Road Cycling - Good rides around Ocean City, NJ?

I'll be in OC, NJ for the weekend and I'm looking to get in a decent ride (~30 miles or so) Saturday morning. Anyone know of a good route to take (starting from the 34th street area)? I'm not too familiar with the roads down there or the traffic. I'm hoping to start by 6am so hopefully there won't be too many cars buzzing by me. Thanks.

A good 20 mile ride is to go out the Ocean Drive South to Sea Isle. Take a right at LaCosta, follow to Route 9 and go right, take #9 to Marmora and go right on Roosevelt Blvd. (Wendy's) and follow over 34th Street bridge to O.C. The right turns minimize traffic concerns and believe me the people at the shore are not friendly to cyclists, you must get out early.

Thanks for the response. I'll probably end up doing some variation of that assuming I can get to bed early enough to get an early start. I enjoy mostly right turns on my rides around home so I know those benefits well. Hopefully the Land Rovers and H2's will make room for me on *their* roads.

That's a good route and for my part (commuter and recreational rider in that part of New Jersey), I've not found the drivers to be particularly unfriendly.

Paul

I may have a slanted view. Several years ago I was forced off the road by an old man and ruined my bicycle. He said he'd pay and then refused. I've also received more than I'm used to of horns and hand gestures from motorists. Not enough to make me stop though.

Seems to be par for the course for biking on roads (excluding being run off the road). It's just that you'd think people near the beach would be a little more relaxed. A honk or hand gesture here and there certainly doesn't discourage me either. You'll hear me complaining Saturday afternoon should someone pull something stupid though.


I may have a slanted view. Several years ago I was forced off the road by an old man and ruined my bicycle. He said he'd pay and then refused. I've also received more than I'm used to of horns and hand gestures from motorists. Not enough to make me stop though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I rode Saturday and Sunday morning, starting out on West then making a right then left to go onto Landis (which turns into Ocean) then following that through Sea Isle and then into Avalon, right onto Avalon Blvd., right on Route 9, then right onto Roosevelt. The loop was 31 miles (32 miles with a slight detour Saturday). Quite flat but pretty windy especially Saturday.

As for my comments on the people in the area, I got my first flat on my bike Sunday morning two miles into my ride. The owner of the house I stopped in front of brought me some paper towels and and assisted in swapping tubes out. Another rider stopped and whipped out a CO2 pump to quickly get my tire up to pressure. I was quite happy to receive so much help. Another couple of miles down the road a group of teenage hecklers passed by saying something but at that point I could care less as my day was already made by the help I got earlier.

If you are on this forum, thanks.

If you want to do around 60 you can take ocean drive all the way down to cape may and back, that's what I did last weekend

If you want to do around 60 you can take ocean drive all the way down to cape may and back, that's what I did last weekend
Which way was the wind blowing? That could be a tough trip back with the wind in your face.

Actually it was blowing in our faces at about 10 on the way to Ocean City, then it switched and was blowing in our faces at around 15 on the way back! Way to make a flat ride killer! I came over the bridge between wildwood and cape may on ocean drive and the wind was just oppressive. At the end of a 62.5 mile ride, no one wants wind like that blowing in their face.

If you want to do around 60 you can take ocean drive all the way down to cape may and back, that's what I did last weekend

Can you ride Ocean Drive from Cape May all the way to Atlantic City?

Can you ride Ocean Drive from Cape May all the way to Atlantic City?

Sure can.

look out for car doors!

Resurecting an old thread of mine. Yesterday turned out to be the perfect day for me to try the ride from Ocean City to Cape May. With all the hurricane activity down south, and rain forecast for the whole day, I figured no one would miss me if I was gone for a few hours. I started out at 6:45am (should have gone earlier in hindsight) and averaged around 16.5 mph into the wind for the first ~34 miles. On the way down I learned that next time, I'm picking a different road to ride through Wildwood. New Jersey Ave is terrible; pavement, lights, cars, no shoulder, ugh. Never again. And unless you know how to follow Ocean Drive, forget it. The signs pointed me nowhere. But I made it through and then proceeded to get slightly lost down in Cape May. I wanted to take Route 9 back to OC and eventually stumbled upon it after a slight detour on some farm roads. I ate a bit and then started riding home. At around mile 42 the rain started, then it starting pouring, then I got a flat b/c of the rough shoulder, and if that wasn't enough, my trip computer stopped working when I got going again thanks to all the rain. So all I know if that for the first 45 miles, my speed was 16.9 mph. My guess is that my final speed was in the 18 mph range given the gear I was in for most of the ride back. So aside from Wildwood roads and the flat, which I easily patched and then not so easily reinflated which my crappy pump, it was an enjoyable ride. I've never ridden in a downpour before but I found it didn't bother me aside from my vision being slightly blurred from all the rain drops on my glasses. I hope to ride that route again soon, with a fully functional computer. Going by the road signs, my mileage was somewhere between 65 and 70. A metric century and change! Time to map out a 100 mile route next.