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@Dirt 8968 wrote:

It was awesome riding with you, Will. I agree… that path up to 26th street near Marymount was a definite highlight. That was new for this loop. I hadn’t really told anyone that this was being added in.

😎 There’s something about riding through somewhere that cars can’t go. I often take little detours on whatever paths between streets I can find. I go through the George Mason one (Rock Spring Park) on my commute. I’ve found Google Maps is great for finding them.

@jabberwocky 8970 wrote:

It was nice meeting you (and everyone else) on the ride. We had a super group. Things went amazingly smoothly.

Yup, only remember that one flat you had, and a couple of chain drops (managed to conveniently drop mine at the bottom of N Rock Spring Rd next to the country club).

@Dirt 8992 wrote:

Sprinting for KOM points on that ride is pretty much never a good idea.

You kicked ass, Tuba. Great ride. Tallwood is definitely a heartbreaker.

Sprinting – yeah I remember riding up one hill somewhere between Military Rd and Marymount and almost running into the kerb on the right I was so focused on just getting up it.

Just had a quick look at Tallwood on Google Maps. I might have to go on a exploratory ride down to the Lake Barcroft area in prep for this:

@Dirt 8961 wrote:

We’ll do that ride again next year. Today is the first day to start training for it.

and next time I hopefully won’t have a sore arm either (I broke it in early August). I wonder if I need a lower gear still though. I have a compact but I don’t like riding at much < 85rpm and some (a lot) of those hills had me lower than that. I think my cassette is 11-25. I guess I could try 11-28.

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Twas an awesome ride. Second longest ride I’ve done, certainly the most elevation (never had so much upper body soreness after a ride).

When I was a teenager riding around my ‘burbs on my MTB I would always find the steepest hills and design circuits around them. When I first signed up on facebook over 5 years ago, I listed one of my Activities/Interests as “cycling up steep hills in hot weather”. Earlier this year I’d been building similar loops on Google Maps in my spare time at work and emailing myself the maps but I never came up with a finished ride. So when I discovered Pete had already done this with the help of the Kill Bill template I was pretty excited. I couldn’t even sleep the night before the ride.

Many thanks to Pete and Chris for scoping out and leading the ride. Pete, I can’t believe you have almost the whole thing memorized! Amazing group of riders too (nice to meet you all) – there’s no way I could’ve dragged myself over so many hills by myself. Sorry I had to drop out without saying bye properly. I waited at a red light on Old Dominion and Williamsburg for the last one in our group and by the time I reached my turn-off everyone was long gone down Williamsburg. Got home in time to do a family’s worth of laundry, and we have our niece staying with us for the long weekend as well so it was good to not be completely dead today.

I accidentally reset my bike computer at some random interval and I don’t have a bike GPS (I shove my car one in my pocket sometimes), so I just estimated based on the Kill Bill v8a ride. About 68miles, 7000+ ft of climbing.

My favourite parts:
– riding up 41st (near Chain Bridge) with a group
– Tim and Chris racing each other up one of the climbs
– going up the winding paved singletrack near Marymount (been down it before, but never thought to go up)

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Yeah it’s not too accurate. It seems like it ignores bike paths. It had me on Lee Hwy to Lynn St and Key Bridge, never on the Custis.

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Aww man I don’t know if I can. I’d love to but a) I may have family commitments and b) I’m sick right now

Reminds me of what I do on my commutes sometimes for “fun”, except a lot more hellish.

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FWIW, i can only fit a shorter bottle in the second cage on my road bike, and it’s difficult to do while riding. I have a 54cm compact frame.

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Ok I have to admit I’ve had this thread open in a browser tab on one of my work computers for a few weeks as a reminder (I love bbq). Tonight I had the opportunity to do some riding after work (this was after my commute home from DC on my MTB), so I figured I’d go to Carolina Bros. I didn’t check any mileages or anything, just got home, changed clothes, filled a water bottle, changed bikes and rode off. In my mind Ashburn was just one stop after Reston (I forgot about Herndon and Sterling) and I’ve ridden return trips to Reston easily enough, so I wasn’t really prepared. At around the 25 mile marker I was wondering if I would ever get to Carolina Bros. I stopped to check one of the trail maps and was happy to read it was “only” 3 more miles or so.

Anyway, the food was delicious, and I loved the friendly service and the bike-friendly eating area with the racks, and all the stuff they carry (it ALL looked so good when I walked in), and the prices! I had the pulled pork sandwich w/ 2 sides and grabbed a powerade + a couple of granola bars for the return leg. I didn’t expect it to be literally right on the trail. An oasis, and not a mirage. Awesome. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the mac + cheese, sorry Tim. 😎

Then I totally bonked on the way home and it got even worse after sunset (I did bring my lights with me but didn’t anticipate riding with ninjas quite that much). Also I recently switched my saddle back to the original lighter one that came with my bike and it was killing me after about 15 miles. Never using that saddle again. I remember feeling elated when I realised the Gallows Rd crossing was coming up but those last 5 miles still felt like hell and I felt like I was on autopilot riding my bike.

Next time I’ll have to remember Ashburn is a 25 mi ride away… at least a 3 hour return trip. But totally worth it for the BBQ! Next time I’m getting ribs. And something from their ice cream freezer.

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I found myself on the W&OD til 8pm tonight and wow. There are a lot of people with zero lighting and zero reflective material. What the?!

I also had to slow down for a deer at one point and had to brake to allow a squirrel to cross. Eventful evening.

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I have an OnGuard lock and like it for the same reason. The lighted key is nice too but it’s bulkier so I leave that one at home.

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Yeah those sound fun for a “party” group ride sorta thing but the cons of it being heavy on your wheel and the bling of it put it out of my options.

I typically commute in the mornings with a long sleeved bright hi vis orange jersey from Performance, which often gets comments, so I’m sure it’s noticeable. I also have a similar fleece vest I can layer over a dark shell or jacket as it gets colder. I also wear white gloves (cheap softball ones from Target – at least they say “Easton”) year round as I figure it helps with signalling. For lights I currently just have a bog standard Blackburn setup (powered by 4 AAs in front, 2 in back) which works fine for low light, but not for night. Other things I’ll do are attach an extra blinky on my backpocket/backpack, and use one of my many reflective ankle straps – one even has a flashing light built into it.

This will be the first year that I plan to commute deeper into the season (I hate cold). I’ve never been much of a night rider so I recently ordered some LED lights and will see how they go. I will probably also get some reflective tape, and a reflective vest I can overlay for wet weather days.

Incidentally, I did a Contes ride a few Tuesdays ago (my first group ride) and it was pretty dark by the time we made our way back. I was one of a handful in the group who actually had my lights on… is that weird?

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@acc 8492 wrote:

They exist. I almost destroyed one. Over the weekend I rode the Back Roads Century. Around mile 78 I lost my sense of humor. Around mile 81 I encountered a man on a bike playing his calypso music very, very loud. So loud. And I was too tired to pull around him. On we rode, me and Mr. Calypso. Around mile 85, just as I was losing my will to live, the course ran through a few “rolling hills.” There is no such thing as rolling hills when you’re into more than 80 miles of a ride. Fortunately, somewhere along those hills I lost him and his calypso music. Otherwise I might be in jail charged with capital murder. Bottom line: They not only exist, they are very loud.

ann

Hahaha I think I saw this guy quite a few times too. I’m guessing he didn’t stop too much at rest stops because he seemed to be just perpetually pedaling out there on the course regardless of if you’d overtaken him already.

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My choice would be pretty similar to the Salsa Ti mentioned

http://www.lynskeyperformance.com/store/cooper-cx-complete.html
Although I’d rather have Shimano shifting – not a fan of doubletap.

…but I wouldn’t want to lock it up anywhere.

I really like the idea of belt drive and IGH but I think it’ll be awhile before that’s really practical, and I also do use all the gears on my various commuting options. North Arlington is full of hills.

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@americancyclo 8402 wrote:

I admit I bend the rules here and there, but am I wrong to think that riding against traffic on Lee Highway on wet roads is a little bit crazy?

Yep. I’ve seen it quite a bit in general though (not on wet roads in particular), I guess because it’s a downhill there people don’t like to have to go slow on the MUP there and they’re rather ride on Lee Highway against traffic…

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Nice. I did it as well, and it was also my first century. I managed to rope a friend in to ride it with me. Those hills in the last 20 miles or so were quite unkind, especially since my arm is still recovering from my accident in August.

I think I had 3 or 4 of those tomato sandwiches, and 3 boiled potatoes (burned my tongue on every one!). I was surprisingly unsore in the days afterwards – just tired.

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Holy sh*t, 150? I run at around 90-110 on Vittoria Rubino Slick 23s most of the time.

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I got the free pizza deal too, but I’ve never heard of the place before – anyone know if it’s worth visiting?

Anyway this year the date works out nicely because I was definitely going to ride in anyway, to make it easy to attend an after-work happy hour.

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