The first hour and a half or so was all up. In Ithaca, we have a few 1,000ft climbs, but this was going to be nearly 5,000ft all at once. It was mostly a mental game, and I cranked away while keeping an eye on the elevation as I passed each thousand feet higher. I started the day at 5,600ft, and at the top of the climb I was at 10,300ft! I was afraid that I’d be winded, but it was nothing more than a typical out of breath experience from climbing for a while. It did get chilly up there though, about 15 degrees cooler, so I put my jacket, hat and gloves on before the long descent.

I stopped for a few photo ops when I saw peaks in the distance with snow on top. Overall this ride had few stops though, as I only needed to refuel about halfway into the ride.

It was great to ride with other diabetic cyclists, as we each had our own systems, methods, and issues to work through during the day. Pump tubes were hanging out, test strips were piling up at rest stops, and the usual stash of clif bar wrapped slowly filled my bag as the ride went on. Normally on group rides, I’m the only one dealing with all of this, while the others cruise along not worrying so much about food or sugar levels, but riding with other type 1s that know how to manage their BGs was a great experience.

We also schemed some future plans for the area, as I’ve been longing to host a bike tour in the Finger Lakes for the Connected In Motion crowd but ran into some insurance hurdles. More on that later, but I think we finally found a reasonable solution for 2013!

Pic by Scully

I bid farewell to Scully and Jeff after a great ride back to Cayuga Lake State Park, declining their offer to drive me back home. It was getting late in the day, but I was looking forward to completing another century ride (100+ miles) and spun my feet for a few more hours to get home. I ended the day with 107 miles and was still feeling good to go for the next ride…

On Sunday, I was out again on the steel Soma with cyclocross tires for some more dirt roads. Someone had suggested we try the Slaterville 100k route, which has more than enough hills in about 70 miles of riding on mostly dirt roads. I did the route with a small group last year too, with a moving average of only ~10mph because there were so many steep climbs on dirt. This year was no different, except that we opted to stop in Speedsville to refill bottles, and cut out the second part in Shindagin feeling that we have accomplished enough to train for D2R2* without overdoing it. The highlight of the route was making up Beam Hill for the first time without putting a foot down. It’s a crazy steep dirt road, and I averaged an amazingly slow 5.0mph KOM.

Then on Tuesday was the local race I had been looking forward to. With a few nearly 200 mile weekends recently, I’ve felt stronger than ever on the hills and wanted to test my racing ability further. The last hill race I did, I had ridden rather far on the days before it, and was able to win the Snyder finish with the B group. This time I would try my luck with the A’s.

After the first climb of Ringwood, 3 people were off the front – never to be seen again. The next few people were split up, and while the leader was itching to go faster, I knew that with only two of us we had no chance, and opted to wait for a few more to catch up. With 4 people, we had a chance to hold on, and indeed made the lap together without seeing others come up until Snyder Hill. Those others must have blasted along Rt79 though, because they didn’t stick around too long for the climb.

There was some jockeying for place early on the climb, and after the pace sufficiently slowed, it was my chance to rev it up. This time I tried to play it smart, just going 1-2mph faster rather than launching only to use up my energy like usual. Four still remained, as I lead much of the way up Snyder. Towards the end, I was breaking away unintentionally and had to pace myself and let them catch up if I had any chance of going hard on the final climb. Jeremy was fast approaching, and zoomed past, but I saw it coming and was able to hold on to his wheel. He went hard, but lost steam 2/3rds of the way up the climb, where I made my final attack, and finished 4th.

We were now in the ominous dark cloud, and it started raining even harder, so it was time to get going quick. Everything got soaked through, and my phone is still on the fritz from getting waterlogged. Fortunately the Dexcom in my jersey pocket remained dry enough to avoid any issues. I camped out in the office until the rain passed, watching as others chatted about the ride on Strava. For a rainy day, I thought the pace seemed slower at times to be safe on the turns, but somehow the average speed was way up there at 22.9mph, including a personal best time on the infamous Ringwood climb.

*D2R2 is the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee that I’ve been eager to go to for a few years now. It’s 115 miles of most dirt roads, with some insane amount of climbing, that is a favorite organized ride among the cyclocross crowd in the northeast. With several hundred miles of dirt and climbs behind me now in the last few months, I feel prepared but I know it will still be hard.

The route started by climbing the Black Diamond Trail, and I heard a
comment about not waiting to start the dirt hills – it would be hard
to beat hitting gravel only 100 yards into a ride! The path up to the
hospital that was severely washed out in last year’s rain had been
re-graveled early this year, as several were surprised to find out. By
the west hill start at the professional center, we were already
missing a few though. Lilynn must have cobbled together the wrong
wheel, forgetting the sliver known as the 9-to-10 speed conversion
spacer that’s so tiny yet so crucial to avoiding ghost shifting. She
soldiered on though, limiting her shifting to avoid chainsuck into the
spokes.

Up we went, eventually coming to Van Dorn south which was a fun twisty
descent as usual, ending at a T, but with the route saying to go
straight. Ahead was a grass path, and a gate, and of course what
Google considers a bikeable path that was actually rather rideable on
cross gear, leading to Treman Park. We passed Butternut Creek, which
shows as a potential road on the map but seemed to just be the Finger
Lakes Trail, which we would see more times along the route. More dirt
and and more hills later, we come upon Vanessa on a 650b mountain
bike, and then we dipped down onto the other half of the seasonal
Butternut Creek Rd and Thomas Rd.

We zipped along Burge Hill road which I believe was paved suburbia.
Ernie was talking about some road nearby that was supposedly the
steepest around, and after we descended Burge onto Rt 13 we saw Protts
Road which might as well be vertical. Kudos to anyone that gets a KOM
there – you might want a triple ring. Bob pointed to a dirt path and
little bridge to cross instead of the Newfield covered bridge, and we
found our way to Benjamin Hill. Armin got lucky, and seems to have
kept his KOM there for now despite Matt’s quest to get every KOM of
the day. At the top of the hill, we bid adieu to Vanessa, Lilynn,
Sarah, maybe some more I can’t remember, and the rest ventured back
into dirt territory.

Bull Hill road had more early rollers than I remembered from my ride
here in March, though this time the ruts were fewer, and there was no
mud, snow, or ice. I flew down the last section, bounced off a few
stones, and when I reached the bottom I had my first flat of the day.
We also ran into Glen here as well. Bill stayed with me and my flat
while the others started the climb up into Connecticut Hill. Matt must
have stopped to smell a flower, since somehow I got the KOM on this
one. The descent was rather never-ending, and Glen saw Bob hit a rock
so hard that his seat clamp gave way and tilted up.

After a refreshing stop at the Dandy Mart in Alpine, rain was
imminent, and so we lost a few more riders – leaving Matt, Glen,
Ernie, and myself. I don’t remember anything specific about the Varney
climb and Burlingame descent, but I’m sure it was special somehow.
Then on 224, my legs were ripped off as Matt led the train at 21mph
for 7 minutes followed by me leading on Rt12 at a measly 17mph. I was
curious to try a new road, but the consensus was to take the infamous
Decker Rd climb instead. This is followed by a fast descent on Barnes
Hill, with a big snake bend that can be taken at 30mph. We left Matt
and Glen at this point, as this was their last chance to get back
towards Newfield before venturing further south.

More dirt and more hills – Up Shaffer, down Brink. We nearly missed
the next hill since it looks like a driveway, but was a great forest
road, and a B – Blake Hill where I got flat #2 after nearly eating it
when I failed to miss one of many large gravel pieces. I realized that
while my 32mm Pasela tires are great for pavement, they can’t handle
sharp objects or blunt impacts as well as my Ritchey set.

I spotted a Dandy Mart in Van Etten, thinking we were in Spencer, so
we made the second pit stop, 60 miles in. Next up was Burheight Creek
where the first big storm came in, and Ernie’s poorly adjusted brake
was digging into just 1/3rd of the rim and making a ruckus, and my
cantis might as well have been left at home as I have nearly zero
braking power coming down at speed in the rain. We passed by Spencer
skipping the planned stop (because of the previous Dandy) and ventured
into new territory on Dawson Hill Rd then Vanwoert which “ends” as a
circle, but Ernie then pointed out a grassy path, known by Google as a
road (Brock Hill). This is a cross/mtb type of path, which led into a
camp before reaching good old Fischer Settlement.

On Curtis Rd, I heard thunder non-stop for most of the way, but it
stayed only misty in the woods. Curtis seemed to take forever, but was
another great cross-friendly path. We continued north on Steam Mill,
Nelson, and Updike which is now washboards. A few brief seconds on
pavement, then back onto dirt on the South Hill Rec Way where we flew
at 19mph. That is, until I got yet another flat (seriously?!) when a
perfectly sharpened-to-a-point rock chip went deep. At least this one
probably could have killed any tire, so I didn’t feel too bad about my
thin tires. I was out of new tubes, so Ernie offered one junky tube
before a second, neither of which were holding air. I limped to my
office downtown, stopping twice to pump a little more air in just to
fall back to 20psi a minute later. I cleaned off the wheel, got a
solid patch on, and made the final climb home up Rt96.

This was a spectacular ride, I would say almost on par with Terrible
Hills, with 9,500ft of climbing for me in 89.3 miles. Many a Strava
segment were created and won by Matt, while I snuck in one KOM and
many 2nds. For my goal of 22,575 ft climbing this week for the Rapha
Rising challenge, I’m now 42% of the way there; this might be a long
week! Stay tuned for another potential hilly sufferfest next weekend.

http://app.strava.com/rides/13506764

The route is ~53 miles from Brookton’s Market, which is 63 miles from East Hill Plaza or 73 miles from my apartment. Chris Rusin joined in from EHP on his beautiful new steel frame road bike, but with narrow tires and time commitments, he branched off after a Shindagin. Jason must have seen us roll slowly past the market and hopped out quick enough catch us there. The climb up Bald Hill Rd was just as hard as usual, and I only realized at the top that Jason was on a single speed bike! We made our way through Shindagin, and ran into Jeremy Gardener who didn’t meet us in time for the start but instead waited at the base of Level Green Rd. It was nice to see Goodrich and Blackman Hill roads on the side this time, and not have to climb up those monsters, though we had plenty of climbing on this route otherwise.

Jason took 79 back to Brooktondale, and Jeremy and I would continue on through Robinson Hollow and some gnarly descents. The Jim Schug trail in Dryden had a few other people on bikes or walking, and only one ipod zombie. Then came the best parts of the ride. Beam Hill proved too much to climb from this side, so we hiked up to the top. I was on this road early this year and came down the unpaved side when there was still about a foot of snow, and the only reliable path to take was through the small stream on the side. While there was some snow high up in the forests, we at least had fairly solid ground to walk on this time. Possibly this northern half of the route would overall be more rideable in the other direction next time.

Through Hammond Hill were plenty of ponds in the road, but it appears that many others have biked/hiked/skied here and created trails that veer off to avoid that. This was some fun cross riding through here, where sometimes the best line is just to go through the mud with a little speed, otherwise you just get stuck and have to put a foot down in soaking slop. Fortunately I was able to keep my feet dry through here, since it had never really warmed up much above 40F. Another speedy descent into Shindagin and back up, and then we were headed back to the start. My knee started to feel sore by this point, and only got worse from here, leading to taking a day off the bike and riding the bus to work today.

My ride was 74 miles, with 6150ft climbing. Ride data is at: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/435016 and http://app.strava.com/rides/2158765.

I didn’t have much time to put together a ride when I got home. We were looking to find some new roads though, keeping it fairly flat, and looping through Collegetown so I could switch to the road bike. The route pieced itself together as I looked at previous rides and chose roads in between that looked good. It would be 60 miles going through Ithaca, south to Spencer, west to Van Etten, and north back to the west hill in Ithaca.

In search of some new-to-me roads to ride, I created a route late Friday night. I nearly always ride with a GPS, and have been tracking my routes in the region since I started riding here in 2008. I have both digital and paper maps which have been slowly filling in with blue lines as I do more Sunday rides. Usually when I ride by myself, I look over these maps and specifically seek out the places without the lines, in search of new routes and new places to see. Early this year that meant taking the cyclocross bike into the many state forests with lots of surprises with river crossings, riding along snow-melt streams, and generally getting the bike covered in mud. This time of year I’m looking for more road biking routes, and so Saturday turned into a great new route through the Spencer area.

Max and I departed Collegetown at 9:45am with no other takers and crossed over to the newly paved Coddington Rd. The surface is smooth and great for riding on again, but at least so far there is no pavement for the shoulder which is disappointing. In Gridleyville, we turned west where Stewart had previously suggested, before reaching the state highways which typically had shoulders covered in debris with fast traffic too close. We only rode a few short sections of the main roads, and found that the side roads were great quality and definitely worth incorporating into rides in this area.

West Candor road has a dead end sign, but we continued anyway assuming that it was just an older road that had been left unmaintained. It turned out that there is an old wooden bridge that I wouldn’t dare drive across (you can’t anyway, since there are barriers), but could be passed by bicycle. This was the first of many places that we wished one of us had brought a camera for. the road continues as a 10ft wide paved path, but in good condition as it meets with Rt 96. We missed the first quick turn off the state route, but half a minute down the road was another chance so we kept going. My mistake was rewarded with a huge mulberry tree that Max spotted, and we stopped to pick more than enough berries for some energy to continue.

We stopped in Spencer at a grocery store to refill our waterbottles. I originally thought of continuing west to Van Etten before heading north, but decided that going north sooner on a shortcut would show more previously-unseen roads and was a mile shorter. Following Seelytown Creek was Washburn Rd, which is a packed dirt surface that was easily rideable even on 23mm tires – It does climb steadily though! I tried to keep a steady cadence and the GPS read 10.8mph for most of this road until the grade changed near the end of the road.

The new-road routing got more exciting from here. I specifically picked out county roads, assuming they would be nearly no traffic and paved. Maybe a few cars had passed, but I can’t even remember more than maybe two occasions. County Rt 13 climbs initially, but then is all downhill except for one quick climb until 8 miles later in Newfield. In one stretch, we were hardly pedaling and rolling at 28 miles per hour for several minutes. To top it off, the view north was great and lasts for many miles too. I don’t think this road is part of any established club rides, but with few changes this route would be a great addition.

We crossed a river by riding through a wooden covered bridge in Newfield, and reached my favorite routing part of the ride. My goal was to climb as little as possible but end up on top of the west hill of Ithaca. Max pointed out that there were a lot of turns on his cue sheet, and as we approached a steep hill ahead that we thought we’d be climbing, the work before the ride paid off and we turned at the base of the climb. This continued through many turns, as we would see a big climb ahead but turn away before reaching it. Eventually the options for delaying the climbing ended as we looked up Van Dorn Rd., which is not paved at its southern end. I was ready to try another road, but Max said we should go for it, so we climbed Van Dorn. While it was steep and dirt, it was still a good enough surface for road bikes (though maybe not for coming downhill in the other direction).

I rode one mile east on Bostwick, and as the descent starts, I turned north again to get home. Max did the full descent, probably in just a few minutes as the elevation at the end is 800ft lower.

Here’s the route data as we rode it: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/335316. About 4.5 hours total for me, and just under 60 miles with 4000ft of climbing.

Andy

It had just finished raining as I left home, so I left my jacket by the parking lot as we left. Max had emailed the group about coming on this ride, but we hadn’t seen him by 8 since he had a flat tire and wasn’t able to catch up until after Odessa.

The ride south was pleasant in the morning without any direct sun, and it stayed mostly overcast until the afternoon shortly before the ride was finishing. I wore long layers top and bottom but could have dealt with much less without the risk of getting burnt in the sun.

After climbing the hills after the break in Odessa, the group started to stretch out. One rider stopped on the climb and was adjusting the rear wheel. He didn’t seem to need help as Steve and I passed, so we continued along. I climbed with Steve for the first hill, but and at the top I wanted to catch up with the front group since I’ve been trying to build up my fitness more this summer after not spending much time on the bike lately.

At the top of another hill, Mary Ann, John, and Lisa decided to wait for Steve, the guy behind him if he had continued, and maybe Max (at this point we didn’t know if he did make it to Odessa). I went on the drops and tried to catch the rest of the group ahead. A short and steep decent before the next turn saw a max speed of 47mph on the GPS. I caught the group and then tried to catch my breath, as they were moving along swiftly.

I learned more about the upcoming ride that randonneurs are all looking forward to: Paris-Brest-Paris. Bill plans to ride with the 84 hour time limit group to complete about 750 miles with around 35,000ft of climbing. Some on-the-bike math made that climbing seem not awful, since a typical Finger Lakes hilly route sees 100ft of climbing per mile, while PBP is only about a third of that. On little sleep, and at that distance, it’s got to be a great challenge though. Bill also had some good insight on tire widths, which is a great debate among cyclists.

A final regrouping and quick break at the top of the last major hill brought the front group together again after some chasing on the hills. Once we headed east, the pace was brought up quite a bit as the route is slightly downhill from here. The GPS data showed that the pace was over 26mph for 14 minutes on the fastest section, and in one chase we were going over 30mph for 2 minutes.

The clouds had passed by the end of the ride, and just over 4 hours after we started, we were back at the start, about 57 miles later.

My drivetrain on the race bike still concerns me with some noises, although I think I’m over reacting on that, but regardless I opted to take the commuter bike instead. What I didn’t realize was that the thick commuter tires really do add a significant amount of rolling resistance. For short rides around town, that has never mattered, and I like that the thicker tires never have punctures to the tube unlike the race tires.

Being inspired from RAAM, Max and I were flying along at a fast pace for a long day. The most common speed during the first day was 19mph, which was faaast considering that we didn’t draft for a long time. The ride was about 80 miles, completed in just over 5 hours of riding. We got to Garrett’s place, pretty tired and ready to be off the bikes. I originally thought that we might leave early in the morning to reach Marathon, NY in hopes of finding the group ride from Ithaca. After riding, I knew I wouldn’t be up for leaving early and pushing hard to ride the 50 miles there in time, which was a good feeling to know I could rest more.

On Sunday, it was raining hard when we were preparing to leave, so we stayed inside and watched the weather radar as a green blob passed over us. By about 11am, it seemed that the rain was done, and we headed out, this time going north to make a loop instead of just coming back on the same route the whole way. This route starts out with a few more hills, but avoids the peaks of Rt 206.

It started raining just as we were approaching a gas station, so I headed for that to stock up on more food and water and wait out the rain. It passed quickly, and we were off again, only for more rain to come down. We stopped after a mile to wait under a big tree, and the rain passed quickly again.

The rest of the ride went well, still fast but more reasonable for the day. Total time riding was a little over 5 hours again to make it back into Ithaca. I was struggling to drink enough water and stay hydrated in the heat. Maybe next time I’ll take the road bike and see if I can do this any faster on a day that’s not as hot.

South of Candor was better roads with low traffic. We started to see signs about the detour ahead, and continued along hoping that we could still walk across. Stewart did walk across the river, but found that it was too deep to safely cross while carrying bikes. I looked at the GPS and found that the signed detour was about 5 miles extra, but that Gilkie Hill Rd was possible for only a mile extra, so we went that route. It turned into a dirt road, and a hill, and a few people walked their bikes up partway since we were mostly on narrow tires. It started to rain lightly at some point along here as well. It was a good adventure since the rest of the ride to this point was on paved roads with some traffic to them, and Gilkie Hill was much more pleasant.

Back on the route, we made it into Spencer and continued up Crumtown through the hills. Lisa had another flat, this time on the other wheel. Stewart broke off soon after, since he was taking a more direct route back up the west side of Cayuga, and the remaining 3 of us headed on East Miller back to EHP. The GPS showed 74.9 miles total from the west hill.

The route goes from East Hill Plaza along the creek through Freeville to McLean before heading north past Lake Como and reaching Moravia for a lunch stop. A small group of five rode along through the mostly gently rolling terrain, and stopped at a pizza place in downtown Moravia.

Long Hill Rd. reminds us that the Finger Lakes are full of fun surprises, and we climbed up slowly and met at the top to continue along as a group. The farms at the top were as smelly as I remembered, and apparently it’s manure spreading season as well.

We followed Stewarts Corners Rd and Van Ostrand Rd which were both great for riding on. On a long straightaway, a pickup truck driver honked at us, which confused me because this was a passing zone on a wide and empty road. Sometimes drivers’ sense of ownership over the road goes a bit too far.

We all made it back to the Lab of O where we started, and split off from there to head home or into town. The group rode about 60 miles together according to my map, and my GPS said 76 miles by the time I got home.

Around 10:15am, the 8 or so of us starting from Ithaca/Lansing got to Moravia, refilled waterbottles from a convenient hose tucked next to the gas station, and chatted while another 5 or 8 riders rolled in, including a tandem. We set of promptly at 10:30am and in less than 5 miles, Owasco Lake was to the west in the valley. The terrain is rolling, though at this point in the year there always seems to be more uphills than down. I was in no rush, and took my time enjoying the view down to the lake. At the only stop along this long leg, two guys headed in the other direction stopped to ask about the route around the lake, so FLCC wasn’t the only crowd with this trip in mind.

Most of the group was out of sight by the time a few of us in the back were approaching the northern end, but as my third time around this lake now, I was pretty sure there was a gas station around the corner that I had used for refueling and shade before, and that’s where we found the rest of the group. I had been burning more carbohydrates than I expected, but a slice of pizza, bag of cheese, and lemonade fixed that. More than a few people seemed surprised I would eat pizza while riding, but it was a great way to refuel from riding 41 miles at that point, with about an equal distance left to get home.

The group split up just after going through the roundabout, since part of the group was taking a more direct route back to their cars in Moravia, while the rest were headed for Salmon Creek Rd to get back to Ithaca. Those headed to Ithaca ended up going through the roundabout a second time, this time picking the right road, only to realize that there was a small connector street we should have taken anyway.

We followed Silver Street for a few miles before crossing Rt 34 and making our way to Salmon Creek, which is one of the straighter and flatter roads in the area which is used for time trial training by some. After reaching the Ludlowville park, and successfully crossing one of the longer steel grate bridges that unfortunately still exists, the group split again as some continued directly into Ithaca and the rest headed for a gravel path that connects back to the mall and to Friendly’s. Since it was actually a bit sunny and warm (finally, after all that spring rain!) we got ice cream before heading home.

-Andy

I watched the Cat-1/2/3s go by on the first lap from the cider mill, and then headed up Van Donsel Rd to the finish line where most of the racers that were competing for one lap would soon be finishing. One group made the turn uphill and was quickly approaching, so I stood to the side and watched them power up the hill. I rode up after them, and got a laugh when a few people cheered me on (not sure if they realized I wasn’t racing…). This was just the warm up though before the adventure into the forests.

I continued up Van Donsel Rd, and then followed it across the forest before turning and taking Courtney Hill Rd back up. One thing I love about the forest roads is that the surface is never the same between roads. From smooth packed dirt, to flat and rocky, to gravel, and sometimes pools of mud, the variety keeps it interesting. If you like long descents and climbs, this is the spot to go. These two roads are my new favorites, especially coming back up the hill. When I got back to a main road, I saw two people riding the Virgil loop and tried to catch up but they turned off my route before I could get there. I think this must have been part of the FLCC ride of the Hollenbeck’s loop after the race.

I felt great after the 25 mile warm up into Virgil, but now just 20 miles later I felt drained. I paced myself up Owego Hill (another great dirt road) and found myself in the middle of nowhere. Through the western section of the Kennedy Forest, I aimed for a dirt trail, which I’ll say in short was not a place to be riding, so I cut through to another forest road to get to Harford on Rt38. I was on Creamery Rd for the second time, now on a better suited bike than the first time when an FLCC ride went in the other direction on this hill with nearly everyone on skinny tires. After a screaming decent on a paved but gritty road, I ended up in front of the Goodrich Hill wall, which might be the steepest road I’ve been on, apparently reaching an 18% grade. I recognized another Finger Lakes Trail crossing as I left the Potato Hill state forest.

Now in the northern short segments of Shindagin, I had to pace myself going up Leonard Rd, which took a good effort to climb since it was a bit washed out and larger gravel most of the way. I was feeling nearly dead after enough climbing, and took it easy from here home. I held on tight coming down Bald Hill into Brooktondale, and stuck to some better known roads to get home.

After riding enough paved roads in the past few years to reach my miles to the 5th digit, it’s been a great season for seeking out the dirt roads I had never seen before. I keep considering rides like D2R2, but after riding forest roads all day within cycling distance from home, I might just stick to those. There’s more than enough for keep me riding new routes every time. My road bike has only seen 9 miles on it so far this year, and it looks like it might stay that way with the rain expected this week. Total miles for the day was just under 80, mostly on dirt roads between Virgil and Brooktondale. You can see the route online here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/391915.

Heading up Rt 89 along the lake was my first experience in a paceline. This was only my third ride with a group of experienced riders, so I was still trying to get comfortable riding closely and staying alert to the actions of the guy ahead of me at all times. When we were near the shore, the wind had picked up just a little so we rode in a tight paceline for a while, bringing the average speed above 19mph.

I had no idea that you could still ride with a group but not pull, so after a minute of hard pedaling, I pulled off the front, and the next little hill was just too much for me to keep up. The other 4 guys were ready to keep pushing along, and they all passed me while I slowed down. I then realized how much benefit I was getting from the draft of the other riders, so I sprinted several times trying to catch up, but ultimately they were pulling away faster than I was able to keep up. I just wasn’t at the same level as them, considering these were seasoned riders and I was just on my 3rd group ride. At this point I had gone 45 miles, full speed, without a break.

Not knowing exactly where the route went, I just kept pedaling and watching the GPS for a place to round the top of the lake. At 50 miles was a convenience store where I saw the other bikes and the guys were inside. One of them told me that I was just a minute behind them, so I guess my sprinting kept me nearby but not with the group. We left after a short break, and I could only hang on for 5 miles. I was done riding that fast for the day!

The rest of the afternoon I rode much slower, around 14mph, took several breaks and tried to enjoy the solitary ride. When I reached the point where I had to decide if this was going to be a century ride of 100 miles or around 85 instead, I decided to go for it. At an upcoming turn I got back on the short route because I realized I was just too tired to ride more miles. I got downtown, tried to find a bus up Rt 96 to get home, but the next one was more than an hour away. I pedaled very slowly up the hill to get home!

Eight of us departed EHP about 8:45am under partially cloudy skies, delayed by my hastily gathering oximeter readings from everyone.  The ride out 89 to Brooktondale, down White Church and Coddington to Willseyville, and down 96B to Gridleyville (which consists of one house) was uneventful.  We turned left onto the Gridleyville Crossing Road and continued to 96, where Luat Vuong headed back to town.  The all-male residual consisted of Andy Goodell, Rob Ruttenberg, Ben Gray, Jeremy Gardiner, Owen Bailey, Sam Kolins and me. Shortly after passing the T-junction to Halseyville Road, we passed Wayne Gottlieb and Mark Sorrells heading the other way, back to Ithaca.  They had already ridden the Halseyville loop while the air was still cool. Smart fellahs!

At Spencer, we found many riders saddling up including: Mark Sheehan, Jim Millar, Misty McPhee, Eric Lee, Sarah Strickland, Doug Dylla, Brenda Smith, Marcy Robinson, Erin Mcleod, Mary Mulvanerton, Gary Hodges, Jessica Walden, Rob Fergeson, and Jim McGarry.

The approach to Halseyville Road was actually blocked off by a new concrete bridge being cured under burlap moistened by three or more sprinklers that made us dance as we skipped across carrying our wet bikes.  A local middle-aged cyclist stopped to watch as if he could not believe what he was seeing.  Air temps, cloud cover, and scenery were all excellent.  At Garry’s suggestion we turned right onto Ellis Creek Road about half way down to Route 17C.  This new route to 17C cuts the travel time on 17C down by half and treated us to new landscapes.   I suspect that anyone not in the first two groups or so continued straight.  We did not take the alternate route to Waverly on West River Road on the PA side of the river, as we had already passed the bridge that crosses over to Hoopers Valley.  After refueling in Waverly, we headed west on 17C and, taking the left over the bridge to 17, we hung a sharp right onto River Road and followed this charming, but pot-hole-ridden single-lane road alongside the Chemung River.  River Road brought us to Route 60, which we followed for half a mile west before turning north onto Route 3/Wyncoop Creek Road.  Our rolling climb had begun. Mark Sheehan continued west on Route 60 towards Elmira.

At the intersection with Marsh Road/Rte 4, we waited to regroup.  However, we learned from Andy or Sam that Garry and possibly others had gone back to assist with a flat that occurred some distance behind them.  Our lead group reaching Spencer consisted of Andy, Owen, Sam,  Jim Millar, Jim McGarry, Eric Lee, Misty McPhee, Ben Gray, and myself.  Continuing on to Ithaca au velo were Andy and Owen with Jim going part of that distance to reach home. [Andy] recorded his average speed from East Hill Plaza to Spencer as 17.6 mph with a distance of about 68 miles.  Jim recorded cumulative climb in the Spencer-Halsey Valley Loop as 2000 feet.

Andy:

And 3 of us (Sam, Owen and I) continued on from Spencer back to Ithaca. We took Fisher-Settlement Rd to South Danby Rd, which hits 96b. FS is a long dirt road with lots of small ups and downs, and by this time my legs were about done and the avg. speed was 13.5mph from Spencer to Ithaca. We split shortly before Ithaca College, and I rolled down the hill from there and the other two headed to East Hill Plaza, I believe.

Ithaca to Spencer: 17.7mph
After the Spencer loop: ~67 miles, 17.6mph
Total: ~87 miles, 16.5mph

Owen posted photos online on Picasa

And 3 of us (Sam, Owen and I) continued on from Spencer back to Ithaca. We
took Fisher-Settlement Rd to South Danby Rd, which hits 96b. Fisher-Settl.
is a long dirt road with lots of small ups and downs, and by this time my
legs were about done and the avg. speed was 13.5mph from Spencer to Ithaca.
We split shortly before Ithaca College, and I rolled down the hill from
there and the other two headed to East Hill Plaza, I believe.

Ithaca to Spencer: 17.7mph
After the Spencer loop: ~67 miles, 17.6mph
Total: ~87 miles, 16.5mph