6 hours on the road bike today. ended up with 107 miles! Another absolute stunner weather wise! Zero complaints from me on this week’s weather!
https://www.strava.com/activities/9495841764
https://www.strava.com/activities/9495841764
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Prince William County, VA USA // Pacing Tempo
Somewhat newer route. Still headed southwest to get to the rural farm roads, but went a little further before starting a loop. These roads were perfect for longer intervals (10-20 minutes) and might be my new favorite route for this type of work.
Workout called for 2 x 10 and 1 x 20 @ tempo. My legs were a little cooked yesterday so I took it off. As a result, I felt quite fresh and ended up doing 1 x 12, 2 x 22, and 1 x 12 @ sweet spot (that’s still tempo, right?). There were also high level clouds so the temperature and humidity stayed pleasant.
Saw some new farms, including two cows that decided to go for a swim, or at least stand in the pond. I’ve never seen that before. Sorry @WindWarrior, no cow bell.
Then passed a grass airstrip for presumably crop dusters, not that I’ve ever seen those flying around, but they keep the airstrip ready.
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This week was a rest week for me and it’s been driving me nuts 
. I told myself to keep it easy because I’m doing a gravel event tomorrow, but that didn’t pan out 
There was a slight breeze, sunny skies, no humidity and 75-80°F. These days are made to ride!!!
I was aiming for 100 km in 3 hrs, but ended up at 99.89 km with moving time of 3:00:05. So close!
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Rode up and over Geiger Grade and dropped into Virginia City. 2 hour sweet spot intervals plus another hour Zone 2. Lovely morning for a ride.
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So many cows here, and no cowbell 
3 hours in the heat with local club, ride interrupted by dogs that appeared to have been dumped at Cosumnes River Preserve. One of the guys called his wife to come pick them up.
Friendly little dogs, so sad to find them in the middle of nowhere.
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Nice one! I’m somewhat surprised there are still “rural farm roads” there. Things must have slowed down 
@KickrLin my rides are all south and west of Manassas, so Nokesville area and further out. There are some new housing developments but there’s lots of open land, which means quiet roads.
Yesterday I wanted to get new Veloviewer Explorer tiles, so I took the train to Arth-Goldau. Planned was an endurance ride with a bit of tempo built in. I started in the afternoon in the hope to avoid some of the heat. Picture of the Zugersee from the train:
The first hour consisted of climbing. It was quite hot and it had to take breaks to cool down. First view of the Lauerzersee:
And view from the top: In the back one can see a valley (Muotathal) in which it is very nice to ride.
The next hour was riding at the new altitude. Had a nice tailwind, so speed was around 40-50km/h.
Then after some descending I reached Einsiedeln. Here is a picture of the famous monastery Einsiedeln.
I went on to the next lake (Sihlsee).
I didn‘t know it has a small dam. We usually ride on the other side of the lake.
Then came the transition to the next lake which consisted of descends and climbs. Here a very Swiss looking landscape.
After the last 10% climb I was greeted by cows with bells.
A bit later the view to the Lake of Zurich opened (the tail in the second picture is actually called Obersee, but it‘s technically the same water).
After that it was another hour till home.
It seems I couldn‘t stand the heat: Even though the ride was on the easy side and I drank around 3L of water with carbs and salt I felt like I was finished. I even had a bit of a headache. At home I drank another 1.5L of water. And today (morning after) I feel fine, legs are fine too.
Summary: 77km, 980m elevation gain, 3.5 hours.
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Rode the New England Randonneur’s O Canada 400k brevet yesterday which goes from Woodstock, VT up to Canada and then back bypassing most of the major gap climbs. Perfect day for riding with it being cool and overcast with periodic drizzle.
Lots of time in aero bars for practice. Feeling very confident about my fitness for the fall since this is the end of a four week build block.
Every time I’ve visited Woodstock, Worthy Kitchen has been closed or too busy. Finally got a chance to drink some good beer after and consume everything in sight.
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Beautiful!
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You are all making me jealous!! Thanks again to all who share their beautiful photos.
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After having missed yesterdays 
TT I was pretty desperate to get out. So it was out to Elton to meet some mates for a gravel ride. Given it had rained for about 14 or 15 hours we decided to take tracks that were harder packed and likely to be drier. That actually meant heading back to nearer to where I started 
I came back and put my new wheels on my road bike. That took a little longer than it should have I shifted down to the smallest cog to take the rear wheel out. When I put the wheel back in, the chain landed on the 3rd cog so I went to shift up but the shifter jammed. I thought initially it was a snapped cable but quickly realised the cable was good. After a while I figured out what it was. The shifter head can come out of the dura ace cable puller (or whatever its called). Which I think is fine when the system is under tension and probably OK 99% of the time when it isn’t. Today was the 1% when it wasn’t. After a lot of cleaning I managed to get the cable puller round to the correct spot, I then created slack in the cable by manually shifting the rear derailleur, pushed the cable end back into the puller and let the rear mech tighten the cable. I then took it for a test ride lol, when out of the flat I realised I’d left the varia (I feel naked without it so went back in. Double Lol, when I was outside again I realised I’d forgotten to put the hood back on. I wanted back for the TdF finale so I decided to put it off till now
On hindsight about 2 years ago the left shifter jammed and I forced it and broke it, I bet the same thing happened!
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oooh, please tell me more about that ride! I’ll be doing it as a warmup in September when I’m out for Silver State 508.
Didn’t have time to go long like I wanted, so went hard to see how fast I could do a 100k on the TT bike.
2:44:42 and a 22.6mph AVG
Didn’t feel like it, but somehow this week ended up with over 20hrs and over 1200 TSS!
Solid day to wrap up this block, recovery next week, which is nice since temps are forecast to skyrocket.
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Silver State 508 looks fun. Might have to add it to my list for the future.
Geiger is a super consistent 5% climb (7.7 miles) with the exception of a plateau near the top. Pavement is good, but shoulder is narrow with guardrail so traffic sometimes gets uncomfortably close. Quite a bit of bike traffic, so at least drivers should be expecting you.
I extended a rest interval a few minutes to explore Virginia City. Interesting time capsule… a mining boomtown built on the side of a mountain. Check it out if you can.
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Jeremy Powers and the folks from the JAM Fund put on their Grand Fundo every year. It’s an awesome event (and organization!)…totally worth checking out if you’re anywhere near New England.
I did the 53 mile route. I didn’t have the fitness to finish last year, but came back this year 35 lbs lighter and 30W stronger. Lots of pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast helped of course. I made it up the worst climbs (some up to 20%) on my Cutthroat with a 38T chainring and Eagle cassette. Perfect gearing for me.
There was some pavement, but mostly gravel, jeep trails, washed out ruts…you name it I saw folks riding everything from fat bikes to old school cyclocross bikes with skinny tires. I was glad to have 29x2.2 Race Kings on the really gnarly stuff. I finished with an IF of 0.78. I feel like maybe I could have pushed a bit more, but it’s really a challege to me with all the undulating terrain. Most descents had me watching the terrain rather than stressing about power.
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Thanks for the pics, @greenbike. You enjoyed many sections that I previously enjoyed riding. Good times for sure. Regarding Muotathal, may I suggest taking a gravel bike up that way and ascend on Bürgelibach up and over to Sissikon. That’s a great ride.
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Thanks for the suggestion - I just planned a route for later this year (not sure yet from where to go to Muotathal, Glarus or the other side, Klöntalersee is very beautiful but has more elevation 
).
Sadly I find routes where public transport is needed a bit tiring since it takes quite some time, without public transport I‘m not that fast and the „transition“ in/out of the city (usually first and last hour) is a bit boring. (One friend has a child, another qualified for races and only trains or rides small easy routes now.) Let‘s hope I get fit fast. 
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Don’t know why, maybe all the beautiful green, but your bike looks photoshopped into the scene
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