in 2008, 38.1 miles/ride.)

My overall average speed — for all rides, including commutes and touring — was down to 13.59mph from 13.73mph in 2009, and down from 14.45 in 2008. Not sure why the drop over the two years, might be the kinds of rides I’ve been doing.

Road bike rides
Of my total mileage, 4,164 miles, spread over 100 rides, were on my road bike, a Felt Z80. My average speed on those rides was 14.52mph. I climbed 200,591 feet on the Felt, for an average climb of 48.2 ft/mile. Interestingly, my road bike mileage was up a bit from 2009, when I rode 3,970 miles over 89 rides (though in 2009 I put in a lot more ‘bent and touring miles). But my speed was way down, from 15.31mph. That may be because I did a lot less climbing in 2009, averaging 43.9 ft/mile. (Road bike stats from 2008: 5,393 miles, 142 rides, avg speed 14.98, avg climb 44.9 ft/mile).

Riding on Büyükada, Turkey, in May

Some of my favorite rides were the organized century rides, discussed below, but also those wonderful sunny summer days, riding along the hills of the Finger Lakes. Favorites include the Keuka Lake ride, riding along Rt 89 west of Cayuga Lake, and riding back roads in the area, especially along Indian Field/Salmon Creek Rd.

This summer I rode around Seneca and Otisco Lakes for the first time; that leaves Canandaigua Lake as the only major Finger Lake I haven’t ridden around.

I also did rides out of the area: in SE Vermont and neighboring parts of New York, with beautiful roads, brooks and streams, covered bridges; around Northampton, Mass., including a big piece of the Amherst-Northampton railtrail; in eastern Ontario on highways, backroads, and rough trails; my tour from Ithaca to Virginia, through Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; in San Francisco with my cousin Alex; the NYC century tour, and the Tour de Shunk in Pennsylvania; and a ride with Lucas on Büyükada, an island an hour by boat from Istanbul, Turkey that allows no vehicular traffic.

The prospect of rumble strips and hydrofracking, with its massive truck traffic that messes up roads, has made me appreciate how good the cycling around here is, especially in the summer and fall.

On my commute up South Hill

Commutes
Of my 234 rides in 2010, 116 (almost exactly half) were commutes to work up South Hill and occasionally East Hill. I commuted 631 miles, climbing 66,933 feet (avg climb 106 feet/mile), averaging 9.74mph. All but four of those commutes were done on my Univega Activa Country hybrid (the other four, when the commuter was in the shop, were on my road bike).

My normal commute is about 5.2 miles round trip, with a 530 foot climb in the morning over about the last mile. I bike up to the Fitness Center where I shower, then stow my bike at the bike racks outside my building — unless it’s raining or snowing, in which case I stow it under the staircase inside my building.

In 2010 I used my studded Kenda Klondikes for about two and a half months, from the beginning of January until mid-March, which means we have about 2½ months of real winter riding. This year, as last year, I plan to commute solely by bike; though I will occasionally have to drive when I have large things to carry or scheduling issues, I’m pretty much committed to year round, rain or shine bike commuting. If only they’d set up a covered bike shelter at work I’d be real happy.

Recumbent
My recumbent mileage was way down: I didn’t ride my Giro 20 in 2010; I sold it in June, but didn’t buy my new Volae Voyager until October, so my total ‘bent mileage in 2010 was 65 miles. That’ll be way up next year. On the three rides I’ve done on the Voyager to date I’ve really loved how it feels. It’s light and handles great. Can’t wait for nice weather so I can start really breaking it in!

Touring
I rode 731 miles on my touring bike (Jamis Aurora), mostly on my tour to Virginia in July, but also a few other rides including a century ride in October. My average speed on that bike was 11.49mph, reflecting the heat I rode in on the tour. The tour was great, lots of adventures and beautiful sites, and I even survived several days of 90+ degree heat! Check out the touring blog linked above for details.

Tour de Shunk century ride, September

Century rides
For the third year in a row I did the Century a Month challenge, and met my goal of 18 centuries, covering 1,848 miles; I’ve now done 56 centuries since my first one in September 2007. My fastest century of 2010 was the Tour de Shunk in September; despite the 6100 feet of climbing, I averaged 15.88mph (this is down from my fastest century time ever, 17.5mph in March 2009). My slowest were the three centuries I did on my tour to Virginia, ranging from 9.58 to 11.4mph. The most climbing I did on a century was on my Ithaca-Soaring Hill century in August: 7,800 feet. My coldest century ride of the year was in February, when the temps were in the low 20s. The hottest one was the last day of my 6-day tour, when I rode from Salisbury MD to Kiptopeke VA, and the temperature hit 95.

Of my 18 century rides, 4 of them were organized events – the GFLBT out of Watkins Glen in June, and the New York City Century tour, the Tour de Shunk, and the Southern Tier Bike Club/Dannecker Picnic Century, all in September. I rode with friends at all of those events. Denny and Jim rode with me on most of my April century. The other 13 century rides were all solo, unsupported, three of them on my tour to Virginia.

A rim with 11,880 miles on it

A few highlights from 2010:

• Having my rear rim split at mile 73 of what was supposed to be a 100-mile ride, while riding with Denny and Jim in March. I hobbled along until mile 85 when it became impossible to continue; I called Lisa to SAG me back home. I got almost 12,000 miles out of those rims!
• riding my February century in an unexpected snowstorm
• hearing a couple of spokes of my fully loaded touring bike break on the second day of my Virginia tour (doncha just love that “ping”…), but having to ride on through the rain and dusk as I was in the middle of nowhere; and finding, once I got to the hotel, four broken spokes. Once again Lisa comes to the rescue, brings me to a bike shop.
• eating lots of fried chicken on the Delmarva peninsula
• goading karcod into riding up the bluff on the Keuka Lake ride
• Keuka Lake rides with the obligatory beer stop at the Switz Inn
• riding some of Jim C’s friends from Georgia into Ithaca from Moravia, one of them, a 67 year old, went flying down Freese Hill way too fast and wiped out, flying off into a pole, his bike flying off in a different direction. Amazingly he wasn’t really injured at all.
• doing the NYC century tour with my son Lucas
• cycling along a back country road and having horses running alongside me in their field
• riding and hanging out with cycling buddies

Skaneateles Lake

Friends
One of the best parts of cycling is getting together with friends. The organized century rides were great chances to ride with friends, but I got out with friends on other rides too, including the wonderful Keuka Lake rides. Doug, Jim N., Denny, Reg, Jim C., Karl (karcod), Mike (hndlebar), Steve, Mona, and a bunch of other folks too.

Unfortunately I missed out on the RARE recumbent ride and the Kingston tour, so didn’t get to ride with my recumbent-riding friends this year — though I did get to hang out with Michael, Dave, Mark, Frank, Cliff and others at the GFLBT campground.

I rode with my 16-yr old son Lucas a few times, including a 60 mile ride down 96b and up West Creek; the NYC Century tour; and in Turkey. I really love riding with Lucas (even though he can zip past me up hills despite not having ridden much at all…), he’s a very strong rider and a great kid.

Crossing the Connecticut River at Northampton

Goals for 2011
My goals for this coming year are: 6,500 miles; 330,000 feet of climbing; at least one century each month; a total of 18 century rides.

In 2011 I plan on doing the GFLBT century, the RARE century ride, the Tour de Shunk, the STBC picnic century, and hndlbar’s Letchworth Fall Foliage Frolic. I’m hoping to do the Kingston recumbent tour, and am at this point planning to once again ride from Ithaca to Virginia, hopefully with Denny V, and possibly on my recumbent.

I also am planning a century ride out of Northampton Mass (where my daughter is in college), up along the Connecticut River into Vermont, over in New Hampshire and back. I’d also like to do a repeat of the Ithaca-Soaring century ride, and a century ride involving cycling around Oneida Lake east of Syracuse.

I also want to explore more of the area. I want to try to do Canandaigua Lake, and maybe even try to ride from Ithaca to Northampton. We’ll see.

I’m also hoping for lots of nice sunny days, and lots of rides with friends! See you out on the road!

Tour de Shunk Century ride 9/19/10

Route: Tour de Shunk Century Ride (Franklindale, PA)
Total distance: 105.01 miles
Ride time: 06:36:43
Avg speed: 15.88 mph
Total climb: 6,143 ft
Low point: 738 ft, at Proctor Rd near mile 50, along
High point: 2299 ft, Rt 154, Wheelerville Mountain
Avg climb: 58.5 ft/mile
(Elevation Profile)

Doug coming up a hillMy friends Denny and Jim did this ride last year, and it sounded great: 100 miles through the Endless Mountains region of Northern PA, with one monster climb and some other nice climbs. So I decided to do it. In the past month I’ve tried to do some big climbs to get ready, and my commutes up South Hill also helped.

The ride starts at Rocky’s Bike Shop, where I met Denny, Jim and Doug. We took off just before 8am. Unfortunately about 6 miles out Denny’s back derailleur failed in a pretty spectacular way, fortunately no injuries, but he had to stop riding; he said he’d try to meet us when he got the bike fixed, so we continued on.

The course includes some pretty flat parts, along state highways, as well as some rolling hills and big climbs. The biggest climb came at about mile 19 or so, as route 154 goes up Wheelerville Mountain. I’d been expecting a monster climb with grades of upwards of 18-20 percent over three miles or so.

The actual climb wasn’t that bad. It was a real challenge, over about 4-5 miles, especially the first 3 miles, constant grades of 10-12 percent. I had actually expected worse, and was expecting a huge gradient increase just around every corner, but it didn’t come, and I actually felt great the whole ride up.

Jim at the end of one of the climbs

There were a few other challenging uphills after that, some really nice smooth downhills, some rollers, and some flats too. Overall it’s a beautiful ride, almost all through forested areas, along creeks, some farmland. The road markings were great, and the rest stops every 25 miles or so were really good: bananas, cookies, drinks, and at the 50 mile stop sandwiches and chips too.

Denny joined us at the last rest stop, and the last leg was a pretty fast one, with a group of about 15 hammering along. I was feeling great, staying in the big ring for the rollers including the uphills, and feeling strong, getting out front. But then at one point, around mile 99 or so, my recovery rate plummetted, and it suddenly took a lot longer to get back to speed, so I fell behind the group a bit. I was still doing a good 20-21mph and felt fine, but that last bit of Rt 414 back to Rocky’s, which is flat, saw the larger group (which included Denny and Jim), speed off.

When I finished, I felt really good. This was the fastest century I’ve done so far this year, even with all the climbing. (Which really means I’ve had a slow year…)

The ride ended with a real nice spaghetti dinner at Rocky’s, so Jim, Denny, Doug and I piled our plates with pasta and sauce and chowed down. It felt great. I topped it off with some cookies and chocolate, then drove back to Ithaca.

The weather really cooperated this time; no rain, overcast and in the 60s, a bit cool at the start, warmed up as the day went on, but not too hot, just right for those big climbs.

This is an event I’ll definitely add to my annual century calendar!

NYC Century Tour

Route: New York City Century Tour (Manhattan – Brooklyn – Queens – Bronx
Total distance: 100.14 miles
Ride time: 07:27:43
Avg speed: 13.42 mph

Total climb: 2,525 ft

Low point: 0 feet (sea level), various places along route
High point: 322 ft, near Cloverdale Blvd, Queens
Avg climb: 25.2 ft/mile

(Elevation Profile)

Cyclists heading west on W 110th between
B’way and Riverside
I did this century ride a couple years ago, and really enjoyed it. This year, Lucas did it with me. It’s pretty flat — 2500 feet over 100 miles, so very doable.

The ride is mostly on the streets, starting at Central Park North and going down through Manhattan, over the Brooklyn Bridge to Prospect Park, down to Coney Island, then on the bike path along the shore, up into Queens, past Laguardia, across the Triboro (RFK) Bridge into the Bronx, up to Van Cortland Park and then back into Manhattan.

It’s a great ride, you really do see parts of the city that you’d never see otherwise. For Lucas, who’d really only visited Manhattan before, it was also an interesting look at the other parts of the city.

The ride was very well organized, markings on the streets were great with just a couple of exceptions. And given how many turns were involved, quite an accomplishment. The rest stops were also great, lots of food — bananas, really good apples, peanut butter, pita, bread, drinks, energy bars, plenty to keep you fueled.

The starts were staggered, we got out at about 6:30 or so, we rode by our friend Della’s apartment on 110th St (which happened to be on the century route), and there were Lisa and Della, up on the 7th floor, waving to us. Then we turned down Riverside Drive and rode onward.

The riders soon ended up in clumps of between 5 and 20, and we rode along with clumps, or jumped up to the next clump. There was lots of stopping and slowing down for red lights and stop signs, so not a lot of nonstop pumping, with the exception of bike paths along the shore.

The ride was mostly flat, but a few small hills in Queens. A few of the hills involved bridges, including the RFK/Triboro, where we had to carry our bikes up and down a few steps, but those bridges also gave you great views.

Cyclists heading up onto the Cross Bay Veterans
Bridge in BrooklynI was really impressed with how well Lucas did. He hadn’t ridden much this summer, but he kept on going the whole time, hammering along on the flats and on the hills.

The weather held off, the predicted rain didn’t show up until the very end, in the Bronx. As we approached Van Cortlandt Park Lucas said he was having saddle-related pain. Since it was only about 10 miles to the end of the ride at Central Park North, and only about 4 more miles until we hit 100 miles, I asked if he could continue on, but he said no, even though his legs felt fine, the saddle pain was too much. He was happy with the 96 miles he’d done, the longest he’s ridden so far. Which meant he really was in serious pain.

Astoria Park rest stop; RFK/Triboro Bridge
in backgroundSo we stopped at that rest stop, and called Lisa to come pick us up. Since I had only 4 miles until 100, Lucas said he didn’t mind if I went out and rode a loop, which I did, following the century route until it hit Broadway, then coming back down Broadway. Century accomplished.

This is a really great century ride, unlike any other I’ve ever done and pretty unique. We liked it MUCH better than the 5 Boros Tour (in May), which is very much bigger, only 40 miles, and just way overcrowded. This one is a very nice size, excellent support, and riding through the streets and along the waterways of NYC is just a very cool experience.

August Century: My 50th century ride

Route: Ithaca – Alpine – Breesport – Elmira Heights – Harris Hill – Elmira – Erin – Newfield – Ithaca (Ithaca Soaring route)
Total distance: 103.01 miles
Ride time: 08:01:30
Avg speed: 12.84 mph

Total climb: 7,834 ft

Low point: 394 ft, Ithaca
High point: 1871 ft, Van Kirk Rd @Irish Hill Rd, south of Newfield
Avg climb: 76.1 ft/mile

Climbing Rt 327It was a perfect day for a bike ride, sunny, temps in the 60s-70s, and I had just the route picked out: the Rochester Bike Club’s “Ithaca Soaring” with almost 8000 feet of climbing. Since I’m hoping to do the Tour de Shunk next month I thought I’d get in a climbing century. Plus this would be the 50th century I’ve ridden, so I wanted to do something memorable.

I’d done part of this route last fall, when I did the 65 mile version. I’ve been wanting to do the full century route, and I realized this was the right day to do it.

The route itself is great, almost all back roads, very little traffic, amazing climbs and downhills.

Trumbull CornersI managed to get going at 8am, heading out along Spencer Street then Rt 13, turning off onto Rt 327 for the climb to upper Treman Park, then turning onto Trumbull Corners Rd, which turns into Sebring and brings you out onto Rt 13 north of Alpine. The route then goes along 13 to the convenience store at Alpine, where I stopped for a break. Then back to Smith Rd, to 224, then turning on Varney Hill Rd, the first real steep climb, not too long though. The route then continues until a left on Jackson Creek Rd, unpaved the first few hundred feet. This brings you into Breesport.

Just past Breesport I noticed my front tire was very soft – a flat. The tire itself has over 5,000 miles on it, and yes I’ve been meaning to replace it but it seemed to be doing fine… When I took it off and checked, there was a tiny hole through the tire. I used my handy supply of Tyvek, taken from old floppy disk sleeves, a bit of electrical tape to secure it, and then patched the inner tube, and I was ready to roll.


From Breesport the route continues onto Latta Brook Rd, then into Elmira Heights. I got there around noon, so stopped for pizza lunch. The route then heads uphill, down a bit along Halderman Hollow Rd, then up Hill Rd, Northcrest and Harris Hill Rd, leading into Harris Hill Park. It’s a very forested route, mostly shaded so while it’s climbing it’s not in the sun.

As I was peddling along, I heard a small plane engine. Looking up, I saw a very small prop plane pulling a long white glider. At one point, the plane unleashed and turned back. The glider kept going, very gently, until I couldn’t really see it anymore.

Gliders on Soaring Hill

Harris Hill Park has rides, minigolf, and an ice cream and snack bar. I decided to continue up to Soaring Hill and hit the food stand on my way back. The view along Harris Hill Rd right as you get to Soaring Hill Dr. is amazing, it’s way up, and you get a great view of the river and hills.

Along Park Station RdI turned toward the air field, where a bunch of gliders were parked across from the National Soaring Museum. As I got there, a plane with glider was taking off. Then I headed back down, stopping for lemonade and ice cream.

The ride down into Elmira was great, almost 1000 feet of downhill to Water Street, following that over Rt 17 to the start of Jerusalem Hill, another nice climb. That turns into Breesport Rd, then a turn onto Federal Rd into Erin, where I again stopped. By this time it was pretty warm, I was very thirsty and running low on water. I bought five 20-oz containers of water, gatoraid and vitamin water to get me through the rest of the ride, since there was nothing else between Erin and Newfield.

On top of Austin HillAfter Erin, taking Laurel Hill Rd, around Park Station, a reservoir with a beach, through forests, then up Austin Hill, a nice climb, and down Austin Hill, a very nice downhill, followed by an even nicer, very long downhill on Rt 223. Fortunately there was no car traffic at all so I rode in the lane the entire way down, it was great.

The last bit, Rt 224 onto Jackson Hollow which turns into Van Kirk all the way into Newfield, was a lot of climbs and some nice downhills. At Newfield, the route goes along Main St, but the bridge was out, so I took Rt 13, which added 100 feet to the route. But then you get that very long, very nice downhill into Ithaca, with amazing views.

Along Jackson Hollow RdOverall this is an excellent route. Almost all of it is very low-traffic roads, mostly through forests. The climbs are nice, nothing too steep — I think 15 percent was the steepest — and while there are some long-ish climbs they are about 8-10 percent grade. And a couple of the downhills are really amazing.

This was the 50th century ride I’ve done, and it was a nice one. I’ll be doing this ride again sometime for sure.

Ride to Virginia July 11-16, 2010

At the end of the ride, mile 105 on day 6, mile 510 of the trip

I blogged about my 6 day ride from Ithaca down to the tip of Virginia’s eastern shore at my touring blog.

It was a great ride, including 3 days of 100+ miles, lots of hot and humid weather, great cycling rodes and trails, a few broken spokes, and fried chicken.

Check it out.