Yesterday morning I ended up riding a new route with Phil, Brian, and Brett. Phil’s training for a really long ride, something crazy like 750 miles in 92 hours, so he had already ridden 40-something miles when he met us at the Park. The other two guys were new to me. Apparently they’ve got a few other folks at work who also ride, and since they’re out in Grovetown already, they just start from there rather than meeting at the Park for the regularly-scheduled group rides. As an added bonus they start earlier, which means if I went riding with them sometimes I’d probably be able to get home for dinner!
Anyway the new route started out heading to Harlem counter-clockwise, then instead of continuing that loop, you turn right on County Line Road, just before Gordon Highway.
The resulting loop is a really nice 52 miles, with two notably excellent stretches of road. First of all, after turning off County Line Road and heading back towards Appling, the road is pretty rough for a bit, but then transitions to smooth pavement and slightly downhill rollers for a couple miles. This is a section of road where reasonably fit recreational cyclists can feel, for five minutes, what it might be like to be a pro, as you hammer along in a paceline at 30+ MPH. Of course we only manage to keep that pace for five minutes, not five hours, as the downhill rollers end in a short but momentum-sapping hill that returns us to our 15 MPH reality.
For a look at how the real pros ride, check out Levi Leipheimer’s ride up Le Mont Ventoux in the Dauphine-Libere.
I also like this route because I can see a century based on this route by starting out clockwise towards Harlem, then continuing out to Thompson before heading up to the lake. I’ll have to see about getting some folks to give that a try in a few weeks.