This is a post about a bicycle and a bunch of bicycle rides. If that’s not your jam, fret not, I’m planning a writing update over the weekend.
Onward.
In the next day or two, I’m taking delivery on a 2020 Trek Émonda SL 6 Disc full carbon road bike. The picture is from Trek’s online catalog, but mine will have minimal modifications (it will have pedals and a computer mount, for example), so this will give you a good idea. The only substantial change to the stock bike I’m making is swapping out the 172.5mm cranks for 165mm versions, on the advice of the eerily competent bike fitter I visited in Louisville last spring.
I’ll be riding this bike a lot on my own and on club rides, once weather permits (it’ll take awhile before I’ll be willing to ride my new baby on wet roads). In addition to those regular rides, though, I’ve registered for nine “event” rides throughout the spring, summer, and autumn, all in Kentucky. Those event rides total fourteen days of riding, just over a thousand miles, and an amount of vertical climbing that I’m choosing not to think about at this time. Thus, “A Thousand Miles Across the Commonwealth.”
Those of you in the know, well, know that a thousand miles is not a particularly great amount for even a casual club cyclist to aim for, and I certainly plan to hit multiples of that number in 2020. I just like the sound of it as my “title” for this “project.”
Here are the Kentucky event rides I’ll be participating in.
Saturday, April 18. The Redbud Ride starts and finishes in London. This is the kickoff event of the five-ride Kentucky Cycling Challenge. If the weather cooperates, it should feature spectacular views of Eastern Kentucky’s mountainsides spotted with blooming redbud and dogwood trees. I’m riding the 71 mile route.
Sunday, April 26. The Tour de Lou is a 62 mile ride (or “metric century”) that takes in many of the sights of the Commonwealth’s largest city. I’m most looking forward to riding through the parks designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, and along the tree-lined parkways that connect them. This ride is part of the Kentucky Derby Festival.
Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24. The Horsey Hundred is the signature event of the Bluegrass Cycling Club and the largest annual cycling event in the Commonwealth, drawing thousands of riders from all over North America. I’ll ride a tune-up ride of approximately 25 miles on Friday, an “imperial century” of 100 miles on Saturday, and a 75-mile route on Sunday. The weekend rides start and finish in Georgetown and take riders throughout the rolling hills and past the scenic horse farms of the central Bluegrass. The Horsey is the second stop in the Kentucky Cycling Challenge.
Saturday, June 27. The Licking Valley Century out of Alexandria is a new event sponsored by the venerable Cincinnati Cycling Club and constitutes the third stop on the Challenge. It takes in the ridges and valleys along the Licking River, which drains Northeast Kentucky into the mighty Ohio.
Saturday, August 15. The fourth stop of the Challenge is the 100-mile Rock the Crater ride (no website that I can find) out of Middlesboro, in Southeast Kentucky, right on the Tennessee border. Middlesboro is located within a mile of the famous Cumberland Gap and has a couple of interesting claims to fame. It is (allegedly) the birthplace of ragtime music and (definitely) located entirely within an enormous meteorite crater.
Friday, August 21 through Sunday, August. The Derby City Fondo, put on by the Louisville Bicycle Club, is the successor event to that club’s My Old Kentucky Home cycling weekends. I’ll be riding the 20-mile Friday tuneup, the century route on Saturday, and a 40-mile ride on Sunday. All of these start and finish at the Milewide Beer Company near downtown Louisville.
Saturday, September 12. Starting and finishing on the Ohio in Maysville, the Limestone Cycling Tour is the century that marks the fifth and final stop of this year’s Kentucky Cycling Challenge. Maysville is a fascinating place. Daniel Boone was one of the founders and it was an important stop on the Underground Railroad. The slave auction scene in Uncle Tom’s Cabin was inspired by such an event witnessed at the court house by author Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Saturday, September 19. Elizabethtown is the host city for the Hub City Tour. I’ll be riding the century route. Of all these rides, these will be along the roads I know least well.
Saturday, October 3 and Sunday October 4. 2020 marks the 51st edition of the oldest continually held cycling event in Kentucky, the Red River Rally. The Rally consists of two days of riding through the astonishingly beautiful Natural Bridge State Park and surrounding Red River Gorge. I’ll be riding the 64 mile and 43 mile routes on the successive days, and hoping for some spectacular fall colors along the bluffs.
Starting with the blooming redbuds and ending with the bright colors of autumn sounds like a great way to bookend the cycling year to me.
Y’all come with.