Not a lot of places where a longer than 5 minute segment wouldnt be impacted by lights or traffic IMO. Aside from a race…which as already noted is the only setting that really matters anyway…
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unless you ride gravel
I’m always curious about that. Do most people that ride gravel drive out to those roads?
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IMO you need to get out of Chicago. Sooo many segments out my door that are longer than 5 minutes and not impacted. Northern California FTW. I’m in Central Coast right now and same comment.
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Haha at some point. Havent quite picked a landing spot, and we’re quite a ways off…wemre not going anywhere until my daughter goes off to college at the earliest. Northern California would definitely be on the list.
But anyway…the issue still confuses me. The vast majority of the population lives in cities. Cities have lights and traffic. I think this is the issue for most cyclists, not just myself. It might be a greater issue here than most smaller cities though I suppose.
No idea if most drive to gravel but many do for sure.
94% of Californians live in urban areas, highest % of any state. So I’m confused by your confusion 
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Salt Lake City (and the Wasatch Front in general) is terrible for gravel.
Great for road and mtb though.
Edit: I could probably touch gravel 45 minutes from my house (by bicycle), but it’s just a single loop, probably 30 miles of gravel and 30 miles of tarmac.
Cities dont have gravel. People live in cities. How do the people ride gravel that doesnt exist? That’s my confusion…
Many do……Chicago has the DPR, DC has the C&O Canal, tons of gravel around Seattle, etc.
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West of Chicago lots of gravel. Further west is a place called Iowa with even more.
Joe
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Triathlon isn’t a sport, it’s a state of indecision usually experienced by those with too much disposable income.
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that’s my situation where I live. About 40 minutes to the closest gravel which is a nice 20 mile loop which is about 95% gravel. Outside of that there are lots of gravel routes 1:15 to 1:30 hours away. Hence I get to ride gravel just on weekends.
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Well, west of Chicago isnt ChicGo haha. Iowa even less so.
That said, the prairie path and DPRT trails are fairy accessible from the city, I do ride those occasionally. Actual gravel roads though…no.
I guess it just strikes me as weird the concept of going for a bike ride on roads, but putting a bike on a car to drive on a road to then ride the bike on a different road…
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I’ve been of this opinion before, but often find myself driving 5-15 miles to start “road” rides after work these days. It just allows me to avoid 80% of the commuters, stoplights, and the urban heat effect. It makes the warm-up much easier and avoids the 30 minutes of suck at the start.
I also have a problem with repeating routes, I find it really hard to do the same thing over and over so even when there isn’t traffic I find the 3 main roads that are decent to ride out of the city very uninspiring.
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That’s because it is weird. But it make perfect sense in a lot of situations. Unfortunately.
Joe
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On the surface that makes sense, but if you want to do a long ride and live in the city, you often have a choice of doing a lot of city riding with heavy traffic, lights, crappy lanes, etc., or making a day out of a nice ride in the country. Get up early, go for a long drive, listen to some good music and have some coffee, hop on the bike as the sun rises in the cool of the morning, and then go for a gravel ride where you’ll see more animals than cars. Stop for a nice lunch on the way home.
I ride in the city a ton, but riding in the country is good for the soul, and for a lot of us, that means going for a drive before and after.
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The bulk of my riding is during fairly high-traffic times, so I’ve been known to drive to gravel or dedicated bike paths just to avoid that. (we also have an outdoor velodrome here, which is useful for intervals and such.)
Outdoor rides lose a lot of their appeal to me when they involve sitting in peak-hour traffic for ages, so I’d probably be trainer-bound for 90% of the time otherwise.
That’s me. During the week on the trainer. Weekends are outdoors unless weather is awful.
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