2016 Dirty Dover Gravel Grinder (D2G2)

The 3rd Pedaling of the Dirty Dover Gravel Grinder started out with a new twist - more riders! I posted the ride on Le Gravle Randonneur and Christian Bratina (pictured above in a purple jersey) who maintains a ride email list for the Litchfield Hills Cycling Club, saw the post and sent it out on his weekly email.  It wound up on in a thread on the Eastern Block Cycling Club, and I made sure the Newtown Pedalers new about it as well, and voila, there were 8 people on the ride.

From Left to Right:
Christian Bratina, Paul Meyer, Alan Watkins, Randy (?), Will Mansfield

It had rained the night before, in fact it was raining when I left my house Saturday morning but the radar said it wasn't raining in Kent.  It started out kind of cool so I tried something different, I wore leg and arm warmers and a riding jacket, which was a mistake because it came off as soon as we turned onto North Kent RR No 1, which is a jeep road that goes up the east side of Skiff Mountain and has to be the steepest dirt road climb in CT!

This week in Bike Commuting: More bikes in the rack

Spring seemed to have return to Southwestern Connecticut and the morning temperature was 55 degrees - that's shorts riding weather.  After being in Florida most of the past week it wasn't such a shock.  This week I was trying a a twofer, bike commuting Tuesday & Thursday in order to prepare for my upcoming Gravel Grinder, D2G2, so I needed the miles.  

Riding a Beach Cruiser

I took the family down to Ft Meyers for a little Spring Break vacation and on when we arrived I was looking into the window of the local Bike Rental Shop and spied this hot looking fixie!  I had called around to the various shops during the prior week and found you could rent road bikes and beach cruisers.  Being that Ft Meyers is so flat, a fixie would be perfect but I had no such luck finding one but when I saw this I thought there was hope.

What I wanted to rent

What I got.

RBW: Pimping with Huggy Bear

Gavin and I met at the Big Y Thursday morning at 5:30 for what seems to be now our once, weekly Ride Before Work.  I was really eager this morning for some reason and left my house a little earlier than normal, I only need 15 minutes to ride to meeting place.  I detoured down to Edmond Road and then climbed up part of Church Hill to the Big Y.

The Religion Barn at the top of Tauton Hill Steps

Gavin rolled in just as I was getting there and he had a new XM, early rap station booming on the stereo!  The weather was weird because the temperature was hovering around 40 degrees but the roads were slick and there seemed to be a lot of humidity in the air.  Rain was predicted for the afternoon so perhaps that was why. Gavin was on his game and totally hammered the Tauton Hill Steps. I wondering if the new bike had something to do with it.

Another cold bike commute

OK, perhaps not as cold as my first bike commute, in fact it was 10 degrees warmer than last week but it was still cold.  The only questionable wardrobe decision was the gloves.  My hands eventually warmed up but I was kicking myself the first hour on my decision to go with lighter gloves.