Josh:

I live right by there and go down it all the time! LOL

Just to let you know the TT is a standing start right at the bottom, so if you want to prepare for it you may want to train that way. Also the finish is right before the church parking lot enterence (the first one)

Good luck.

Bill

How fast do you go down?

Thanks for the warning, John. Unfortunately, I only just now read it.

The road was as you said. The worst was climbing while passing cars kicked up tons of dust. I went slow on the descent, too, since I started the ride an hour after the rest of the group and I was by myself.

I try not to go too fast anymore, see X-ray. That was not a crash on Illichester but a crash nevertheless.

I usually make a right into the park over the bridge or a left onto Bonnie Brace if I'm doing hills, so I can't go that fast.

Good luck on the TT, I'll be there watching. Look for the guy with a plate in his arm.

Bill

Sorry to hear about the plate, hope you can get back on the bike soon.

sat:illchester practice for tt
sun:13 miles, some good local climbing, tried to keep the pace up higher, faster uphill, managed to hold about 11mph up the 12% climb.

GB's century o' the month was last monday. Got miserably lost in DC, but a great ride nonetheless.
Route here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/164542 (not public yet cause it needs some fixing)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/...ace085.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/...0a5cb1.jpg?v=0

Route Verte
 

Hey Charlie,
You're already gone but I'm heading to Canada for the Route Verte as well. I'm flying up to Quebec City on the 29th . I had planned on riding from Quebec City to Baltimore using NY State bike route #9, but after previewing it this past week while in the Adirondacks I deemed it unsafe, like riding Falls Rd. for 100+ miles, winding, blind corners, too much FAST traffic. The Vermont side looked much better but considering heat in the mid Atlantic and time I've decided to ride from Quebec City to Ottawa by way of Montreal, flying out of Ottawa-Making it up as I go.
Harry

Nice ride GB!

HC, have fun and be careful out there. Take lots of pictures.

I hear ya. There was quite a bit of traffic on that road on Saturday. It's usually dead. Apprently I wasnt going as fast downhill as I thought. It lookes like I was in between 26-28 mph going down that gravel road. All I know is my hands were hurting by the time I got to the asphalt.

I'm going back in a couple of weeks. Maybe Saturday on the PPTC ride if I dont go to Lancaster for the Grandview Crit. I will take the hard 2 miles up Wigville/Tower Road to Rt-77 and skip the gravel descent.

My fitness is coming pretty good for 200lbs. I had no trouble getting up Catoctin or Park Center (except for that one section that felt like Illchester) on a 39 inner and a 12-27 casssette. I kept my HR in Zone 3 and low Zone 4 the whole time on both hills. Im sure if I had been doing this day with guys from the team, I would have been toast, but since I had a race on Sunday I kept it on the down low and skipped riding it with teamates.

heres a little snipped from my 50 miler. As you can see from the Entire workout avg speed, it was a very slow active reco day for me.

http://johnkrawczyk.powweb.com//Fatg...hurmont_MD.jpg

^^^^^^^
Here's the mountain climbing portion of my solo ride Saturday:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...110miles-1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...bs110miles.png

Ouch!

I gotta do me a 8000+ ft day sometime soon.

Interesting that my GPS estimated the climbing to be about the same as WKO+. Before using GPS, I always considered WKO+ to be remarkably high. I believe my iBike Aero got more like 7,000ft of climbing, but when processed through WKO+ gained 1,000ft. :twitchy:

The worst part of the ride, though, was in the open under the sun heading back to Westminster.

My Polar reports lower than WKO. I asked the WKO guy about this. He said WKO does not smooth and it calculates every ft. Polar may be smoothing the data. I always go by the higher WKO numbers. Makes me feel like I did more. :lol:

We were glad to be done too. We started at 8am and even then it was hot, muggy and hard to breath. Once we hit Catoctin Hollow Road it got better. The higher up I went the better I was feeling and the better the air quality and temps. Same with Park Center Dr. The 11 miles of downhill into Thrumont was great. But once we got to the Sheetz in Thrumont it was back to being brutal all the way back to Monacacy Elementary School where we started.

Hey im from howard county... and looking for a few group rides in the next couple weeks before i head down to virginia for school.

Any groups going? or anyone interested in starting one?

Sorry for the semi-jack but I'll be in Howard County for the next week and was wondering if anyone could recommend some places where I could hunt around for an old 80s road bike. I tried going to Race Pace Bicycles today but it was a little too high-end for me and my wallet.

The only place I can think of would be White's in Westminster. But I would call first since that isn't super close.

-D

Cool, thanks derath.

yeah racepace is very overpriced... you could try princeton sports in columbia... but i dont know what they carry as far as 80's bikes. i cant really think of any LBS in the area that carries vintage bikes...

sorry :(

Have you tried Mt. Airy? They have tons of old stuff. Here's their web site.


http://www.bike123.com/

Bill

Mt Airy Bicycles and College Park Bicycles. Both are owned by the same guy. A retro grouch if there ever was one. Check the websites. IIRC he lists his old inventory.

HoCoCyclists does a ride from the Glenwood Community Center (corner of Rt 97 and Carrs Mill) every Wednesday night (weather permitting). Arrive and sign in at 5:45pm and ride promptly at 6pm. A, B and C paces (no drop) from 20-35 miles. There is a group of HoCo folk that also ride from the same place, at the same time on Thursday night, not quite as formal. Cue sheets are (generally) provided.

Mike

If you want to rent a bike try Light Street Bicycles if you are after a cheep used bike try Velocipede Bike Project

Princeton Sports - their Columbia store) has Tuesday night rides. A group leaves at 6PM - 16 - 22MPH. Another group leaves at 6:30PM - its an 18 mile ride for women preparing for the triathlon (although anyone can ride it). MY husband and I plan on doing the 18 miler tonight.

Do you know if Velocipede has a die to thread a fork? I just got a new headset and now I need another 1/4 inch of threads. :(

what is the pace of the 6:30 group? and do you know what kind of route?

also... where are u going to the store from? perhaps we could ride in a group to the store

This is my first time doing this ride. My husbands' parents live in Columbia (Wilde Lake) so we are going to bike from their house. I think you could call the store and get more info from someone there.

alright cool, ive only been road biking for a few weeks... mountain biking for about a year.

I just dont want to get my *** kicked too bad, or get left in the dust

As long as I'm there you'll be fine - haha!

haha alright, yeah i just called over to princeton... and the second ride sounds more tailored to my skill level.

ill be there on my black and blue tirreno razza, cycling shorts and t shirt...

struggling to keep with the pack haha...

first group ride btw, any etiquette i should know of?