Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day for cycling. I joined several others for a ride sponsored by The Bicycle Escape and led by my friend and Single Speed Outlaw teammate Joe. Joe led the first version of this ride back in July. For some reason, he didn't think that version was challenging enough, so he added some miles and some climbing.
I'm stupid, OK. I thought that if I had some gears set up for climbing, I could keep up. Nope. Along the flats, things were pretty good, but as soon as the road turned up, away the other riders went. That was OK, because I had a cue sheet, but naturally, I failed to read it, so when I got to Legore Bridge and figured I had gone off route and back on, I thought the others might be waiting at an intersection back alng the route. I wasted some time there, even riding a dead end road to mark it off the list, but finally called home to track down Joe's cell number and called him. They were already past that section and I had to hustle to catch up to where they were waiting at Loys Station Bridge. From there I was able to stick with the group until the first break stop past Thurmont.
About 28 miles in, the climbing got more serious. I was again off the back, but I expected to be at this point, so I just geared down and spun away. Soon we were climbing Debold Rd., and I felt sympathy for the guys on fixed gear bikes. It was pretty bad with a 28x34 low. A shrieking descent of Debold followed, and then up through Sabillasville and onto Skunk Hollow Rd. I didn't remember so much climbing here, but the grade was OK, so I just kept plugging away. This was followed by another amazing descent on the gravel of Buck Lanz Rd. Sometimes the scenery made it hard to pay attention to the road.
Manahan is what did me in. The climb was goin OK, if slow, but then it got steep, and I was already in my granny. I dug deep and made it up, but things were starting to hurt, and I couldn't help think about the climb up Tower Rd. ahead. Somewhere along here I decided to skip that climb and head back down into the valley. Joe called to check my location (about 5-10 minutes behind the group), and I told him I was bailing. As partial pennance, I rode Park Central Road. Its a climb, but nothing like following the ridge up Tower, and at least I could then cross it off my roads list.
Once down off the mountain into Thurmont, I took old familiar roads back towards Frederick. Off in the distance on Devilbiss Rd, I saw a rider. I dug deep to catch up and made no progress, but we turned onto Dublin, and I began to catch up. At the end of Dublin I saw it was a straggler from my group and Joe was waiting to make sure he made the turns. They said to tuck in, and I gave it a shot, but my legs were toast and they pulled away on Fountain Rock. I kept them in sight to the finish, but skipped the post ride libations, due to family activities that evening.
| Gearing up in the Parking lot of TBE. |
| Leaving suburbia. |
| On the flats I kept up fine. |
| After the first hill... where did everyone go? |
| Old Creaky at Legore Bridge. This bike gets noisier every time I ride it. The BB was awful, but everything seems to be tight. Someday I'll get a real bike. |
| The break stop at Candyland. The punchline is that the liquor store side was closed until noon. We somehow made do. |
| The climbing begins. |
| Eyler Valley Rd. The dappled sunlight played hell with my autofocus. |
| Sabillasville off in the distance, from halfway down Debold Rd. |
| The gravel descent of Buck Lanz Rd. |
| Panorama from Buck Lanz. Manahan Rd. climbs (and climbs, and climbs) up behind the big barn on the right of the photo. |
| Looking back the way I came up Manahan Rd. I took the break to take the photo, really. Ok not really, I was beat. No mmore photos after that. Too whipped to get the camera out. |
| Today's Map. |
| Today's Profile. |
Roads Completed 9/30/2007.
| Road Name | ADC Map Grid | Subdivision | |||
| JOHN MEHRING | RD | 8-J-12 | N/A | ||
| E | MAIN | ST | 7-F-7 | N/A | |
| W | MAIN | ST | 7-F-7 | N/A | |
| NEW CUT | RD | 8-D-11 | N/A | ||
| PARK CENTRAL | RD | 6-K-5 | N/A |