Last year I stole Tom’s riding goal of hitting 3000 miles. My foray into fatherhood put the kibosh on that pretty quickly. I think I hit 2K but I’m not sure. This year, I wanted to have some sort of similar goal, but knew that 3K was probably going to elude me again. Some folks I knew set out with the goal to ride 180 days of the year and take a picture each time. They have been doing this for a few years, and most of them end up hitting 180 sometime in August. For me, hitting 180 is going to be a stretch. I think at this point, I can miss like 11 days of riding for the rest of the year. When I started out, I didn’t include the 2 mile out and back to the grocery store. Over the Summer, I realized a goal is a goal so I should count them all. Hopefully I’ll make it, a lot of the rides are more like “rides”. Most of the photos are pretty bad, but there are a few gems.
A while ago, I ended up on the Baltimore Ghosts webpage. If you’ve never checked it out, and you are interested in the city, it’s worth a look. The part that really interested me was the section on the different paving types. I got an idea, as I sometimes do, to organize a low-key group ride…Well, kinda low-key.
Since the beginning of June, I have been exploring. I have put together what I think is a fairly good map of the belgian block and cobblestone streets in the city. Next April, I will be letting people know about the 1st B’more Pave’ ride. It will be an informal group ride over as many of the Belgian block streets as possible. It will include streets, alleys, sidewalks, parking lots, walkways, and some other surfaces that aren’t Belgian Block, but are still a little rough on the arms. The ride will be casual, but as bumpy as it gets. Obviously wider tires and suspension forks can take some of the buzz out, so I would encourage people to stick to 700c wheels and rigid forks.
More details to follow, but the general plan for now is to do it on the same day as Paris-Roubaix and end with some sort of Paris-Roubaix viewing party.
Here’s where I need help. I have mapped just over 4 miles of belgian block and cobblestones in the city. But every time I think that there can’t be any more, I run into something else. So I will go ahead and put out an all call.
If you know of a Belgian Block street in the city, drop me a line, or leave a comment. No need to mention the really obvious sections of Fell’s point. I have those covered.
Figured I would try to keep up with this again. I never got a chance to update with info about the 3rd annual Bmore CX Stage Race. The snow got in the way this past Feb so it went off in August. The first year there were 5 attendees. The next year 35. This year was a lot more like the first. Ian, Josh, Wes, Tim, Dave. Ian took it with no problem whatsoever. But what do you expect from a college kid who shows up to an informal race in a skinsuit? This year the stages were: Patterson Park, Riverside Park, Latrobe Park, Federal Hill. 2011 will probably see a return to the Winter.
Here’s a quick vid.
In case you missed the old stuff: Here’s the old blog.
My cx season this year is looking pretty rough. Druid hill ended with a broken saddle and my first true DFL. Botched results have me finishing one lap up, but I’m 100% sure that I was the last rider. It was funny to have people mention the CXmag article. One guy identified himself as one of the sprint for 63rd place racers, and FatMarc yelled at me for being too nice when the field was lapping me (in my defense, once the seat fell off, I was just hoping not to get pulled).
I think for most of the races this year, I will be signing up for the B master’s instead of the Cat 4. There is something to be said for starting an hour later. I guess a lot of races are doing a single speed race inside the B’s so maybe I’ll jump up into those. Last in the B race SOUNDS better than last in the C’s.
I’ll be racing an abbreviated schedule this year. In a few years, maybe I’ll be back to doubling up every weekend, but definitely not now.
October, I’m registered for Hyattsville, Granogue, and DCCX (doubling up at DCCX for the Single Speed race also)
November is full of maybes, but one of them is Easthampton in MA so I will get to see what all this New England business is all about.
December looks pretty much empty from the conventional point of view, but the Baker’s Dozen folks are looking at doing a non-USAC race in December and there’s always Bilenky.
A while ago, I ended up on the 
