by Roger Stawasz » Sun Aug 24, 2014 10:19 am
Seeing as this SMR was somewhat short I’ll try to keep the report the same. The B group started and ended with 7 riders (Me, Chris D., Joe L., Ron B., Derek A., Doug A., and Elise (sp). With no one willing to take on a longer ride my suggestion of a 35-40 mile loop starting with the Montgomery climb and returning via rt. 66 was readily accepted.
We took 66 to Park Hill Road before connecting to Loudville Road via Oliver, Clark, and Torrey. From Loudville we connected with Mineral, Lead Mine, and Cold Spring before turning onto Rattle Hill Road and Wolcott for the last mile of Pomery Meadow. We spilled out onto rt. 10 for a cameo appearance before turning onto High Street in Southampton and it’s beautiful views.
As we turned from High Street onto the the Fomer-Russellville Road approach to the Montgomery climb I began questioning the wisdom of suggesting this route since my biggest sprocket was a 25 toother. In past rides I’ve found both the Montgomery Road & rt. 66 climb to be tough with a 28 tooth sprocket. Nonetheless we all made it up the hill though Elise did admit to silently cursing me at a couple of points.
The cursing soon turned to exclamations of gratitude for the descents into Huntington that followed. I have to say that I was amazed at how assured she seems on the descents. I’m just too reticent on downhills to ride like that. Two reasons why I’ll never be a good road racer: I’m not a good climber, and I can’t let it all hang out bombing down the descents.
As we gathered at the 112 intersection the question became, do we take the County Road climb to 66 or 66 all the way? I breathed a sigh of relief as we approached County road and the lead rider continued past. County road is in my opinion one of the nastiest climbs around. Route 66 is no piece of cake but tends to be a bit less steep because it is longer.
The ride up 66 was somewhat of a repeat of the Montgomery road climb with Elise and me at the tail end feeling somewhat comforted that we were, once in a while, able to catch a glimpse of the lead riders. Once at the top another downhill bombing session ensued until the flats and our return to town. I finished with about 40 miles and 3700 feet of climbing. Pretty good verticals there.
