1. Planning our cycling schedule

At the start of the New Year while some are making resolutions, Kristin and Steve are planning their ride schedule! 

For this, the first episode of Cycling Together, Kristin and Steve share some of their past ride experiences, what factors they consider when deciding on rides, and what rides are on their list for 2025.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is Kristen.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

And I'm Steve of Steve the Bike Guy.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

And you are listening to Cycling Together. Our first episode. Our very first. And here we go. Here we go. Our first episode. And um it's the first day of the new year. Yeah. So it seemed like a good time to kick this off. And uh we don't really do uh a New Year's resolution. Have you ever done a New Year's resolution? No, never. We've been married a long time. I've never asked you that question. No. Yeah. I always think, I think when you have kids, it's like the new year is the school year. And January is like nothing. No, like September's when you for everything. Things change.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Right, exactly. So um no, the January 1st is just another day. Today's Thursday, right? Or Wednesday? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

It's Wednesday. We are in the we are in the uh what day date hole right now. Because it's been a very long holiday. So we don't do New Year's resolutions, but we do do uh ride planning. This is the time of year where we start looking ahead to the rest of the year. And so that's what we thought our not that's what we thought, that's what our first episode is gonna be about.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

The ride calendar planning calendar. Yeah, planning the year and and how a lot of times, boy, in a couple weeks, um, it might be we have the year planned for the rides, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Which is kind of a bummer, I have to tell you this. This today at noon, at noon, today at noon, Vermont Overland open for registration, and it will sell out. Yep. And I actually saw one of the people that we follow say that he is not going to, he wants to register for it, right? But he lost like 800 bucks last year on ride registrations for rides he ultimately could not do.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Ah, yes. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Because like just life gets.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

And I and I know somebody who signs up for everything. Signs up for everything just because maybe I will do it. Uh he obviously does not care about the the lost money, but he just signs up for everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

And there are, I mean, there are like you can transfer some, some you some will let you move it to the next year. Like there are, but I do think there is one of the reasons we end up thinking about it is because the registrations are gonna start are already opening, right? Right? Like the they're already opening, the alumni registrations are just opening, like mixtape is open for um uh for people who've already done it. Now, our biases on these are we are New England based, and so we're mostly gonna be talking about New England New England rides, but this applies around the country. And races are not off the table, but we're really talking about rides. Rights.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Rights. And and some might be race rides where the the people at the front are racing while everybody else is just riding. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Exactly. Um, but let's start to talk about like why why group rides? Like, what do you what do you like about why do we why do we even sign up for group rides versus I mean, there's plenty of places we could ride all by ourselves.

unknown 3:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Together.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Recycle together. Right. Why, why, why why why spend the money? Why just get just the process of doing a group ride?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

And I'm just curious why you do it, like what you like about them versus again, these are like things we've never really talked about. We just to get us off, like I like group rides. A, it usually inspires us to try somewhere new, go somewhere new. Right. And usually gets me together with some friends that maybe I don't see for other reasons. And it also lets us ride together, but not. Like we can we can do a ride and we may ride the ride together, or I might be like, just I'll meet you at the end.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Right. So those are the reasons I like group rides.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah. Um, I mean, definitely going to do going someplace new that you would otherwise not ride is on my list. Um there's the there's the seeing other people and being seen by other people. Um there is that we are a bike shop.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

I mean, there is a there is a marketing component. There is a marketing component to us. We can be honest about that.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

You know, it's funny because there are people out there that you would consider friends that you might only see once or twice a year at these rides. That's true. And you've uh you can't even recall when you met some of these people or when you had a lengthy conversation, but you are all chummy with each other. And um and it's just it's just great. And also, and you do it and you do these these same rides over and over, and suddenly they're like, Oh, yeah, my friend, this person, that friend. But you know, that's all you've really ever had in interaction with them.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

I commented on a woman's post and one other friend who's like completely in a different part of the world, I would say, like in different, you know, you have your friend group, your bike friend group, you're the and he was like, How do you know her? And I was like, Oh, I know her because I was on Team Betty. How do you know her? And he's like, I'm at them at the Hin Cappy ride. Like, and so yeah, you have these like shared. I would say there's like the Venn diagram.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yes, the Venn diagram of those riders.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And then there's the like scribble where you're just like, I just know you for so many different places, but many of them are rides, and also I'm often surprised, even at the biggest rides, like let's take the Pan Mask Challenge, which is uh fundraiser for the Dana of Harper Cancer Institute. It's thousands of riders. I am shocked by the number of friends I will run into on the ride. On the like just at a restaurant on the bike, on the bike during the ride. You know, you roll in and you're like, oh my gosh, look who it is. Um, you know, so you have that there's also that just shared experience of doing something together, especially if it's like a fundraising type thing. There's that power of the you know, shared experience.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

There is, and and I and I get, and then you also for me, you get riding scenarios which you don't otherwise, and just um like pace lines, yes, certain, you know, pace lines with certain people you've never ridden with before, and you just all something just comes together, and all of a sudden there's there's six people all at the same pace, all just working together, right? And it yeah, and everything's clicking.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, um, yeah, it's and it's just that uh and you get to and you get that insider's perspective on like you can look up routes on Ridewood GPS, you can look at heat maps, you can try to like at a new place, or you can go on one of these rides, and locals have planned it. So you're gonna be on the the trails and the roads that maybe you as a visitor wouldn't necessarily find. Okay, so the big challenge too challenge is how to decide between rides you've done and you love and new rides. Because it's like it's awfully tempting to just be like, I know that that is a fabulous ride, I'm gonna do it year after year after year. Like one of our friends was like, I love muddy onion, I'm gonna go do it every single year. Right. It's always a Saturday and it's always on my kid's birthday, but um, you know, like there's that tear between like what am I not doing?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Because um and and I mean, I guess we can say we are blessed with this overwhelming cycling calendar of options to choose from, especially in New England. I mean, when it comes to now gravel in New England, I mean there's you can pretty much do an event every weekend if you want.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, well, and we can add put put mixed terrain in that. So you know gravel being dirt and mixed terrain being remember the first time I did a mixed terrain ride? It was with one of our neighboring shops, and I went out on my cycle cross bike and with my friend, and we got back, and you go, how was it? And I was like, riddle me this. What is mixed terrain? No, what is gravel? You said no, I said what's mixed terrain because it was a mixed terrain ride in the Sherburn area. Right. And you were like, Well, it's a mix of all terrains, and I was like, I go, then it was good.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, it's pretty much mountain biking on a on a drop barred bike.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Yeah, I I have a bad habit of signing up for stuff without really having a good idea of what I've signed up for. And I would say that was one of them where I was like, Oh, this is like mountain biking on my cycle cross bike before I was really comfortable with um with you know gravel or mixed rain, which actually brings up the like when you're looking at a ride, how I think there's like an equation in our head, right? Like how far to drive, right, for how many miles ridden, right, for how much it's gonna cost us.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Well, you know, it this I as a naturally frugal person, this has kind of gotten to me over the years, and it and it used to be that these rides might be$30,$40,$50. Yeah. And now it seems like it's$80,$90,$100.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Right? Per per ride. So now for me, it's like, well, like, let's look at the year and look at the budget dollars. And and now, like there, we want to go do certain rides, but you know, other rides, you you can't you keep piling on different rides you want to do, and and in your head, you're like, yeah, that's just kind of going over your your your mental budget block. You're like, yeah, I just can't. I can't just I can't justify that cost anymore this year.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

When we were in when we were racing cyclocross, we had a friend who would um he would get stuff from his local sh swap shop dump and he would sell it on eBay. Uh he has a nice swap shop dump. And um if he could pay for his whole season that way, right? That was the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

With junk that he found that he could sell on eBay, which was awesome, and he would pay for his cyclocross season.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, because also, I mean 30, 40, 50, um, and you're around here, great. But when you get to like 80, 100 per person, because we do tend to do a lot of together, and then you are gonna drive, like we've some of our favorites have been up in Kingdom Trails area, so that's a four-hour.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

So there's driving, there's fuel, there's then hotel costs. Right. So not many rides. Some rides would just have one overnight, but others have two overnights. You want it, you need to get there, say, the Friday night, so that you're there very early morning, Saturday for the ride. And then if it's a really tough ride, you're exhausted, you just want to hang out, maybe go to the hot tub, you're gonna go out to to to dinner with friends, and then you so you want to be there that night before you come home on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

This is where having the van has become nice because we had that ride from there's a province, uh Plymouth to Provincetown ride. Right. Right. And we slept in a parking lot in Plymouth so that we could get up first thing in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

This Plymouth to Provincetown ride is the best value ride in existence, in my my opinion. Here's something that costs under 60, and so you have an organized ride where they take your where they drive your stuff the the the 90 miles to the finish, where you get food along the route and you have a ferry ride back to your start point.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Right. But in their in the defense of the ones that have gotten more expensive, right? It's a it's basically it's a slightly supported ride, right? So they don't have to file with the different towns for the police, they don't have to like the expenses really go up to the other.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Well, and it's also organized by really a friend's ride.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

It's a friend's ride. It's a friend's ride, and we help pay to cover the expenses. The reality is we can't do every ride. We have a particular restriction, or at least you do, I don't, which is Saturdays because the shop is open. Right. So there are a lot of great rides on Saturdays that we don't do because we're open.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, and I and I pick and choose my Saturday rides to do uh that I'm gonna be close for.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah, I don't want to sound like I don't want to sound like it's sour grapes on the cost going up. It's just that cost is a consideration in what we're looking at how much yeah, exactly. Now the other the other consideration is especially with gravel, is the mileage to elevation. And you kind of have a formula that says at the very least says this is hard, this is very hard, this is Kristen's gonna cry.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Right. And that's and you it depends on how you want to look at it. It all it's always exactly the same thing. It's a hundred feet per per mile, a thousand feet per ten, you know, which is usually how I consider it, a thousand feet per ten, which is a hundred per mile. Do the math. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

So if you have well, if you have a if so Herman Overland is 55 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Right. So you're over you're over the 1,000 per 10. Got it. Right. So that's a very, very difficult ride. Which we know it is. Right. And so you know, if you have a a lot of the centuries around here might be in the 6,000 range. So you're only you're only at 600 per um per 10. Okay. And um, and that's hilly, that's that you're it's a it's a big climbing day, but it's not a leg breaker.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Right. There are two, there are a couple of factors for me uh that I know we're looking at rides. There's the rides that I love the event. I'm not a fan of the ride.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I'll put um Raspberry Pizza in that one. Love the event, love the organizers. They're they're on hold this year, love everything about it. Um, it's a little too early in the year for me. It's just really mucky and cold. Well, that's their question that's their appeal. That's their thing. That's their branding. Raspberization mud season. Totally love it, you know. Um, so there's that, and then there is the like, how much climbing do I want to do?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I mean, as cyclists, let's face it, we love punishing ourselves. So we like, right? Like a lot of us will go out and we'll do these very difficult rides, and you get to the end and you're exhausted, and you're like, well, that was a tough day. And then it all of a sudden you're like, Yeah, I'm coming back next year. Like, like, yeah, let's do it again.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah, right? And then you get your then you get your Strava wrap-up at the end of the year, and you're like, look at all the amazing things I did. And right, yeah, no, I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Like it's what we do on a bike.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

It is it's funny the number of times I have ridden now from like Plymouth or Bourne to Province Town, you know, so up to Cape Cod that uh I wouldn't drive that because that sounds horrible.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

But somehow riding it is hard, but not completely unreasonable.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Completely unreasonable.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

We've done events in bad weather that I've had an awesome time in, and we've had events in some bad weather that um you got hypothermia. Hypothermia, yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, that that almost basically break you.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Um that's the the challenge of riding together but not together. So we'll take that example. So we did Raspberry Tizza one year, and you went off ahead, as you did. That was the plan. Um, and it was raining slash snowing, and as we went up, the temperature dropped from a balmy 40.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

35.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

It was above the freezing mark to below. It was a 10 degree drop. This is what I remember to be true. Everything was wet. Yep. I was completely numb. I got to the top of a thing, and I was like, I think I'm gonna call this. And you were standing there at the top.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah, but there is no calling it there, right? There's nobody to bring you back, there's no support, there's no it's like semi-supported. There was like groups that I mean there was that there was a rest stop there, if you will, with food, but there was nobody there that could No, that's where I was gonna stop and say, I'm gonna need some help.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

I can't finish this. Like I had a pl I thought in my head, but then I found you right at the top.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

And what was going through your head that made you stop at that point?

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Well, well, I stopped, probably grabbed, filled a bottle or grabbed food, and then I was like, This is brutally bad out here. Like, how is Chris you just thinking about you? You must be just in bad shape or or freezing.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

So I was and I didn't know where you were, and because we're in the middle of nowhere, there's no cell phone signal, so I could not track you, I could not call you, I could not like do anything but just wait for you and to see how you were.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yeah, but you were not dressed.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

No, but but in the process of standing there for 40 minutes soaking wet in 25 degrees, uh yeah, that that's what hit me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

And I will be forever grateful to the organizers who brought a they drew they drove past in a pickup truck with too many people already in it and said, Is he okay? And they said he is not okay. And so they loaded you in like a log. That's a good story to just uh explain why I'm kind of over the unsupported rides. Um there's a there's a type of particularly I think in gravel, but I don't think I see it as much in other group rides we've done. But in gravel that tends to be, and and maybe it's just because they're in the mountains, there's no cell signal, there's no but um the idea of just kind of flinging myself into the wilderness without any call, um, especially.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

And no sag wagon, nothing, nobody to pick you up.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I mean, they tell you, let's be clear. You you know what you're signing up for. It says it is an unsupported ride. Um, and we even organize some unsupported rides. We have what we call our uh hallowed grode, which is we set up the course, but it's on you. You have a good time, good luck. Right. Um, but that's in suburban Massachusetts, um, close to facilities versus in the in the woods, especially uh during the the shoulder season, the the the spring, you know, April. April.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Right. April's tough, right? April's tough. Now the thing that gets me are the are the rides that cost a lot, cost as much as any other ride, but then the rest stops. To me, if I'm paying$90 for a ride, then the rest stops that they have organized should have supplies. But I have been on rides where they have like nothing, basically. Yeah. Right? Um, you know, one where they just they even like ran out of water. All they had was water, and then they ran out of that for half the riders.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So And if it's anything you need, water. Right? That's please you yeah, some salt package.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

So that's just that's just not like that's a kind of ride that I just won't go back to. I mean, I I like if I'm paying 90, I expect I expect nutrition at the stops.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

What's your favorite snack you've gotten on any supported ride?

SPEAKER_00 19:32

That is easy. That is on Jeremy Powers' Grand Fundo ride. Okay. And so his mother makes these peanut butter, fluff, and blueberry sandwiches. And bacon. I was gonna say, I thought there was bacon. That bacon's an optional one, and you know, the answer. That is just a phenomenal sandwich. That's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Um that is the ride also where I discovered the power of pickles. I had never not a big pickle person, but they had on that first Grand Fondo that I did, where someone literally, we were going up what King's Highway is it?

SPEAKER_00 20:12

It was called King's Highway. It's not on the current route right now, but I think it was called King's Highway.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

I rode by and I was like, someone threw up, right? Like they had, and I and I had said that to someone at a restaurant. I was like, someone threw up. And he goes, That was me. I didn't even stop.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Like you just speaking of pushing your 18th percent grade or something.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

They had a big oh 18% grade when my Garmin screen goes to what I call ox blood red.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Um, but they had a big vat of just pickle spears at this ride. And I mean it was in hindsight, probably a little gross that we were just pulled out a pickle spear, but oh, it's the best.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Well, that's what that's pickles are the best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

It was the best. I had, I will admit, I had no idea that that ride that was a great one. I really enjoyed it. Good, and it and it's and it and it benefits a great excellent rest stop food, excellent rest stop food, excellent after party food.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah. Excellent. They and they even have breakfast before, which is unusual, and it's just what a great ride.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Right. I can't really do breakfast before. I'm so sensitive. Like I need I it's funny we talk about all of the foods at the rest stops. I actually rarely eat the food at the rest stops because I'm so sensitive, and so I know what works for the food.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, and I don't want to carry all the food on me. So I will carry a few gels and and another snack or something, but I don't want to be weighed down by all that food, which is why if I'm spending$90 on a ride, I want I want the rest stops stocked with food.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, see, I'm saying I do carry most of what I'm gonna eat because I don't trust like I have dairy issues and I have so um it's just interesting and it must be impossible for race organizers to um or ride organizers to figure that out. Which brings us to how we find our rides, um, because that can feel a little overwhelming. Um first stop bike reg.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Bikeregge.com that that has almost any any event in the country, mountain bike, gravel, um, a road, um, and anything else in between, um, they're going to like uh you know an event organizer is gonna list there. Um that's where you would sign up for it, that's where you would have the event details or the links to the event details. Yeah. Um, but but not every organizer's you know puts it on there at the same time. So an event this coming July might not be on bike reg yet. So you really have to um constantly look on bike reg.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

You can also, if it's a past event, like if it's a repeated event, correct, it may have been there from the year before. And that can at least give you an idea of when it's gonna be. Because they do tend to be around the same weekend, right? So let's say you were interested in farmer's daughter.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Um that's a gravel ride in New York.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

It's a gravel ride in New York. Oh, yes, it's on my list. Yep. Um, it's this year, it's May 18th. Yep, that's always May.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

But that, like you could look back to last year and be like, oh, this one looks interesting, and it's there's independent websites as well that will list gravel events, especially, um, and mountain bike events. Um, so those are places you kind of have to search around for those a little bit. There are some websites coming together for um sort of gravel-oriented information and routes and so forth, and those will list events. Um, the other place is festivals. So festivals a lot of times will not be on bike reg. Some will be on there. That's their their method of of um of signing up for the whole event. But uh but festivals, which applies mostly to mountain bikes, I'd say. Um, but they'll of course if you go to a mountain bike festival, they're gonna have group rides all day long. Multiples.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

I yeah, love a good mountain bike festival.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, last year we went to Flowfest. Yeah, uh Flow State. Flow State. Uh that was in Scutney, Vermont. Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

We used to go to um Nemba Fest, and I remember one of our friends saying, Um, what do you want to we're we should ride together? And I was like, dude, I can ride with you at home and I adore you, and I want to do that, but I just want to ride with women. Like I was like, this is the only time, especially with mountain biking. Cycling in general is pretty, you know, male-oriented. Um, so I could just join women's rides after women's rides, and it was really awesome. And then there was that one sometimes, it'll surprise you, like when we went to Stowe several years ago for we were there for my parents' anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

That's right, and we took the kids and we just went up there just for to make a weekend out of it.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, brought our bikes because we have our bikes too.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

And we get up there, and it was the um the 3B, it was like the beers, uh should look beats and uh no brews, beats, and bikes. Yeah, yeah, we gotta look that up. Um, so they have this weekend festival B3 bikes, brews, and beats. Bikes, bikes, brews, and beats. So uh mountain bike rides um all weekend long and bands playing, and of course, they have lots of breweries and and so forth going on there.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

So sadly, the site I'm looking at it says the next one will be June 29th, 2018. So I don't know if that's still going on. But um, yeah, I mean, there are a lot of festivals like that. There's also um fundraising rides that aren't necessarily gonna end up on correct, right? Right, like the Alzheimer's ride. Yeah, the brain tumor ride, brain tumor ride.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Uh mini uh many, I should say. We everything compared to the PMC is a mini cancer ride. But um lots of different cancer uh fundraising rides.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yep. Yeah, and and we get a ton of stuff at the shop. We get a lot of unsolicited uh packages of flyers about different rides and we will put them up.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, but mainly fundraising rides. So so a great place to find out about fundraising rides is a local shop because yeah, they'll they'll usually have a bulletin.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

So what I do just what we do is at the beginning of the year I start just a list of all the sometimes I've used Pinterest for this because we're not. Um and I just I go through like I I go through um bike reg and I just write down dates and race name names and links and at some point we have to call it.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

So what is your I mean we talked about the top the top rides you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

We so I started putting my list together. Okay. Um well first of all, I would love to do Farmer's Daughter, which is on my list for a while too.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

We've never done that.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

I think that's the weekend our son graduates from college this year.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Okay, so that's out.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Um right. I just read about one called Velo Studio Velo Stelo Studio, that was what you used to be called. Um Velo Stowe.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Velo Stowe in Stowe. Stow Vermont. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Yep, it's a fundraiser. It's by what was that hitchhiker mountain bike shop that we stopped by, remember? Um he they organize it and um it benefits some local organizations. But it's uh but it's kind of short, like mileage-wise, the number of miles to drive.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Right. Yep, see, so you're you're balancing that balancing act.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Um I really liked Raid Rockingham last year.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

So Raid Rockingham is a group that's yeah, that that is a uh uh uh you know professional event organizer who does a bunch of these. Um and so yeah, I had you know what I had a really great time at Raid Rockingham last year. I could do that again.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, that had more that had more dirt than I think we thought it was going to.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

I I had done it, that was my only second time, and the previous year was I mean boy, it was probably like 2016 was the first time I did it, right? Yeah. So um, and I do this did seem like it had more off-road than the first year, but that could just be pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

295. It's a group called Gravel GR VL Cycling, so they do several, they also have a really cool thing called the Gravel XX Project, which is dedicated to getting more women to do their gravel events, which is awesome. So like to support that. Okay. Um, so that's one on my list. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Um, well, I am signed up for the Rift this year.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Oh, is that all?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

So the Rift is a gravel ride in Iceland. Uh that was a bucket list thing, and then a couple of people I know signed up for it, and that snowballed into the just I there must be at least 15 people I know now signed up for it. So um, yeah, so that's that's on the list.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

That is a huge one. And we do do that's in July. We do do do solo rides. There are times where I just that is not one I'm interested in.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Right. And I don't often do these uh certain certain far travel um. No, you've been to Iceland.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

When did you guys go to Iceland before?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

We did do an Iceland trip in 2018. Okay. Um for mountain biking. Okay. Um, so this is a gravel event, one one-day gravel event.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

All right.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Um, what else is on my list?

SPEAKER_01 29:47

What about D2R2? Tell me about D2R2, because I have not done it. You have.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

D2R2. Okay. So no, no, I have not.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Oh, you haven't? That's been on your list. This is what we always used to go on vacation.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

We used to always go on vacation that weekend. And um, and then um a couple years ago during COVID, um our friend Jeff organized a small group ride to basically do the route. So there were five of us, six of us, I believe, on that. Um, and it was like a spectacular route in Western Mass.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

So wait, it's in Western Mass? Yeah. I thought it was in Vermont.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

No, Western Mass. Well, you tr you ride into Vermont, but oh so here so so that is a fundraising ride, technically, for the for the land group uh group out there. It's basically to preserve open space. Um and it is expensive and it always somewhat hits my my like, you know, I've spent too much on rides already this year. Oh, it's a mental year because it's like August. Right. And so it hit I I hit this mental block about the spending of that much money at that time of year for whatever reason. And but that's only been the couple years that I've been open available to do it, and then just haven't. So um, but that we should do that. Yeah. Okay. That should be that should be on our list of it.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

I do have one complaint for ride organizers, which is um figure out where your stuff is because I just went to a detour choose site and it was like, save the date, August 19th, 2023. And I was like, oh no, is it gone? No, there's a different page that says it is August 23rd, 2025.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Ah, so just a remnant in there of the old.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Registration already opened. And registration already opened. Already sold up.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Well, that and that gets to now, and some of these some of these rides, you have to be at your computer ready to register the minute it opens, because it's going to be closed within an hour or a day.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

You said we don't often register right before. We often don't register right before because a lot of the ones have been sold out for months. Months. Right. Um, but you can do you can do for some of that. I don't know about D2R too, but you can do wait list. Has plenty of time. Yeah, you can do wait list, which is what my cousin did for Vermont Overlands last year, and then he ended up off the wait list. And it's like, do you know they just charge your credit card and let you and and put you in the ride? Right. Yes, that's what wait list wait list is. Um so do you think that one's a possibility?

SPEAKER_00 32:23

What do D2R2 for us? Yeah, I think we should seriously look at that this year.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

That wouldn't make me cry.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Yeah. No, no, no. Like, I mean, there they offer a lot of different routes, including some really long days in the saddle. Um, but I wouldn't necessarily go for that. Right. That's that's not gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

D2R2 means Deerfield Dirt Road Randon?

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Randonor, yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

What?

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Oh, Randon A, yeah. Randon A. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

What does Randon A mean?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

You know, all about oh no, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

That's why I asked. So my dad used to say to me, I would go, you know, and he'd say No, I don't know. All right. Okay, so D2R2 is one on my list that I'd like to look at. I we just have to look at the dates for when our children go or actually just our daughter goes back to college. Right. Um and oh um well PMC Unpaved.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

PMC Unpaved.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

So PMC Unpaved is a gravel ride raising money for Dana Farber Cancer Institute. That's in August.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Oh no, I'm September, September. Yeah, they've been flip-flopping between September and October.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yes, that is, I will say, the best uh supported gravel ride I've ever done. Um any others on your list? What's a what's a ride? Well, you're doing the rift, so you're already doing it. I know that pretty much, right? The ride I would love to do, and I don't think we can do it this year either, is the five boroughs ride. Oh, that's been on your list for a while. That has been on my list for a while. It used to live there. Right. I just think the idea of riding closed roads in there around, I'm sure it's expensive because you can't close roads in your city and not pay a pretty penny. But I just think that would be just urban adventure. That is that's definitely high on my own. Every time it comes up, I go, hmm.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

All right, well, we'll keep that on the top of our list of things every year to take a look at. Okay, so one more event type of situation, which is not not a ride, not necessarily event for people, but that is um professional races.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Oh, professional the us not re Us not signing up for races, but us going to watch people who know what they're doing. Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

So last year we went to the Mountain Bike World Cup race in Lake Placid. It was the first year in Lake Placid. It's gonna be there the next two years. That last year it coincided with the on PMC on Paved, so we had to leave PMC early at about 3 p.m. after the ride, um, drive to Lake Placid so that we could get to our campsite and see what we were doing to get there. Um, and then the race, and then we caught the the final race on that Sunday. But it but the but there were races Friday and Saturday that we had to miss. Yeah. Um and then P then they're moving that event one week, but PMC moved their event one week, so they coincide the same time. So this year we would love to go back to Lake Placid, but we're just not going to this year. But there are there's a lot of riding at these events. You're gonna you're gonna a lot of riders there, you're gonna enjoy yourself riding the trails, you can ride the race course the next day.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Um, so and it's such a small world. Remember, we were at the campground and we were talking to another couple, and it turned out they were from I don't even remember where they were from, but our daughter and their daughter had raced cyclocross together. Oh, that's right. And you we found pictures of that. We had a picture of her of their daughter. I was like, well, I only have a couple of pictures from that from Connecticut when the Cyclocross championships. That's why, because it was it was the U.S. championship, so people would have come from and she was racing, right? She was racing. She was she was still racing. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's it for episode one.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

I think so too. Cycling Together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy and Sundon Marketing. To learn more, including how to submit a comment, question, or topic suggestion, you can visit cyclingtogether.bike. Yes, dot bike is a real domain. Um, and if you liked the show, this first episode, very first episode, like it, share it, um, leave a comment. I'm we'd love to know what you'd like to have us cover.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Yeah, we're we're keeping the topics um, you know, rolling as we as we jot them down and figure out what we're gonna talk about. Yeah, yeah. But um, lots and lots to cover.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Good job.