Got to go to the Lexus Velodrome in Detroit this week! I was there for a work conference that I opted into strictly so I could ride there. It was an incredible experience. It was a little scary at first but felt so cool once you get the hang of it. Really highly recommend going there if you ever find yourself in the shit hole that is Detroit. 

Visited my niece and family in Tucson AZ for thanksgiving. Super bike friendly area. My Airbnb was all bike themed. I skipped riding up Mt Lemmon as I didn’t have the time nor the fitness, but I did ride the gravel bike I rented at honeybee canyon - a fun Mtn bike trail through the cacti. 

@PatrickGrehan  How is the Trailforks app?  My initial look at it made me feel there wasn't much in the ways of trails to follow.

mugwump said:

@PatrickGrehan  How is the Trailforks app?  My initial look at it made me feel there wasn't much in the ways of trails to follow.

The Trailforks app is awesome , a must have for local MTB trails 

Mark Taylor said:

mugwump said:

@PatrickGrehan  How is the Trailforks app?  My initial look at it made me feel there wasn't much in the ways of trails to follow.

The Trailforks app is awesome , a must have for local MTB trails 

How do you use it?  Do you check out routes ahead of time and put them on your computer, or is it more for actively choosing a trail when you're in the midst of a ride?  Both?

I use it to pick locations to ride , 
I stop and look for options on the trail if I’m “lost” 
I don’t put it on my head unit 

I use it the same way that Mark does. I haven’t dug into it deeply, but I don’t think there is a way to move gps data to the head unit 

I’ve barely used it, but a couple of times, I have used it to then draw a part of a route in ride with gps — since rwgps now has firemaps is easy to see where people ride trails, so it has lessen my need of other apps 

Single tracks is partners with wahoo etc , so you can send to your head unit , I don’t like the app as much , and it was too small for me to see on the trails with old man eyes
trail forks isn’t available to send to your wahoo

Fat Bike Birkie, 2023 edition.

Good times, fast snow. Got a foot of snow last night and another one due today; the trip back was far more Braaap than the race itself

@Jules
     Your helmet screams time trial.

Ski helmet & goggles

Mark T, Greg H and I and heading to Flanders. Today!

I’m sitting in an airport lounge as I am writing this. Hoping for an adventure without too many mishaps. We will ride the Flanders cyclosportive Saturday and watch the giants battle at the Ronde!

wish us luck (and good riding weather)!

Good luck. Send photos!!

Amazing experience , fantastic company , 3days of proper Flandrian  riding , wet ,windy and epic ,we all made it up the cobbled climbs in the wet , Greg smashed them all ,Patrick did his trade mark attack in the gutter on the Taaienberg.
lets go back with a group !



l

@Mark Taylor
@PatrickGrehan
@GregHoge

Stories?  16,000 plus cyclists, but it doesn't look crowded.  How were the hills?  The food?  Medals?  Weird swag?  

And de Ronde itself.  Did you go to the start in Brugge?  Any rally efforts around the course or was it all berg top biergarten?

The sportive had 16,000 riders with a rolling start , we picked numbers up the day before at a giant expo, 
super well organized , lots of riders out on the roads , but no massive large groups , I personally was a little intimidated by the course , so decided to not hammer the flats, Greg hits the climbs pretty hard ,while Patrick and myself road our own pace , his a little faster than mine , to be honest the downhill cobble sections were some of the most challenging aspects of the coarse and the previous 2 days riding had taken a toll on our bikes , both Patrick and myself finished essentially without brakes and Greg with out his front derailleur .
Food stops were well stocked with fruits , sandwiches and  waffles, but the high light was the double expressos and rest stop 2 
We had excepted not to be able to ride the Koppenburg , which is bonkers steep , but we all did and then after cresting the Paterburg successfully, Patrick kicked on and dropped us on the flat run in .


 
Day of the race we drove towards the kwaremont with out a plan , parked up by the road side and took a shuttle bus up to the hill ,picked a spot against the wall chatted with locals , One lady was Sep Vanmarcke's cousin , the guy on the other side , Ties Benoit's fiancé lived on his street , 
We then walked to the Paterburg to watch the last two passes over it ,Watched the finish on the big screen (everybody clapped when Pojacar won , Belgium's like him , because he attacks and earns his wins , they don't like Roglic).
Then back to watch the women fly over the Kwaremont , then home through the massive crazy Euro techno party in the square .

Living the dream boys!

Other details about our trip to Flanders

While some people take vacations at the beach with a drink in hand, we went riding up steep bergs, in the rain, on cobbles for 6+ hours with thousands of MAMILS. Plus we paid for this privilege. Sounds crazy, right? It was totally worth it. Below are pics from my GoPro. When I get to it I'll post some video segments 

Day 1: Thursday - the warm up
Prior to the trip JP had put me in touch with a former teammate, Scott Steward, who recommended we rent a van and made route suggestions. We stayed in Kortrijk which is 20 minutes away from Oudenarde (start/finish of the cyclosportive and finish of Ronde). We landed early Thursday morning and picked up our nine person Mercedes van. We took out the third row seats and stored them in the hotel. The van made traveling with bikes a breeze. Once we checked in and prepped our bikes we started with a relatively easy ride along the river that ended with a search for some of the major Bergs. We were using Google maps to find the climbs and made a few wrong turns.





Once we hit the Koppenberg we got to experience how slippery the cobbles can be when wet. Fortunately they were mostly dry and the heavens didn't open up (briefly) until the decent of the climb. 



After some missteps we eventually found the the Kwaremont and Paterberg. 

 

On the way back we got to see the Citroen display that had been set up for Dwars (or was it E3)? 

Day 2: Friday - here comes the rain

The forecast for Friday was all rain, so we waited until later in the day to ride in hopes that the skies would clear. They didn't. We ate, went to the Ronde museum, went to a bike shop as Greg needed a new cassette, picked up our numbers before heading off to the Muur and Bosberg (which we were not on our 144K Cyclosportive route).





Between our jet lag and the fact that it gets dark after 8pm in Belgium we didn't realize that we had a late start and got nervous as we finished our loop shortly before sunset. 





The Muur and Bosberg were surprisingly climbable in the wet. We were nervous about the Koppenberg in the wet, but given how "doable" Friday's ride was we were primed for Saturday... with the exception that we wanted to get to the event around 7am and nothing would be open for breakfast Saturday morning. We went on a hunt for a grocery store/supermarket that would be open after 8pm. Guess what? There aren't any. We even drove to a 24 hours supermarket that was closed... open 24 hours, but not in a row? We were saved by a small bodega/liquor store that had some eggs, milk and cereal

Day 3: Saturday - the big day

The cyclosportive was really well organized and had a great vibe. So many cyclists spread over so many miles. The first hour was relatively dry, but it rained lightly throughout the most of the ride. This wasn't as bad as it sounds except for when we started feeling cold when we stopped at rest stops. Also it meant that my GoPro pics were often too blurry to use (I had it attached to my computer mount). 




There were too many examples of public urination despite warnings








A bit blurry, but Greg is flying up the Koppenberg while others are walking. We were all happy to have ridden all the wet cobbled climbs without having needed to dismount



Harder than it looks


This  guy rode the event on a classic fixed gear bike. Ouch!

Greg imitating Wout's "it gives you wings" celebration at a RedBull stop. 


We finished at the same location as the Ronde. 



We ended up briefly on the official We Ride Flanders Instagram story later that day. 

Day 4: Sunday - the Ronde

For the Ronde we made our way to the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg. Lots of bike fans and many more party goers enjoying belgian brews. 



Front row to the break and peloton just other the massive crash




Then we headed to the Paterberg for the next two circuits






We headed back to the Kwaremont to see the women's race. I wasn't able to get good shots of that race, but found the crowds fascinating



I would do this trip again. So should you

I think @PatrickGrehan and @Mark Taylor summed up our weekend of de Ronde pretty well.  Cobbles are fun, waffles make great ride snacks, and the Muur is the best climb.



I had the pleasure of staying around for Roubaix.  In the week in between I would be staying around in Kortrijk, so I wanted to give the Flandrien Challenge (https://www.cyclinginflanders.cc/flandrien-challeng) a shot.  I woke up, Monday switched my stuff over to my Airbnb, and headed out on a train to Ypres for the first batch of climbs.  I have a passing interest in early 20th century history and knew Ypres was a major area during WWI.  What I didn't realize was that this route would be taking me through battlefields, passed countless memorials, and right by the trenches.  Amazing ride and really put cycling in prospective.  

No riding on Tuesday. I had to fix a constant clicking I was getting in my drive train the day before which turned out to be a derailleur hanger with a stripped out screw.  My solution: epoxy it in place.  It'll hold, right?

This held up through most of Wednesday when I went for a long 6 hour ride for more bergs.  Then I woke up Thursday feeling under the weather.  Decided to relax and rest until the next big day on Saturday.  I also re epoxied the hanger in place.  




Since Roubaix is a one- way course, Saturday was an early wake up of 3am to catch a 5am shuttle down to Busigny.  I finally kicked off at 715 to start my journey through Hell.  170km with all 29 cobbled sectors. I had 1 goal: ride the cobbles the whole way through each sector. The first 20km or so we were flying - ~25mph.  Then it started.  The first sector was a shock to the system.  The second... not too bad... By the fourth I was questioning why anyone would pay to do this...  Around 40km (or was it 40 miles..  It's all a blur) we pass under some train tracks.  There's speed obstacles going in to slow cyclist down.  Apparently there were also speed bumps too but I didn't see them; which is probably my I ended up going over my bars.  I picked myself up, dragged my bike out into the light and assessed the damage: bent hanger, derailleur in crash mode, and banged up left shoulder.  I did the best I could with the bike stuff and was pleasantly surprised when riding wasn't causing much pain in the shoulder despite not being able to lift my arm.  Standing and riding was a no go though.  

The sectors went on.  With each one my hands got more and more sore.  Then I looked to my left: abandoned mine shafts.  That meant one thing: the Arenburg Trench.  To call this a road would be the overstatement of the century.  It's more akin to stones smashed into the earth that just happen to be close enough together that vehicles can travel over them.  The first half is deceptively quick with it's slight downhill providing momentum.  Dodging slower riders was the real challenge here though (and through just about every sector).  Also the temptation to hop over to the nice paved path that runs adjacent to the trench and is used by normal, sane people for riding their bikes.  The end was sweet, sweet relief.  I can feel my hands vibrating for the next mile.  We ride on.

At this point we still have 100km left.  There's only 5-10km between sectors.  They just keep coming.  In my disillusioned state I manage to miss the second of 3 rest stops.  Luckily I had enough water and food to barely make it to the last one but I was very under fed by the end of the ride.  The last few sector were a blur.  Nothing crazy like the Trench, but I was still grateful when we rolled on the smooth tarmac at the end of each one.

Finally we hit that last "ceremonial" sector before the velodrome.  That shit felt as bad as all the others.

Riding the velodrome was pretty cool.  It was first time, so that's neat but they only let us do half a lap.



Afterwards, I headed start for the med rent to have my shoulder looked at.  In my non-existent French and their broken english we determined it is likely not broken.  More icing and heating for me... Yay!

I wish I had stayed for the womens finish since it was epic, but being exhausted and in a lot of pain I chose to head back and watch on GCN.  Sunday was much the same.

While I loved the misery and consistent history of Roubaix, I thought the Ronde sportive was a better experience.  Better organization, better snacks (this is what really matters), and better company.  

I am going to be spending more time/splitting my time in Brazil, and this may be a long shot, but does anyone know any cyclists in São Paulo or any cycling clubs out there?

I am trying to get the lay of the land, some people to ride with and understand how to stay safe while riding in São Paulo.

(not sure if this is the right thread)

I'm traveling to the Midwest this week for work. Bringing my bike along only cost me $30 (the lady first told me it would be $130, turned out my case was 2 pounds overweight, putting my clothes and shoes in my carryon was a very easy way to save money). On Thursday, I'll race the Des Moines Midweek Criterium. I'll miss the Prospect Park hill in the last km, but it should be fun.  

Recently I went to Berlin for work and rented a Canyon endurance bike from a local triathlete with a startup bike rental business. 

Perfect day to spend a Friday up in Vermont

So much awesome!