I helped put together a Rapha Continental Ride, as the spoke card below denotes.  Some editors from Bicycling magazine showed up and rode it as well, and wrote it up, and gave a shout out to not only this humble, dust cover’d blog, but also to the neglected but viable dirt road database.  We thank them for that!  Here is a link to the main article by David L’Heureux aka Laroo, some quotes, and I will have links to the Rapha imagery as soon as its up, and mine, ditto.  I am developing the B&W in my kitchen as we speak. Wait! I got some scanned in.  Here is a link to the bikely map and cue sheet for the whole shebang.  Find more delicious dirt roads @ the dirt road database wiki.

“Speeds on the descent were almost scary as we tip toed the line between in control and over cooked. At the bottom we patched flats and egos, then turned around to ride back up to the ridge for and even longer and more hair-raising descent back into the valley.”

“I’d never ridden here, so word of mouth was the only thing to go on. I’d been told the ride would be stunning. It was.”

“We were riding by horse-drawn buggies through picturesque farmland almost instantly.”

Colour shots as soon as the get developed, to tide you over here (and here) are some colour shots from past Centre Rambles.

More soonish!  Flickr set, including images above, here.

For the photo dorks:  fuji neo pan 1600, yashica electro gsn 35, red filter.

Spring Opener. Get it?

Yeah so, I thought 45 miles was a decent place to start.  Now: for the fat asses, (me) and the ladies (me) there will be a short cut back to the beer, making the ride roughly 30 miles.  That said, this ride is flatter than Kansas after the tornado season: 2700 feet of climing, with the largest hill being a 400 foot climb spread over a number of miles.  Where is this opener you ask?  Well, it will start in Union Bridge, which is sorta out where Big John lives.  A bit of a drive but not too far.  Why Union Bridge?  Well, this area is pretty close to a BOAT LOAD of roads that we havnt ridden but are charted via the Dirt Road Database.  In fact, there are about 12, count em 12! dirt roads on this route, comprising about 25% of the ride.  As they are all farm roads, they should be nice and packed down, with decent vistas and all that farmy zoo smelling goodness.  I reckon we can bring lunch and find a decent spot to gnosh it.  Did I spell gnosh right?  i assume its spelled like gnosis or gnome, or gnat, but frankly, I don’t know!

Len-E, sass-E, shad-E and stash-E, oxford comma not included.

Now… When?  Christ not this weekened, I am not in shape yet!  How about… the first weekend in May.  It will be warmer, more leaves on the trees, and I will be marginally less fat.  Always a bonus!  Saturday or Sunday, lets put it to the vote.

Oh yeah, the map!  Here.  & the elevation profile, below.

see, look at that hill! you cant even see it!

spoke card forthcoming.  don’t get your knickers in a bunch.