Buckey Bridge Ride With a Detour

Got out with the boys to absolutely crush the buckeye bridge ride yesterday. It's not really fair that these guys can be so strong. Someone should tell them to Back 'r'down.

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Out on the Knobies

Today was a beautiful day for a mixed road and trail ride on the old Marin. 46 miles on the knobies was alot more work than you might think, and riding up washed out dirt roads, throught streams and gynormous puddles made it much more interesting than any recent ride. The downside: My paper sidewall patch soaked through and blew out. I was in the middle of a swamp, no cell coverage, and 4 miles from a real road. Good news is that the baggie in my pocket was more water resistant, and with low pressure, and my tube buldging, I made the 22 miles home.

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Mt Lemmon

Spectacular Rock formations

No it was not a foggy day, just a foggy lens

The ride up Mt Lemmon in Tucson is, by some sources one of the top 3 cycling venues in the USA. I cannot say, but I will say it has got to be up there. I rented a Robaix "Testbike" from a shop that doesn't rent bikes, but Oro Valley Bicycle went above and beyond to get me on the road on a sweet new demo bike. The total ride was 73+ miles, but it really just had one hill. The Catalina highway is a briliant wide stretch of pavement, with spectacular views. Sorry just one cell phone picture. The climb is not super steep, but with the heat and water concerns, it was plenty challenging. 6600 feet of vertical rise, in about 25 miles. Pretty much a 5% average, but some sections made me appreciate the 28 tooth cog. (was it a compact-I don't know, didn't feel like one but I never looked)
It was a little chilly at the top, and the decent was fast and smooth. 25 miles in well under 1 hr.
Brilliant!

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Hilly Hundred

Sorry for the lack of photos, but without a display, I could not tell that all may pictures were totally washed out. Well maybe I'll load 1 sample.
Another fun ride at the hilly, I rode easy saturday untill the last break, then hit it hard for the finish. Sunday, Jim Zoellner came out, so I new it was going to be a lot harder! Jim and I averaged 17.5mph, with me getting a lot of draft time. Kept the gearing limited to 50:25 in empathy to steve who only brought a 11-21 cassette and a 54:42 chainring. I bet him he couln't ride the whole thing with that gearing, but congatulations to steve who mad it all the way, and was only slowed by wheelspin on day 1.

Six Gap Century

Pat and I had a great weekend at the 6/3 Gap in Georgia. One heck of a day. Pat rode a very difficult Metric Century, and was faster than most on the climb of Wolfpen Gap. I managed to get to 56th place out of well over one thousand riders, and finished the ride in 6:01:40, with 5:58 riding, and 3 minutes waiting for the sweet lady volunteers to refill my water bottles. I guess I'm more than just a bit pleased to ride a century like this, and hope that mayby next year we can get a few more area riders to sign up for the challenge. This is a great ride with some really solid clientele and great views. We dodged a bullet on the weather, as the rain that lasted 2 weeks abated just before the rubber hit the road. I thought Hogpen would be a picnic from the south, as it is theoretically less steep than the North, but 42+ minutes after starting this climb, I was pretty sure that it sucked as bad as the northern approach. Overall, this would probably stack up as the single hardest day on the bike in my life. And that is saying something.

See our route below:

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Dunlapsville Loop

50 mile loop today with Chris Allen. Hit some new roads south of Brownsville, and crossed the Lake at Quakertown. This loop has some nice climbs, and some long flats for a real variety and a pretty significant challenge. It felt nice to get out after nearly a week off the bike. Bonus; no flats, having deburred my front wheel, and added an extra layer of tape. Fingers stay crossed.

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Brookville Ride

Pat an I went out Sunday for a fantastic 40 miler from brookville which featured Blue Creek,Wee Wee, Old 1, English Hill and Goblers Knob to round it out. Mostly a pretty easy ride, but I pushed hard up English hill in 5:30, another PR, and pushed big ring up all the other hills including the 16% top of Goblers(50:22) Every time we ride in Brookville, I think we need to do it more often.

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