Orny's Cycling Journal

This time last year, after riding Pittsburgh’s big populist city bike ride for the fourth time, I wrote: “With iffy support, poor route design, and a registration fee north of $75 that funds a cause I don’t agree with, I probably won’t do this ride again.”

My determination not to have anything to do with this ride was doubled when the organization behind it publicly declared their opposition to enforcing traffic laws that protect cyclists and pedestrians, which I ranted about in my preceding blogpo: “My Advocate: My Enemy”.

But none of my apprehension about the event would apply if I simply mimicked the route’s distance and climbing on my indoor trainer. So on Wednesday I saddled up to simulate another major event indoors.

Consulting my Zenturizer to find a course on Zwift that was comparable to Pittsburgh’s lumpy topography, I decided to ride ten laps of the 2015 Richmond UCI World Championship course. It would be a nice change of pace from my recent long rides in Watopia, and a chance to ride the renovated Richmond route in the reverse direction, which was introduced in a recent program update.

One benefit of events being cancelled is that I can ride on whatever day suits me, rather than being tethered to a specific date and time. I think it's more considerate to do my centuries on a weekday rather than a weekend, when other folks want to sleep in late. So rather than riding the event on the official weekend, I set out Wednesday morning at 10am.

Not many people ride the Richmond course in reverse, because it’s an event-only route unless you manually turn around, as I did. So I didn’t have anyone to draft off or compete with. Even though Richmond was one of Zwift's available options that day, by the end of my first 10-mile lap I was in possession of the combo jersey for logging the fastest sprint, the fastest hill climb, and the fastest overall lap!

For the next two laps, I jousted with a handful of other riders to try and keep all three jerseys, expending more energy than I should have in the first third of a century. But with two timed hillclimbs and two sprints in every lap, it did help pass the time.

But near the end of my third lap, Inna came in and interrupted me for about half an hour, which I took as an unplanned lunch break.

Climbing back on, I’d already lost two of my jerseys. The awards only last an hour before you have to re-capture them, which reminded me how stupid I was being by trying to retain them. For the rest of the day I didn’t attack the hills or sprint, only temporarily picking up a jersey when other riders’ times expired.

By the final third of the ride, I couldn’t contest for them anyway, as my reserves were depleted. It was all I could do to tack on a little extra climbing at the end to reach my simulation ride’s target.

I finished with 104.8 miles and 4,975 feet of climbing in 6h10m moving time—or 6h52m clock time including rest stops. Thus completeth my 11th Zentury of 2020.

Last Sunday was my third Pedal PGH, the local advocacy group’s big city ride.

The forecast indicated a 30 percent chance of rain, and the radar showed several incoming thunderstorms crossing from Ohio into Western PA. I lingered indecisive, but eventually set out to ride.

Although I started 45 minutes late, that didn’t present any problem, and the rain I feared never materialized, as my route somehow danced around the downpours that happened in various parts of the city. But with heavy overcast, there wasn’t much point in taking any photos.

Being a populist ride, the crowd included a high proportion of neophytes who presented a danger to themselves and others, and I rolled past three or four major crashes attended by ambulances and large crowds. I felt safest on the parts of the longest route that was reserved for the strongest riders, although Pedal PGH is notorious for having the routes re-integrate, repeatedly putting the faster riders at the back of the pack of obliviously weaving, stopping, and dangerous tourists.

Then add in the stupidity of scheduling the ride during the local university’s move-in week, which threw even more clueless parents and students onto unfamiliar streets, both on foot, in cars, and piloting rental moving vans. Pedal PGH is more of an obstacle course than a fun family or group ride.

The longer metric century (62-mile) route is challenging, with about 4,000 feet of steep climbing. Between time off for travel, record-setting rainfall, and overall lack of mojo, I’m way behind my normal fitness level, so I was pretty wiped by the time I finished.

However, I still wanted to repeat last year’s followup: riding down the (blessedly flat) GAP trail to McKeesport and back, which would bring my day to 100 miles, my fifth full century of the year.

That was a stupid, stupid idea. If you believe Strava’s pathetically misguided “Relative Effort” metric, it wound up being the most difficult ride I’ve ever done. But I toodled along and took frequent rest stops, invoking the powers of Fererro Rocher and Coca-Cola. One of my stops was at the bike rental place at the Waterfront, where I had a nice chat with the guy there.

It wasn’t a bad day out, but given my lower fitness level it was definitely a stretch.

Much like Bay State Bike Week, Pittsburgh has its own celebration of cycling, known as Bikefest. The 10-day period features an opening party, plus lots of rides and events designed to promote cycling and bring the community together. The week ends with a big citywide populaire ride called PedalPGH which is similar to Boston’s Hub on Wheels tour.

My Bikefest began with the Every Neighborhood Ride, which hits all 90 of Pittsburgh’s recognized neighborhoods. Including riding to and from the start, it wound up being a solid 86 miles over 11 hours in the saddle, and the mile and a quarter of ascent made it the second most climbing I’ve ever done in a single ride.

Needless to say, it was a long, hard day, made longer by waiting for stragglers who were in over their heads, two flats, plus an impromptu water stop that included a tour of the Robotics Center. More than half of the 18-20 riders who started with the fast group wound up falling behind or aborting, leaving a well-matched remainder of six of us to fully complete the course (although additional riders from the slower group would finish behind us). One of our riders made the case that the Every Neighborhood Ride might be more difficult than the Dirty Dozen!

The pace of the fast group was just right for me, the riders were all friendly and outgoing, and the rest stops were well stocked. We rode through several areas and roads which were new to me, including a few bridges I hadn’t dared venture across. It was an excellent ride.

At the end of the day, I didn’t have the legs for another 15 miles to make it a full century ride, which is fine. I’m glad I rode it, but I was also extremely glad it was over! And I met a handful of welcoming local riders whose paths I hope to cross again in the future.

Three days later I participated in a regular Tuesday night Team Decaf ride, which in this case was a reprise of the “Big 8 With a View” route we’d done a month ago. The legs… I’d like to say that my legs chose not to accompany me on that particular evening, but the reality is that they were very loudly and painfully vocal about the lack of recovery time after Saturday’s demands.

Here’s a link to the GPS log.

This past Saturday the Pittsburgh Major Taylor Cycling Club hosted a Tour de Red Belt metric century. At least, I think they did; when I showed up at the start, there was only only person there, giving out cue sheets. He didn’t seem to be holding people for a group start, so I set out and never saw a single fellow rider for the entire day.

The first half of the ride was (surprise!) a lot of up-and-down, but had nice mid-70s temperatures. The second half was almost all downhill (except, of course, my post-ride climb back up to Squirrel Hill), but also much hotter, as temperatures peaked out above 90. The route covered some roads that were new to me, and many that I’d done before.

The ride had originally been scheduled for the morning after the Neighborhood Ride, but got delayed a week due to weather, which my legs really appreciated. Although my muscles still weren’t fully recovered, they worked well enough to get me home, thanks to some supplemental stretching along the way.

Overall it was an okay ride, but riding all alone didn’t convey much of a BikeFest vibe at all. Kind of a yawner, actually.

The following day was PedalPGH, the local bike ride that is the equivalent of Boston’s Hub on Wheels.

While the 8- and 25-mile routes were “family-friendly”, the metric century was definitely not. It featured over 4,000 feet of very steep climbing, including one of the hills from the Dirty Dozen ride (Rialto).

It welcomed riders on mile two with a gut-punch: the mile-long 7-percent grade 400-foot ascent up Josephine and Arlington. Just as I reached the top, I found a discarded tag of some sort lying in the middle of the street, bearing the words “to be”; way too existential a concept after a 7am hillclimb.

Like HoW, I did my best to get well ahead of the pack of 2,600 other riders. After skipping the first three rest stops and a fourth ad hoc water stop manned by the Neighborhood Ride folks, I finally stopped for a breather at the top of Riverview Park.

By then I was ahead of most of the other riders on the metric century, but after descending down into the city, on Smallman Street we found ourselves merged in toward the back of the huge mass of amateur riders from the shorter routes.

Mixing faster riders in with slower, less skilled riders was both frustrating and dangerous. Twice I was nearly taken out by riders who simply decided to suddenly turn their bike sideways in the middle of the road and stop without warning, directly in front of me. Idiots.

I was happy when we forked off their route at Highland Park, but then after doing an extra loop, we were merged back in with them again, once more behind the hundreds of riders we’d worked so hard to pass before! And then they did it to us again on Dallas Ave, and then a fourth time from Beechwood to Schenley! They were basically torturing us.

I had come into the ride with heavy legs from both the Neighborhood and Red Belt rides. Although my legs complained, they worked well enough, only fading toward the very end of the ride. But the climb back up to Squirrel Hill left me completely spent.

Overall, it was nice to participate in the city’s big cycling event, but at the same time, like the Red Belt ride, it really wasn’t anything special. While it was good riding and conditioning, I don’t count metric centuries as major cycling goals or achievements.

Aside from the Mon Valley Century which I’ve already posted about here, there were a couple other noteworthy items which took place in August.

I started the month with a 10-day riding streak. While that wouldn’t have been worth mentioning back when I was commuting to work by bike, it’s very rare these days.

On one of those days I tackled long-anticipated Negley hill, a quarter mile of steady 15 percent grade. It’s too busy to ride regularly, but I’m glad I can finally say I’ve done it.

I also completed Strava’s August climbing challenge, which is worth mentioning only because at 11,000 meters (6.8 miles) it’s probably the most difficult of the year. But around here, the climbing challenges are easier to fulfill than the distance challenges!

Despite Pittsburgh miles being harder/hillier than Boston miles, by mid-August I’d already ridden further than I did in the full calendar year of 2015. It’s been nice having the free time and the weather conditions to allow me to ride more frequently... even if there are more hills.

2016 has been a great year so far, and there’s still three months left of it! Stay tuned for further developments…