@Phil - You drank my beer!

@Yang - calling your name: http://theburgerweek.com/

I need to revive my food/drink ride.  Damn.

^missed it last year, please do!

Is anyone here doing the highland NJ fondo June 8th?... I signed up for the 100 mile one but might switch to 60 miles...

Not an organized ride, but looks like a ringer can, uh, supplement their income by winning these roller "races":

http://gothamist.com/2014/07/10/beach_fossils_babys_all_right_nyc_c.php#photo-1

On Tuesday, Levi's kicked off the month with an opening party to celebrate their new Commuter line, so we stopped by to check it out. We indulged in some fried chicken, listened to some surf rock, and perused the Levi's® Commuter merch on display. Check out the gallery above and our rundown below for what we saw.

GOLDSPRINT TOURNAMENT WITH LEGIT PRIZES

Maybe the biggest hit of the party was a preview of Drop Crank Society's Sprint Sundays, a stationary Goldsprint roller race taking place each Sunday the workspace is open. Held on Tokyobike demo bikes, contestants compete in heats for awesome prizes: a Tokyobike for first place, a $1,000 Levi's® gift card for second, and a set of Knog cycling lights for third and fourth.

For those who prefer having an official long ride, the Ramapo Rally is coming up August 17, same day as Danbury.

mugwump said:

For those who prefer having an official long ride, the Ramapo Rally is coming up August 17, same day as Danbury.

One of these years, I'm going to check this out.

http://ramaporally.btcnj.com/

I've done it twice and it's a pretty nice hilly ride with great food support throughout.

Not sure if it belongs here, but Summer Streets are back:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets/html/route/route.shtml

I'm signed up for the ENY 100 mile on 9/20 if anyone wants to join up! Will probably leave on the early side and keep a good pace, so that I don't miss out on all the food (per the warnings above).

Donut Derby is back: https://www.bikereg.com/the-ccap-donut-derby

It is Oct 25 and conflicts with one day of Marty Cross. I'll be there and already booked my stay.

Hey Margaret,

Scott. Are you doing the century this weekend. If you are let me know if you want ride together. Two of my friends are riding. They are much slower but I guess we could all just enjoy the ride.

I've mentioned to a few of you, I'm doing a charity ride this week which is rather awesome. I'm riding from Venice to Rome, Italy. It's just shy of 400 miles and I'll be riding it in four days. In keeping with the fact that it is a charity ride, I am fundraising for a charity. Figuring that I'm cycling, I like cycling and this is a cycling club, I am raising funds for World Bicycle Relief. If you are so inclined (please don't fee compelled) you can learn more and donate on my fundraising page here: http://fundraise.worldbicyclerelief.org/craig-zolan

I'll post updates on that page's blog and likely on FB too.  

I'll provide a formal "race" report when I get back to the US.

Here is the story of the Venice to Rome trip and a link to a photo album at the end. This was written for non-cyclists originally and I've tried to insert a few facts that are more relevant for the club. I should note that the ability level of the riders was extremely varied. There were guys who clearly rode in clubs in various cities around the world - London, Amsterdam, Paris, etc. I didn't ride with them. There were 125 people riding from my company from 14 or 15 offices around the world. The bulk of the people were from London or some of our smaller European offices. A few spouses / significant others came too.

Made it to London from NY. Only a couple of hours of sleep on the flight. Showered in the BA lounge. Got my luggage and off to Gatwick to fly to Italy. You'd think I could get a flight to Venice from Heathrow.

Was in Venice and went out to dinner with a few folks. Couldn't get to sleep because of jet lag and a snoring roommate. Wound up getting at most 4 hours of sleep the night before we started out. First day's ride is 110 miles long. (After having only slept about 2 hours night before on plane)

GPS tracking of Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/342562230/

I was exhausted but only because I got 4 hours of sleep. It was flat but winds didn't make it a Sunday stroll. Rode with different groups of differing strength and ability throughout the day. Got held up at two train crossings during the day. Finished in Ravenna, a cute little city. I strolled around and got a slice of pizza before taking a brief snooze prior to going out to to get more pizza with a few people and then out to dinner. A common theme here will be eating - if only to ingest calories for fuel.

Day two wasn't much better. Suffering from insomnia after 2 exhausting days in Italy. Day 2 was about 98 miles with a Cat 2 mountain pass followed by a Cat 1 mountain pass.  The Cat 1 pass was 6.7 miles (11km) of climbing a 7% avg grade with no let up at all. It was over 11,000 feet of climbing on the day, which is just shy of half of the climbing for the entire trip. I did enjoy the descent on the back side. On the descent, I made a point to go fast and not ride the brakes since I was on carbon clinchers. At one point I stopped on the descent because my speed on the Garmin wouldn't go over 38.5mph. I wanted to make sure that my brakes weren't rubbing and they weren't. In hindsight, I think it was the speed sensor acting up as basically 38.5 was the top speed for all 3 days that had significant descents. Considering I go over 40 on short hills around here, it must have been off. I'd also say that the direct pull brakes on my propel are harder to modulate than standard calipers. There was plenty of braking force just more difficult to feather which was particularly important as one is flying down the mountain. I suffered at the end due to not eating enough. It's tough to replace the 3000 - 4000 calories burned during each days' ride. I have a new found respect for the riders of the Tour de France and the other grand tours who ride these distances day after day after day at race pace. I got a few aches and pains after this day that are new to me and some that I'm all too familiar with. On the plus side, the countryside is a lot nicer in Tuscany.

Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/344859207

Day 3 was both beautiful and utter misery. We rode 88 miles from Arrezo to Orvieto. The countryside was gorgeous and the route not too difficult ~6,500 ft of climbing. I woke with aches and pains I haven't had cycling before - Achilles' tendon pain and pain in the tendons behind my knees. The saddle height on my bike was screwed with by the mechanic here so that was likely the cause. I thought seriously about riding part of the distance and pulling out so as not to further injure myself. I lowered the saddle height and slogged on. The temperature reached well into the 90s and 100s and that is what made the day so tough. As we neared Orvieto the temperature rose above 100. The max temp on my Garmin was 117 sitting in the sun. It felt like a furnace, particularly at one point where the road traveled under a high speed rail line. As we approached Orvieto we began cursing once we saw the cliffs that ringed the town and knew that we had to climb some road in order to get up to the town. Prior to doing so, they guy I was riding with and I stopped in a café at a gas station and had an nice cold iced tea and coke and listened to 80s rock videos on the TV. We managed to get to the town.  One more day with not a lot of climbing but the heat was expected to stay.

Day 3: https://www.strava.com/activities/344859180 (not full ride because I forgot to start tracking at the beginning and then the battery died at the end)

The fourth day was 95 miles from Orvieto to Rome. The day started out cool, especially as we descended the hilltop town, low 60s, a welcome relief from the day before. The easy cycling lasted all of ten minutes as we hit our first climb of the day. It was a 2 mile 5% grade with more, less arduous, climbing to follow.  I stopped to take some photos of Orvieto from a distance. Really a remarkable site to see the ancient hilltop / cliff ringed town. Once the first climbing of the day was done we continued on to the first rest stop of the day around mile 29 which was in the town of Bagnaia. A very cool little town where I was first introduced to the wonders of the Roman empire. Our stop was in a little town square with a S.P.Q.R water fountain. Free, cold and drinkable water is so enjoyable when the temperature is heating up. After fueling up on a lot of cantaloupe and other fruit we set out of town. The route led us up a short steep cobble stone street. I was thinking that it was just a short little climb out of town and it would level off. I was wrong. It was 2.5 miles at 6% avg with short ramps with grades in the mid teens. We waited for the group to get back together and headed down. We spotted a food truck and one of the guys really needed a coke so we stopped. Since I'm a fan of food trucks, I had to get a porchetta sandwich. It may have been the best food I had all trip. In addition, I credit feeling as good as I did on the fourth day to that sandwich. While I waited at the top of each subsequent climb, I took out that sandwich and ate a few bites. It was salty protein and carb goodness.

After that sandwich truck, there was a short descent and then another mile plus climb. At least this one was well paved. Some local guy was cruising on up so I drafted off of him for a bit and caught a ride. When he stood to put a little extra kick in, I decided I'd let him go and continued the ascent at my pace. The descent was fun and fast. It was on this descent I had my one and only mechanical - a dropped chain. I couldn't get it back on while coasting so I came to a stop and got on in a flash. We ultimately came to a little lake side village and stopped in a supermarket and got some frozen ices. After cooling down, it was on to lunch. We put one guy in a refrigerated truck to cool him down and when he refused to stop after our mini intervention telling him to stop because of heat exhaustion / dehydration, we carried on at a relaxed pace to Rome. Along the way one of my riding buddies got a puncture and I helped him out with it. Just as we were about to start pumping it up with a mini pump one of the support vans drives up and asks if we need help. We ask for the floor pump, he jumps out and pumps up the tire. As we waiting for him to do that, we noticed that there were 5 people in the van being ferried ahead to the next water stop. They didn't like my joke when I asked if it was the party bus. The ride to Rome was hot, about 102 on a 10 mile long red bike path.

Day 4: https://www.strava.com/activities/344859213

All told we rode about 390 miles over the 4 days with more than 25,000 feet of climbing. I've got one injury to my Achilles' tendon that still hurts a bit. Trying to rest it but at the same time take advantage of the form that I now have.

To those of you who contributed to the charity, thank you very much. It's the first time I've ever done a charity fund raising event before and it is personally rewarding. For those still interested, you can contribute here: http://fundraise.worldbicyclerelief.org/craig-zolan

Here is a link to the photo album. https://www.flickr.com/gp/10888894@N05/0qh1E7

I got 45 mins of sightseeing in on Monday morning in Rome and then took in a couple of sights in London once I arrived here. Those are contained in the photo album too.

Craig

Two Words

Farmer's Daughter Gravel Grinder

Put this on your calendar for next year, a truly spectacular ride that crushes souls and sears pain into your legs. It is up in Columbia County just this side of Albany, making it a breeze to get to. You dear reader as "it is a week before the venerable Battenkill, so why should we bother with another dirt ride?" 

Oh dear reader, this isn't like Battenkill, just a road race on dirt roads, where tire selection is do I go with 25mm or 23mm slicks, because your riding roads. This has roads, trails, wallows and tracks, that require tire selection decision making on a CX race level, without the ability to quickly pre-ride before selecting, as well as levels of bike handling and skill that something like Battenkill cannot match. The course is a decent bit hillier than Battenkill, but more importantly those hills are steeper and frequently on singletrack, trails and somewhat maintained dirt roads. This may have been particularly hard, because of the rain the preceding couple of days meant that much of the trail riding was muddy slop and my file treads were not gripping, so slipping and spinning was part of the fun. 

Directions were excellent, and even at some of the more challenging areas full on course marshals, which at times were vital when transitioning from a road to the recently formed goat track that the organizers selected for the next segment, which would have been difficult to discern from the surrounding woods without their help. 

For all their sadism in course selection they organizers made up for it with quality and quantity of the food at the two aid stations, which were stocked with an excellent selection of foods to keep you rolling. 

I would highly recommend if you like gravel rides, and hard days on the bike.

This was passed on to me through a friend - group ride for a good cause: 

Join in our inaugural annual ride on September 17, 2016 and help to raise consciousness and money for Action for Healthy Kids- a 501(c)3 focused on mobilizing school professionals, families and communities to take actions that lead to healthy eating, physical activity and healthier schools where kids thrive. 

http://www.lifecyclebiking.com/annualcyclingcircuit/

Additionally, life cycle appears to have some pretty classy bike accessories...

Hey all, I'm participating in a charity ride through my company for CT Challenge an organization that provides therapy and recovery services for cancer survivors in Connecticut and general New England region.  Any donations would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.2016ctchallenge.org/davidyang

Anyone interested in doing the Farm to Fork Fondo in the NY Hudson Valley on Sun 6/26?

http://www.usacycling.org/events/index.php?event=501 

John, my wife and I are doing the medio fondo which I assume is the garden to salad fork sized ride.  

@Dan Reiners, that seems like the likely route for me too...not a fan of 100km+ rides. Even those w rainbow chard at the finish line instead of pb & jelly

Not sure if there is a better forum for this, so I will place it here:

I'm looking to plan a route from Brooklyn to Bayshore on my roadie.  I'd like to ride east on the the North Shore until the point I need to head south and go cross island to Bayshore.

I'm guessing this would be a 60 - 80 mile ride.  

Any suggestions?  I think finding a decent North Shore route shouldn't be too hard, but I don't have a clue where to start on going south.

Comments appreciated.

cannot speak for East of Jamaica Bay/ JKF, but the marine pkwy bridge to rockaway beach blvd will get you to the Atlantic & like 20% of the trip

strava heatmaps are your friend.

Ok, I know it is 3 months away but I've signed up for D2R2 on August 20th. One of the hardest days on a bike you will ever have. Come join the pain and suffering.

@Dan Reiners Looks like a blast. If there's room in a car headed that direction I'd love to join

@Dan Reiners
which distance and which bike will you be using? 

I might be interested.

I signed up for the 100km and I plan on using a road bike with compact crank and as wide a cassette as I can fit with my derailleur, and definitely cx pedals/shoes. The thing is you can kind of decide what kind of distance you want to do the day of, but I hear the 100km is the most interesting scenery/route wise. I can't really imagine doing the 180k because it is something like 12+ hours of some of the most punishing riding you can do.