John Aylward Photography

Today’s Highlights:

I took an easy ride early this Sunday morning when it was cool and quite, with very little traffic.  I stayed close to home to simply do a little hill training.  Near the end of my ride, I escaped instant death by about one second.  I was crossing an intersection, when a truck coming from the opposite direction started a left-hand turn onto the adjoining street and was heading at me for a head-on crash.  He was going very fast, because he was traveling down a hill (that I was climbing) and his turn was more like a bare-left rather than a 90-degree intersection.  I had to alter course away from him and crank hard to escape to the side of the road. He flew by right behind my rear wheel.

I was on my second pass up this hill climb.  The GPS route captured on the picture below shows my normal route (#1) across the intersection and my escape route (#2).  The cars path is approximately the yellow line.

I have been trying to take it easy these two weeks before the big ride.  I was reminded today that even a simple ride close to home requires attention to safety.

Pictures Of The Day:

Statistics: Zoom and pan the map to explore the route.

Time: 8/26/2012, 3:50:1

Duration: 46:38

Ascent/Descent: 815 ft 848 ft

Distance: 10.43 M

Today’s Highlights:

Today I participated in an organized ride by Bike New York.  The route I chose was 105 miles.  It started in Poughkeepsie at the end of Main St on the banks of the Hudson River.  We first traveled south through Poughkeepsie and Wappinger Falls, then west over the Beacon-Newburgh bridge.  On the west side of the Hudson, the route headed north along River Road past many fine homes.  Then we entered a rural area past farms and orchards, and had some steep hills to climb, but offering very nice views.  Once in Highland, we headed east over the Hudson again on the new Walkway Over The Hudson.  That completed the lower 44-mile loop south of Poughkeepsie.  From there, the remaining 60 mile loop was mostly on the east side of the river north of Poughkeepsie.  We traveled through Hyde Park and Rhinebeck, and over the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge for a brief visit in Kingston and a nice scenic stop at Ulster Landing.  We looped back to the Kingston bridge, which is great to ride across because the railings are low and you get an expansive view of the river north and south, with the Catskill Mountains to the northwest and the Hudson Highlands to the south.

Back on the east side of the river, we followed country roads through Rhinebeck and had one final rest stop at the 83-mile mark.  I have to admit that I was a little tired at that point and for the next ten miles my pace was a bit slower.  Luckily at about 95 miles I felt good again and the last 10 miles were smooth sailing.

I completed the ride with my best century time ever and felt very good.  This will be my last long ride before the west coast tour.  I will switch to hill training for the next couple weeks.

Discover Hudson Valley Day 01

Statistics: Zoom and pan the map to explore the route.

Time: 8/12/2012, 4:22:2

Duration: 07:36:00

Ascent/Descent: 4568 ft 4574 ft

Distance: 105.06 M