C'dork's Friday ride guide

Some rides are the ones you make the most of, others are just inspirations. It's unlikely cycledork will get out tomorrow to enjoy the route presented here. Cycledork and the scientist are going to a wedding in Lincolnton that will mean leaving cycledork central during early afternoon — peak riding time for January — at the latest. The good news is the 'dork may be able to get out Sunday. If you get a chance I hope you enjoy the route. It's on my list for the near future even if I only do my favorite 40 miler Sunday.

One down, 11 to go

As I believe is mentioned previously, cycledork accepted the "2007 Metric Century a month Challenge" posted in the Cycling Plus forums. Predictably the plan is to use many weekend rides over the next year to meet this challenge. So expect to see maps for 100k rides, such as those posted the last couple of weeks, in the Friday Ride Guide. That said, it may become habitual that the trip described in the Friday Ride Guide is not the one that occurs in the two days following. Readers may recall that on Friday, CD mapped out an ambitious, 78+ mile route that would go through parts of five counties. What actually happened is that on Saturday cycledork took the trip described the week before.
Regardless of the route, I got in 65.6 miles in about 3.5 hours of riding time. It was a gorgeous day here even if a tad breezy. Dozens of cyclists were out. Lots of them seemed to have flats but when questioned said their situations were under control. I also got to meet Pete and Mark at the Wilsonville General Store, the popular cyclists' oasis, gas station and bait shop at the intersection of U.S. 64 and Farrington Road. Anyway it may be another month or two, until the days are noticeably longer, before any long ride I outline is the one I actually go on that weekend. My sympathies to cycling brethren and sistren in the UK who get even less than we do here.
Note: while preparing the second map, I was unable to compel GoogleMaps to find the actual location of Pea Ridge Road so the route description shorts me about 3.8 miles. However, in the first map it found the correct road. If anyone can offer any insight into this situation I would appreciate it.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: meet Sheldon Brown's website

As some of you know, I've been spending time lately in the forums of U.K.-based cycling magazine Cycling Plus. While there I keep seeing references to Sheldon Brown and his website. So, cycledork asked, who is this Brown dude? It turns out Brown is a Massachusetts resident (I love going overseas to learn about domestic resources) with many interests, including bicycles. Looking it over gives me comfort that cycledork won't have to reinvent these wheels. The site's many offerings range from a glossary to a gear calculator that tells everything from gear inches to speed in a selected at a selected cadence. Very dorkish and thus very cool.

C'dork's Friday ride guide

We'll confirm that the weather's supposed to be sunny in the morning since the 'dork is thinking about going long, or at least longer, this weekend. This route, an extension of last week's unfinished fantasy, would take in bits and pieces of Wake, Harnett, Lee, Chatham and Durham counties over about 78 miles. Part of the incentive is that it would discharge a twelfth of my pledge on the Cycling Plus forum to ride a metric century per month this year.

Where's on your list?

The Guardian's online travel section proclaims the Top 10 bike rides of the world. There are a few here I want to bag for my life list: going into Grand Teton National Park along U.S. 287, Lolo Pass and Alpe d'Huez. A bunch of the others sound pretty cool too. For much longer than the three years I've been cycling seriously I've thought biking Norway would be a blast. That could just the call of my Viking ancestors. And there are several others I'd never heard of but now want to learn more about. Inexplicably, my favorite ride, Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park, was not included.

One man's resolution can be another's challenge

But cycledork is just worried about have three free day-light hours every 30 days or so to complete the 12 missions. I attested earlier this evening that I will complete at least one 100-kilometer, or 62.5-mile, ride per month. This pledge resides nestled deeply in the online forums of Cycling Plus magazine. I don't yet subscribe to the hard copy of this U.K.-based publication but I have a feeling that day is coming soon. The C+ forum is more vigorous and seemingly more populist than the forums of its U.S. counterpart Bicycling, the web version of the American general-interest cycling mag (that I subscribe to already). Anyway, my pledge to pedal shouldn't be a problem. I expect December, because there is so little light, to be the most challenging month to squeeze in those miles in an afternoon. That's not for another 11 months. But as I said at C+, check here to see if hold up my end.

How it turned out

I was able to get in rides yesterday and today after all. There was a little mist while I was out in the middle of nowhere but the rain so confidently predicted by my favorite source for weather information never materialized. Neither ride was the jaunt CD's Friday Ride Guide envisioned. Instead Saturday's and Sunday's rides were truncated versions of Friday's vision. I just had to feel like a champ on Farrington Road before I turned at Hollands Chapel Road.

Like so many weekends this one did not turn out as planned. A friend who's covered my butt called and needed help moving Saturday. My only questions were where and when. The two hours — don't get me wrong, they were well spent helping a friend — were hours originally planned for the 2100. But we haven't been on the back side of the solstice long enough for that benefit to show up in terms of noticeably increased light for weekend rides. With threats of rain for today, I figured Saturday's ride would wrap up 2006 for cycledork. The predicted rain still hadn't started by 1 p.m. Sunday so I pulled myself together and cranked it out at a little more than 19 mph.

I bought a new cycle computer in early June. The odometer reading after I got in today was 2,456. That's about 100 miles per week and factors in three weeks when, for a variety of reasons, I did not ride at all. But after May 15, when I went to work I rode a bike every day except two: May 22 and June 14. On the first of those days I got a flat down the street from cycledork central so I took the easy way out by coming back to headquarters and getting in the car. On the second, as Tropical Storm Alberto came through, it was clear to me I was unequipped to deal with the weather. I have both worked and spent to equip myself properly since and the work is still in progress. We're all familiar with cycledork's aversion to wet feet, the miraculous arrival of the secret weapon and the plusses and minuses of various rain pants (don't be surprised if a rain-pants review shows up soon).

So what's the payoff for all of this, particularly over the last seven months and the miles? It's that cycledork's healthier than he has been in my adult life. I'm a rock and my doctor gushes when he reviews my lab results. It's a finger to an employer's auto-insurance requirements so subtle it will likely never be noticed. It's everything learned about how to ride and how to commute, two related but separate activities. And it's the rush — the only ones cycledork's had that are better are sex and skiing. See you on the road.