El Cyclista

06.24.10

From The Saddle: The Corniche

We are coming to the end of our first week down here in the South of France. The late nights and socializing at the Cannes festival hasn’t been making it too hard to get in the 8am starts. The ride from Cannes towards St Raphael, along the Corniche, is stunning. Once you break beyond the suburbs of Cannes the traffic frequency drops and the road hugs the coast all the way into Frejus. One side enclosed by scorched red rock, and the other by the Cote D’Azur. This is the locals ride and every day I have joined various clubs from Nice to Mougins. This morning I rode a for a while with Henri from my old club VC La Pomme. He spoke no english, so we just admired the views and half-wheeled each other until he pulled off. Italy on Saturday, and the high Alps.

06.16.10

New Feature: The Devils Kitchen, Platte Clove Road

Used in the old Tour De Trump the Devils Kitchen, or Platte Clove Road, is famous for reducing a number of Pro’s who didn’t have the benefit of compact cranks to get off their bikes and walk. It doesn’t take long to see how that would be. Unlike on the Bergs of the spring classics where the road gets so narrow there is no where to go to keep your momentum, there is ample room here to fall when you come to a complete standstill. These numbers are kind of demoralizing, 1100ft of vertical gain in 2 miles. If you start further down (below Burnett Road) you actually gain about 1400ft. Averaging 12% for the 2 miles and pitching up to a calf busting 22% in sections. The nice thing about climbing in general is that there is usually something spectacular to look at that helps divert your mind from the many things going wrong with your body. Not so in the Devils Kitchen. The trees are so dense you are just riding in a very dark tunnel most of the way up,  with just the grey uneven grade of the road to look at. A constantly pitching grade makes it hard to get any sort of rhythm, but it does eventually end, and you peak out at the top onto a beautifully winding road along the top of the escarpment, marked by a sign with gunshots on it. I have no idea how it got the name Devils Kitchen,  but pain is definitely involved, and it is evil.

See the full photo essay here

05.31.10

From The Saddle: Camp Catskills: Day 3, 4 & 5

Days filled with the Giro, 75+ degree sunny days, and endless roads to get lost on. Pretty much how I could spend my days and die happy. Every time I turned a corner I ended up on another road that had a great climb or descent, great views, or a dog that seemed to want to eat my ankle. And snakes, there seems to be a lot of snakes in the Catskills. I hate snakes, ever since that scene where Indiana Jones gets lowered into a pit of them, they have given me the creeps. So whenever you ride over the tail of one (by accident) it gets the heart rate nicely elevated. I had images of it pulling a backwards flip and biting me on the thigh in one final throw of glory. Rode over to Tannersville and up to Kaaterskills falls today on Route 23A. Great climb of about 4.5 miles on good roads and a steady gradient, a little more hospitable than Platte Clove. I got in about 16 hours of riding over the last 5 days, with a day off. The farmers tan is coming along nicely. One more day to go, I have to break the 2o hour mark tomorrow. It would be rude not to.

05.27.10

From The Saddle: Camp Catskills – Day 2

Despite having lived in the US for 10 years now, I am still amazed by the shear beauty of the countryside. Today the humidity had gone, and the temperature had dropped to a bearable 75+, making me feel like I found an extra 20% in my legs. As the Pros say, I had Super Sensations. Got in a great ride along Route 212 and then down to the Ashokan Reservoir. Along with the ride down from Burnett Road it turned into a nice 73 mile loop. Rounded out with a coffee at Bread Alone in Woodstock, a great day out. Day 2 done.

05.26.10

From The Saddle: Camp Catskills: Day 1

This is day one of what I hope to be a nice block of riding up in the Catskills, in upstate New York. Unfortunately day one coincided with what seemed to be the end of Spring, and we had 90+ temperatures and some sticky thick humidity. We are staying down the rode from a climb that is know as “The Devils Kitchen“. I rode up to the base at Becker rode and stared up at it for a while. It is not a climb, it is a cliff. I have been reading about it before I came up, and got informed that it has pitches of 24% and is only open from April. Something that originated as a mule track when that was the preferred way to transport, probably means it is not built for cars, let alone bikes. So having just watched the likes of Cadel and Ivan struggle up something similar in the Giro’s uphill time trial (Didn’t Dan Martin out in a great ride?), I may want to ease myself into this one (Note to coach: Chad I will not be doing hill repeats on this). I rode out along Route 32 and the Glasco Turnpike and the hills around Woodstock. Truly beautiful rolling roads, perfect for training. Heat exhausted and hungry, I might have to get myself down to Tammy’s for her Curry Night.

05.22.10

From The Saddle: Lobach, PA

Berks county, PA has to be one of the nicest places to spend a weekends riding, yet seems to be relatively undiscovered. I spent two great days around the hills near Reading, and think I only saw two other riders. The ride out to Lobach rolled up and down for miles on pretty much car free roads. The last hill right up to the driveway where I was staying was a serious lung buster. If you ever get the chance to ride Hill Road from the lake at Angora road, a short hill that will give you a 20%+ gradient test, make sure you have a 27 on the back (the picture really doesn’t do it justice).

05.06.10

From The Saddle: Endurance Werx Chain Gang

This week marked the return of the Endurance Werx Central Park Rides. One of the benefits of heading over Brooklyn Bridge at 5.30am at this time of year is you get to see Downtown Manhattan just as the sun is coming up and hitting the buildings. Even after all this time I still find it hard to look at this skyline and think about what is missing. The ride is getting a great turnout, and as the laps went up so did the pace with the pulls getting shorter and shorter.  I think after a few of these I might actually find some legs. Also spotted in our group, the ever classic Rapha editioned jersey celebrating Andy Hampsten’s ride on the Gavia. Very appropriate with my favorite Grand Tour approaching, and the fact I might actually ride it this summer. All be it without the snow.

05.02.10

From The Saddle: A Gold Plated Pinarello

On a ride this weekend I passed these guys out for their Sunday roll. Despite the amount of bikes you pass on the roads here in NYC, there are very few that really turn your head and make you stop and introduce yourself. This frame was literally blinding on our first sunny 80 plus degree weekend. The owner acquired the frame from a Colombian who brought it up to the US in the 1980s. Although the frame and paint were in pretty good condition when he got it, he had to order and restore the decals. The paint is actually made up of a gold plating, that is then covered in a high gloss lacquer that gives it this beautiful finish. The bike was also sporting a mint Campagnolo gruppo, an original 50th anniversary edition no less. This one made my ride. Below a shot from GW Bridge looking back into a hazy 86 degree Manhattan.

04.24.10

From The Saddle: Spring Classics

Woke up to a beautiful spring day here in New York, so we headed up to Nyack for a long lazy spring ride (there seemed to be an unusual amount of people on tri bikes today for some reason). I ran into this great group of riders outside of  the Runcible Spoon. Two classic and beautifully designed jerseys in amazing condition. The Wild-VIS jersey had a wonderful story attached. During a ride in Europe the owner (sorry, I forgot to get your name down before we left) got into a conversation with a rider from Flanders who informed him that Gevogelte, Scholler, Lier were essentially mostly things that you would find on a menu at a fine restaurant in Flanders. Interesting choice of sponsors. The D.L.F jersey was picked up at L’Eroica a few years back, and looked like a true collector’s item. Irish legs below, starting to emerge from a tough winter and look like European or American legs – well at least if all of the freckles join up they will. It is either that or I am the next Stuart O’Grady (in looks only).

04.05.10

From The Saddle: The Glen Falls Loop

After about an hour of riding around Washington DC to find a road to ride on and dodging the Cherry Blossom watchers, following the locals is what I should have done from the start. Once you actually find that road, MacArthur Blvd, it turns out to lead to a very nice ride out to Glen Falls and the countryside beyond it. Low traffic, a pretty good surface and some nice hills made for a nice 4 hours, even if nearly two of them was spent sitting at lights.