The longest ride for me to date.
So I've been busy this past weekend. I took a day of vacation on Friday and then spent the weekend with Nikki (and others) at Cave Run Lake. I'll be brief, but I had a lot of fun. Here's how the ride I did on my day of vacation broke down:
Friday - Paris / Natural Bridge / Paris : Google Map
George and I have been talking about trying the 200 km Brevet that starts in Paris (Kentucky) and turns around in Slade. We started the ride about an hour later than we anticipated, but finally got started about 9:15am.
The great thing about the ride is that it was marked out (the whole course is marked!). The 200 Brevet is one in a series of brevets that Johnny Bertrand and the Bluegrass Cycling Club put on. I was also able to get in touch with him the night before and he gave me some guides about starting the course.
I'm not going to recap the entire ride, because it did take us a little over 11 total hours (9:25 riding time) to do the ride. And that would take a long time to describe, but here are the highlights.
1. Kentucky is a beautiful place and this ride allowed us to see some of the different features the state has to offer. There is so much of this state that I have not had the opportunity to explore yet, but when I get the chance, I am always amazed about the great natural resources that Kentucky has to offer.
2. The small towns along the way have character. We actually didn't spend much time in Paris, Kentucky because we were anxious to get on the rode, but when we rode through Mount Sterling, I found the "downtown" streets whispering secrets of Kentucky history. The entire town doesn't come out looking this way, because they do have the typical stripmall shopping areas, but the downtown strip was great.
Of course I don't have a photo to share of it either?
3. While riding your bike on the country rodes of Kentucky - watch out for dogs! George says that we had over 50 dogs chase us. I estimated 30 to 40? There were two instances that got my heart rate up. The first dog came charging as we crept up a hill, which made the scenario even more grim. Luckily the dog knew it's boundries, otherwise we may have been rottweiler food.
The second instance was more heart pounding. We came rolling through a lose association of homes about 20 miles(?) past Mount Sterling, when George noticed two dogs running at us. They didn't look friendly or trained so he started riding faster. I looked back as I started peddling faster, only to see a third dog (meaner and much faster looking) come out from under the car to join the chase. I rode much faster! Luckily the dog gave up after a quarter mile because he could have caught us. I hit my highest speeds (to that point - 31.5mph) and heart rates running from them.
There were many other dogs as I mentioned, but none that got me quite as much as those two. Well... the pit bull around 116 miles was close, but he really never got to close.
I need to learn better tactics to manage the dogs, as they seem to love the chase, making matters worse.
4. Kentucky has hills. When I moved to Kentucky from Nebraska in 2002 I had never cycled on terrain like here in Kentucky. While in Nebraska you search for climbing practice, here in Kentucky it seems rare to find an extended flat road. There is one extended climb on this route that comes around the Powell County line, that left George and I pleading for one more smaller gear. I ended up criss-crossing the highway in order to have the leg power to get up and over.
The climb left George wondering, "what happens if I can't get over coming back" while we ate lunch at the Shell station in Slade. I was worrying about being taken out by dogs.
5. The area around the Gorge is great cycling and people seemed to respect us on the rode. I was amazed by the number of "Share the Road" signes posted, but sometimes the signs are there to change peoples' behavior towards riders. It didn't seem to be the case around Slade. Maybe the people are used to tourists being around for the Natural Bridge or the Red River Gorge, in anycase, I felt welcomed.
Where do we turnaround?
We were not completely sure where we turned around, so we turned and headed towards the Natural Bridge. We ended up turning around at the first entry to the park. Even though we were not completely confident that we went the direction the course had been laid out, we were sure that we would complete 200km.
I had actually wanted to complete 212km for the day because the Tour de France route was that distance on Friday. By adding the extra few miles in the middle, it didn't give me much choice but to finish the longer ride. I am glad that we did it this way too. I am not sure I would have chosen to add any miles once I got within shouting distance of Paris.
In total, George and I rode 129.5 miles according to my bike computer. That is the longest single day ride I have ever ridden. My previous best was day two of my ride across Iowa.
Idea of the ride
I kept thinking during the ride that Kentucky needs a resource that describes some of the rides around the state and allows people to comment on the ride. I know that some books are out there (I just bought this one
), but it might be very useful to have a site similar to kyba.org, but for roadies? Maybe it exists?
Ride on! - Check out the 200km photo set in our gallery.
Friday - Paris / Natural Bridge / Paris : Google Map
George and I have been talking about trying the 200 km Brevet that starts in Paris (Kentucky) and turns around in Slade. We started the ride about an hour later than we anticipated, but finally got started about 9:15am.
The great thing about the ride is that it was marked out (the whole course is marked!). The 200 Brevet is one in a series of brevets that Johnny Bertrand and the Bluegrass Cycling Club put on. I was also able to get in touch with him the night before and he gave me some guides about starting the course.
I'm not going to recap the entire ride, because it did take us a little over 11 total hours (9:25 riding time) to do the ride. And that would take a long time to describe, but here are the highlights.
1. Kentucky is a beautiful place and this ride allowed us to see some of the different features the state has to offer. There is so much of this state that I have not had the opportunity to explore yet, but when I get the chance, I am always amazed about the great natural resources that Kentucky has to offer.
2. The small towns along the way have character. We actually didn't spend much time in Paris, Kentucky because we were anxious to get on the rode, but when we rode through Mount Sterling, I found the "downtown" streets whispering secrets of Kentucky history. The entire town doesn't come out looking this way, because they do have the typical stripmall shopping areas, but the downtown strip was great.
Of course I don't have a photo to share of it either?
3. While riding your bike on the country rodes of Kentucky - watch out for dogs! George says that we had over 50 dogs chase us. I estimated 30 to 40? There were two instances that got my heart rate up. The first dog came charging as we crept up a hill, which made the scenario even more grim. Luckily the dog knew it's boundries, otherwise we may have been rottweiler food.
The second instance was more heart pounding. We came rolling through a lose association of homes about 20 miles(?) past Mount Sterling, when George noticed two dogs running at us. They didn't look friendly or trained so he started riding faster. I looked back as I started peddling faster, only to see a third dog (meaner and much faster looking) come out from under the car to join the chase. I rode much faster! Luckily the dog gave up after a quarter mile because he could have caught us. I hit my highest speeds (to that point - 31.5mph) and heart rates running from them.
There were many other dogs as I mentioned, but none that got me quite as much as those two. Well... the pit bull around 116 miles was close, but he really never got to close.
I need to learn better tactics to manage the dogs, as they seem to love the chase, making matters worse.
4. Kentucky has hills. When I moved to Kentucky from Nebraska in 2002 I had never cycled on terrain like here in Kentucky. While in Nebraska you search for climbing practice, here in Kentucky it seems rare to find an extended flat road. There is one extended climb on this route that comes around the Powell County line, that left George and I pleading for one more smaller gear. I ended up criss-crossing the highway in order to have the leg power to get up and over.
The climb left George wondering, "what happens if I can't get over coming back" while we ate lunch at the Shell station in Slade. I was worrying about being taken out by dogs.
5. The area around the Gorge is great cycling and people seemed to respect us on the rode. I was amazed by the number of "Share the Road" signes posted, but sometimes the signs are there to change peoples' behavior towards riders. It didn't seem to be the case around Slade. Maybe the people are used to tourists being around for the Natural Bridge or the Red River Gorge, in anycase, I felt welcomed.
Where do we turnaround?
We were not completely sure where we turned around, so we turned and headed towards the Natural Bridge. We ended up turning around at the first entry to the park. Even though we were not completely confident that we went the direction the course had been laid out, we were sure that we would complete 200km.
I had actually wanted to complete 212km for the day because the Tour de France route was that distance on Friday. By adding the extra few miles in the middle, it didn't give me much choice but to finish the longer ride. I am glad that we did it this way too. I am not sure I would have chosen to add any miles once I got within shouting distance of Paris.
In total, George and I rode 129.5 miles according to my bike computer. That is the longest single day ride I have ever ridden. My previous best was day two of my ride across Iowa.
Idea of the ride
I kept thinking during the ride that Kentucky needs a resource that describes some of the rides around the state and allows people to comment on the ride. I know that some books are out there (I just bought this one
), but it might be very useful to have a site similar to kyba.org, but for roadies? Maybe it exists?Ride on! - Check out the 200km photo set in our gallery.
posted by gary at 4:24 PM
2 Comments:
wow, that's awesome!
i was surprised at how hilly ky was too.
just a little south of natural bridge is beatyville, ky, where johnny's dad's family is from and where we headed right after S&S. beautiful country.
Angie. That area of Kentucky is what allowed me to move back to KY from Colorado without much hesitation.
The scenery here and the outdoor activities here are not well known nationally. (Well maybe the RRG for climbers) Which is ok, because it leaves the trails more open for us :)
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