Occoquan and Yates Ford

I wanted to swing by the village of Occoquan, despite it being in the middle of a traffic choke point in the north of the county.  After enduring six miles on the sidewalks of Minnieville Road (a road I am not yet prepared to bike on) and a brief stay on Old Bridge Road, I turned onto Tanyard Hill Road and began a fast descent into the town.  I wish I knew this road a little better because the descent is very steep and you could fly down it if you knew what you were doing.  Instead, I tapped on the brakes and kept my speed around 30 mph.  After crossing through the city, I hopped on the bridge which I commute to work on every day.  It affords a great view of the town.

After enjoying the view, I had to climb out of the valley and proceed north into Fairfax County.  There is a nice bicycle path on Rte 123 that for some odd reason switches from the west side to the east side of the road, causing a cyclist to wait patiently for a light to change.  In any event, I crossed the street and pedaled another three miles to Hampton Road, where I once again crossed over Rte 123 and headed westward over some very hilly terrain.  These were smaller hills than the annoying ones on Rte 1 from Fredericksburg.  There was far less traffic, more turns, and more trees to further add to the enjoyment.  During one very steep downhill, I reached 40 mph (ok it was 39.9 mph, but that doesn’t sound as good as 40 mph, does it?).  Incredibly, it was at this point that a dope in a Ford F-150 crossed a double yellow line and passed me in this 35 mph zone.  He gets the Idiot of the Ride award. 

A few miles later I was on another descent and saw a sign warning of a sharp turn and a recommendation to reduce speed to 10 mph.  I knew that couldn’t be good for me.  Sure enough, after completing my turn I confronted a 23% grade hill.  That one almost broke me.  Almost.  I dropped down to my lowest gear (aka “The Granny Gear”), stood up on my pedals and forced myself up the slope.  Fortunately, it was only a couple hundred yards long.  You can see this point in my Garmin ride stats.  It’s when my speed briefly dropped to 1 mph.  Yeah, it was pretty tough.

Soon, it was time to return to Prince William County via Yates Ford.  I took a break on the bridge and snapped this photo of the Occoquan River, about eight miles upstream from the previous bridge picture.

After climbing out of the river valley for the second time this ride, I hopped on the path next to the Prince William Parkway and made my way home.  I came across a man riding his horse and politely slowed to walking speed so I didn’t spook the animal.  I told him he was much smarter than I about choosing his mode of transportation – his looked much easier!

As I closed into my neighborhood, I saw a familiar face: my wife was finishing up a four mile walk.  She had planned on running, but since she jogged yesterday and the heat was over 90 degrees (again), she opted for the power walk.  I rode alongside her for about half a mile until she shooed me off.  I pedaled home and was waiting for her with a glass of cold water. 

A pretty good ride, but I don’t think I’ll be heading in this direction again anytime soon.  The traffic is just too crazy on Minnieville Road!

Vacation Means More Riding

I’m taking the week off from work.  This should allow me to get a few extra miles in and keep up with the visitor totals a while longer! 

Today’s ride was a relatively quick 25-miler in wonderful conditions.  It was overcast and a mere 78 degrees, which I discovered was far easier to ride in than the sunny mid-90s weather of the past few weeks.  I traveled over a route I took a couple of months ago and once again was impressed by how much easier the ride was for me than in my previous effort.

To the kid in the red mustang who screamed at me as he flew past, you’re a loser.

On my way back, I took a quick pic of the bicycle path on Rte 234.  I spend a portion of virtually every ride on this path and have neglected to include a shot of it.  You have my profound apologies.  I also apologize for including garbage in the photo.  The path is actually fairly clean.  Oh well!

The Dope I Passed This Morning

While driving to work this morning, I passed a bicycle commuter.  Life as a bicycle commuter in Northern Virginia is hard.  Its harder when you’re stupid.  The guy I passed was riding a road bike and was fully-decked out in cycling gear.  Very cool.  He was peddling along Minnieville Road – a four lane road JAMMED with rush hour traffic.  There is absolutely no shoulder on this road – just a gutter and a curb.  I wondered how this guy would manage staying upright as the traffic became bumper to bumper at a stoplight.  The answer was simple – he just swerved from the gutter-side of the street between two cars and onto the dashed line seperating two lanes.

And all the while doing this, the guy was wearing earphones.  I didn’t have my camera with me, so I grabbed some stock footage just to jazz up this post, but you get my drift.  He was wearing an iPod holder on his arm in the manner common amongst walkers and joggers.  So while executing dangerous manuevers in rush-hour traffic in limited visibility, our hero was jamming to Lady Gaga, his favorite cycling podcast or Lord-knows-what. 

He’s lucky he didn’t end up like this.

It is generally understood by most cyclists that automobiles are trying to kill them.  Cyclists are extremely disadvantaged in the contest between car and bike, so I can’t imagine why anyone would further disadvantage himself by removing one of his senses. 

iPod has added fuel to the fire by marketing a handlebar mount.  The advert innocently depicts an iPod being used as a GPS, with no headphones attached.  I suspect the actual number of cyclists who use this product SOLELY in this configuration is a number approaching zero.

I read about cyclists who enjoy listening to music while they ride.  As for me, I would prefer to hear what is going on around me.  The roads in Northern Virginia are particularly nasty, but even on the trails, I would like to hear the occassional “Passing on your left.”  Someone may only utter a phrase like, ”Excuse me, Sir, but the bridge is out around the bend!” once every 20 years, but when it is said to me I’d like to hear it.

Getting Technical

 

As I browse various ride announcements, I usually see a description of the course – something like, “moderate level of difficulty with rolling hills.”  Every so often, I see a description using the word, “technical.”  Almost always, this applies to a challenging course – something like, “this century will be an excellent challenge and features several excellent hills and technical stretches.” 

For a novice such as myself, it’s difficult to research what this word means.  A cycling clothing company uses the word in its name and any Google search will result in 1,000 clothing sites.  Not much help there.  Still, I think the word is fairly self-explanatory.  I believe it is safe to assume a technical course requires a cyclist to do more than simply pump his legs.  Technical courses require a knowledge of how to shift gears and plan out a ride so a good time is achieved.  Technical courses feature steep inclines, declines, and sharp curves.

Which brings me to Purcell Road.

A couple of months ago, I chose Purcell Road as a way to increase my 15-mile route by about four miles.   It looked nice on a map.  It was less so in person.  The initial part of this heavily-wooded stretch is a steep decline, and declines are always fun.  The lack of a shoulder was a bit worrisome, but there wasn’t much traffic.  After a few hundred yards, I reached the bottom of the hill and came upon a sharp left turn.  I braked hard and managed to stay on the road.  After a brief level stretch, the road turned sharply to the right.  Since the road was level, I was in a pretty high gear when I made the turn, and came across a cliff masquerading as a road.  Subsequent research on mapmyrun.com revealed that this was a 20% incline.  Very technical.

I valiantly tried downshifting, but the hill was very steep and my conditioning was very poor.  I couldn’t get the thing into a low enough gear fast enough.  Within seconds, I was struggling to even move my pedals.  I tried to once again to downshift.  I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but shifting gears when you’re placing maximum pressure on the drive train is never a good idea.  I didn’t actually see what happened next, but it resulted in my first derailment.  Yippee.  As the chain came off the sprocket, the maximum amount of down pressure I was applying to the pedal was suddenly free to go its merry way.  The resulting violent down stroke caused my foot to slide off the pedal, which in turn caused me to fall forward onto my handlebars – a rather ignoble position for a cyclist under any circumstances.

Humiliated, I pulled the bike off the road, fixed the chain, then recovered my cyclometer, which fell off the handlebar during the ruckus.  A few cars passed me, their occupants pondering my fate.  I hopped back on my bike and finished my ride.

Today, with two whole months’ more experience under my belt, I took another shot at Purcell Road.  I am happy to report things went much better.  I flew down the hill at a speed approaching 35 mph (and was still passed by a car in this 35 mph zone).  I zipped through the sharp curves and I managed to keep my chain on its sprockets as I climbed the hill with only a bit of difficulty.  I still chose too high a gear, but this one was manageable.  There was one nasty grinding noise when I shifted midway through the hill, so there is still room for improvement.