Saturday's Run

So, the default arrangement was: we're going Saturday morning, but when Saturday morning rolled around, there was a series of activities getting in the way, with higher priority. New time: 3 pm. Unless the game went extra innings.

I was OK with this. There was gardening to do. I was doing it. Removing grass, turf, really, in preparation for expanding the veggie garden rows. Work underway, lunch over with, I was by myself in the backyard . . . with one eye on the watch to make sure I leave in time to get to the Filkinos spread for the launch.

No extra innings, we are off at 3 pm.

So the standard exit of Old Niskayuna, down Hillside and out onto Maxon . . . whip around to the right to cross Freeman's Bridge, Cuthbert, eventually, and out onto Route 5, headed west.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/niskayuna/231127224500834049

Rector is the first hill, the easiest, according to Ti Man and Juan the mountain climber. . . in terms of the number of steep parts. Johnson, and others, have all these plateaus and stuff. Longer, too, and so the most direct way up is Rector Rd.

I timed it: 9 minutes or so. Definitely shorter than 10 a new record! (for me). Trimming weight of bike + rider and technique is paying off.

So Filkinos has go home so he goes right on Ridge, TiMan and I go left. And we pick up some speed and start the long slow climb out Ridge to W. Glenville where we turn left, to my surprise, thinking we'd take a right, left and dance our way into Charlton that way. NOPE.

We go out, left, east to the church, cemetery, and fire station where we hand a quick right to go DOWN North Rd. and we are really sailing. I look down at the 'compte tours' and see a 51 kph!! Yahoo. We pass Potter on the left, angle west and look ahead for the junction with 147 up ahead. I am going too fast to really negotiate the turn properly and so wind up way over the line, swing back into the lane, then hang a left onto Charlton Rd.

Locust Farms on the left, we blast on into the village. There was the standard swale pick-up & slow down as the miles to town center approach. The burned down Italian place on the right warns of approaching Stage Rd. turn.

This part is fun, flat, gently sloping south all the way to the 'T' junction past the homes, school, it turns into Lake Hill Rd. after the Stage cut-off, thence on to the reconnect. Left right and we're on familiar close-to-town roads leading to Route 50. We spend all of 30 seconds on 50 then left onto Hecheltown.

Hecheltown is fun this direction because of the down hill tour, you can tool along at 35 or 40 mph, with no problem. It passes a polo field, of all things, garden plant center, old folks home, Indian Kill Preserve entrance and trail head. Plenty of tall cool deciduous trees that offer shelter during the summer runs. Today it's kinda pointless, it being too early in the spring.

Waiting for the light to turn, we tear off to avoid being caught underneath the narrow bridge passageway, I miss the clip in and open a nice little gash that doesn't bleed but 'what a pain!' I limp the remainder of the trip through Alplaus, across Rexford Bridge, up the hill, through Niskayuna's settled areas, to Nott, left, Van Antwerp, right, when Ti Man splits off to the left, I go home.

I have a concert (Charles Ives and the Goldberg Variations, by Jeremy Denk, at Union) to attend, so clean up and dinner, before blasting off.

Nice day.

Ridge Road Run and Aftermath

Thomas is in town, so we are off Saturday morning for a ride! Great idea if only the weather would cooperate.

So we are out the door by 10:30 am, and 1000 yards north on Regent we start feeling rain drops. Ha! So much for planning. We continue into the 44F spring air. My fingers begin to freeze.

Old Niskayuna whips past at an ever-increasing speed approaching 14 mph, we cross Nott, spin down to the left on Hillside Ave, to spill out onto Maxon Extension to the Freeman's Bridge. We swing right onto the white line protected bike lane and take advantage of the westerly wind blowing down the Mohawk to propel ourselves to the left hand turn lane lining up for the turn onto Sunnyside. The traffic parts, the only cars are still near the last light, so we roll on through.

It's getting colder, if that's at all possible, without snow, and my fingers now hurt. The thumb is numb.

We spin out onto Washington, past Bill's place, onto the Cuthbert. We admire the smooth pavement, shovel-ready, and turn right onto Vley. As usual there is the 18 mph discussion on what to do next . . . Ridge Rd. notoriously steep, right past the former 'Tavern' historical sign OR 147 a little fast, shoulder is OK, or continue on the road to Route 5 and its windy fast traffic, and do the Glenville Hills climbs from the lowest possible altitude, like real men! We go for 147 north, the lesser of the several climbing evils.

The grind begins, and Greg Lemond is doing OK but panting some. It's the spring and he's been working on Long Island with its alpine sections measured in feet gain in elevation not 100s to 1000s like around here. . . or the Battenkill. Ha.

On the right, we pass the Beukendaal 1748 sign along with the one about the Old Sacandaga Rd. Cool historical markers. Makes the ride seem worth the wait.

So we top out near Snake Hill Rd. turn but opt for a little longer ride north, before ducking down Bolt Rd. Everywhere trees are beginning to leaf in, buds are everywhere and a few of the earlier flowers are out. I can hear a mower or a leaf blower going in the distance.

We go to the end and turn right onto Swaggertown. We are both a bit lost on which of the roads parallel what--Ridge, Rte 147, Swaggertown and Rte 50 is the correct order we remember. Tool on in the generally southerly direction declining options on taking Onderdonk (primarily for the name of the road), Droms (for the chance to go around the Indian Meadows Park piece thinking about the connection to Maple Ave and the Rexford Bridge way back) and settle on following Swaggertown all the way back to Horstman cut-through to the parking lot of the new Honda dealership, may the Chevy dealer rest in peace, to Hwy 50.

The first piece is a wreck but around the new Lowe's home and garden center, the pavement is smooth and well-marked, with fair room for bikes on the shoulder. In no time we're back on the bridge itself, and go up Seneca past the new industrial/warehouse all bricked in a lawn planted the weird green of the turf-builder spray stuff. Nice building. Wonder who's moving in?

We wiggle around through the back streets out onto Nott, onto Grand, past the high school holding a lacrosse game. 'Rough sport' says Greg Lemond, as we cruise past. We're up to 1 h 30 m for a little outing and now beginning to think about hot chocolate and wiping down our bikes and behinds.

Fingers still hurt.

Why did we go out so early?? The cloud cover is lifting, the sun is peeking out and it's actually looking rather nice.

Now we have to clean up the bikes.

B-kill aftermath

It was, in the end, an exciting, nice Battenkill ride, with another will-he-arrive-in-time to sign in properly and leave with the field?? drama early in the morning. The 2009 Battenkill started approximately 20 minutes after the field left. This year it nearly repeated when I discovered I'd missed my I-87 exit, ran up to Saratoga's exit 15, used Route 29 East through Greenwich, making the error of taking 40 south, turn around, back to 29, then into Greenwich to find 372 south into Cambridge. In a moment of clarity, I followed the 'Event Parking' signs to the immense parking lot/field where everyone of the 2,200 riders had come to rest their vehicles to exercise their bikes. Ran to Men Cat 5 45+ Black table and was greeted by 'just in time!' Signed in, collected the rf id chip, look at the demo bike "how to attach your chip."

Outside I was surprised at how warm the air felt. It was warming from the earlier 35 F, or so, but it was still low-40's. Suited up, bike together, rf id chip strapped on, loaded up with water, hydration fluid, food, watch . . . I'm off for the staging area start line. I'm there three minutes before the field pulls forward on signal from the starter, and we're pedaling into a 14 mph wind from the WNW, as predicted. No gloves, as I'd expected I'd need, no knit cap beneath the helmet, either.

My gears sound smooth and quiet (thanks to the early-morning wash, degrease, and lube right after walking the dog!). Others around me look good on expensive bikes, nice togs, and jackets and jerseys from all over the NE. The parkng lot testified to the wide appeal of the race: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, of course, Ontario, Montreal, Maine, Vermont, Maryland, and even a Pennsylvania . . . in fact I met one, while in the neutral zone, and he said "Yeah, about a four hour drive. But life is about moments, you know what I mean?"

This will be one of them.

I'll make it as far as the first of the longer hills before being dropped by the group. I caught up on the down side of the hill, but was tired enough to have a tough time altogether of staying with the main group after that when the next incline begins. The separation is achieved and I began the tour of singleton riding.

http://www.tourofthebattenkill.com/Course%20Map%20MJS.pdf

Later I was passed by two or three fields Cat 3s and Cat 4. Pretty fast groups. One is really small with the wheel car following afterward. Saw no real crashes or mishaps, but learned later at the picnic table that there was one who took a bad fall, was advised by medical / race staff to take an ambulance out of the woods to the hospital. Rider shook them off and got back on the bike and rode!!

Amazing.

Went on through the two feed zones picking up nothing since I had enough. A Jim from New Hampshire and I fought the ferocious wind coming out of the W, it seemed, and S, it seemed, as it appeared to follow us around for an hour and a half staying in our faces. I led and pulled the most, and he almost fell off, but we persevered. He caught up with me later, just before entering Cambridge and crossing the line and pulling much harder than before, said he couldn't precede me across the line after that helping hand offered back in the wind.

Nice guy.

Spectator barriers made it feel like any one of the finishes we watch on television, Versus or Universal Sports, from Italy, France . . . Kind of fun.

I nearly run over a pedestrian watching a cyclist tip over onto the ground, trapped in her pedals by the slow motion due to pedestrians . . . just before the rf id chip clip-off zone. Those babies, we are told, will cost us $200 if we don't turn them in.

Yikes.

3h 45m

http://www.tourofthebattenkill.com/2010ProAmResults.pdf

I stripped of the damp gear, slipped back into jeans and a hoodie, and walked back into town for a look at the pageantry from close-up. Pulled pork sandwich in one hand, ale in the other, I sat down to recuperate. Bought another rider a bottle of water; he was looking a bit shaky, asked for water, was handed one out of a shaved ice-laden barrel then started drinking before he was told it is $1/bottle. He stopped drinking long enough to ask if he can come back and settle. I handed him a green back, and called it even. Our rider was feeling woozy.

My legs felt funny yesterday afternoon, coming home to see Gisele, after five and a half weeks gone from home, but I slept well, and am thinking about a little 30 miler to clear out the ol' lactic acid . . .

A 38 F windy Battenkill this morning!

I was worried this was going to be a wuss Battenkill. Too hot, even. The past several days have been in the 60s and 80 F was registered in town not long ago.

Ha!

It's currently 3 F above freezing in Cambridge, NY, and when I get up out of my chair, pull on my cycling gear, gloves, boot wind covers, and drive up to register in the Cambridge Schools building, it should be much much warmer; perhaps 5 F above freezing. The wind, however, is another story. It will blow WNW nearly all day.

My field leaves at 11:15 am so the wind chill might have backed off a bit, say 38 or 40 F but there will be a beautiful frost rime on everything once we're tooling through the valleys and lanes outside of the village.

Battenkill: http://tourofthebattenkill.com/

Read it and weep.

Filkinos, one of the ResearchRiders of greater renown, has run the race in snow and rain, I believe, and that was when it was earlier in the year.

. . . and a different route with more climbing! America's Queen of the Classics was tougher then and more fun!

We'll see today what it brings for riders.

I will take my gloves, a hat, handkerchief, for those drippy moments, and one more cup of coffee before I leave.

As always, the Battenkill should be fun.

Bracing for full recovery after the 75 miler, I left the lower altitudes and thicker air for the rare, clean and steep heading up onto the Helderberg plateau. The King's Road is in terrible shape; I'm not taking it again . . . if I can help it. The turn at the golf course, brings back memories of getting completely lost with a save from Siavash's PDA. Around the swooping dip on the short connection to cross Route 20 then into the countryside. Past the NY military reserve, up the hill, what a grunt, past the road cuts and shale.

Once past that, into the Voorheesville area, through town, into the approach to New Salem. Right up the hill (20 min) to the State Park sign. The temperature had reached 75 or so and there were tons of folks up at the parking lot next to the overlook. A crew of bikers on motorcycles. Families. Couples. What a Saturday!!

I kept moving along the park road, to Ketchem Rd., then Thompson Lake Rd. to 156 to return downhill at 45 mph to Altamont. Whahooooo.

There's no nice way back, and I take the standard Dunnsville Rd. to Five Corners, thence along Broadway, through town, up Union to home.

What a blast. I'd forgotten how fun that ride really is.

Next week the Battenkill!! Taper!

Spring Classic * 1.5 OR The Amazing 75 miler So Early in the Season

http://sports.webshots.com/slideshow/577212415LKHvpp

For a slideshow of photos taken while out on a 75 miler Friday 2 April 2010. Perfect weather for the trip--48F in the morning at the start: SPAC parking lot in Saratoga Springs, NY. We went west and south to Charlton, north on Division Street to connect with traditional 100miler at Eastern, thence into Greenfield, NY, past the Stewart's Shops. We passed the 'Desolation Lake' sign, turned up the route, but turn right into the northern stretches in rural almost-Adirondacks. . . with warming temperatures and lengthening miles acquired, comfort climbed and speed averaged a bit higher.

At Corinth we turned right onto Stark instead of left to climb West Mountain Rd. We weren't ready for that--it's early in the season, really. On to Main Street, the right to go south to return home! Once we were into it for 65 miles, we were beginning to think 'it's time for this to end, now' . . . soon.

Once back into Milton, we knew we weren't far. Then the familiar sights of Saratoga near the Park. We turn into the park to find it overrun with residents out for sun and a picnic. Not the sight we saw upon launch. The grass is dry, the sun high in the sky, and the air is warm--75F.

A tour through the geyser springs, but no stops at the water sources, brings us back to the car. Still there!! SPAC parking lot is a great spot. No events. No parking tickets!