July century ride No. 1: My first 'bent century!

So in July I managed to do three rides of 100 miles or more. The first and third were about 100 miles each; the second one was a 150 miles, a century and a half. This post will be about the first century ride, I'll post later on the other century and on the century and a half rides.


The Rans Tailwind I rode (Tommie's new Bacchetta Giro in background) My buddy Tommie, who got me into road cycling last summer, rides a recumbent. He'd had a Rans Tailwind for years, but this summer decided to upgrade. We made the trek to Alfred, NY, to the Bicycle Man store, which specializes in recumbents and lets you take them all out for a spin. I tried a bunch along with Tommie. He ended up buying a Bacchetta Giro, a very cool bike. And that meant that his Tailwind was now free for me to ride. So I started going out with him riding the 'bent.

Riding a 'bent is different than riding a road bike. It's definitely more comfortable. But it also takes different muscles than an upright. I'd ridden the 'bent a couple of hundred miles and was enjoying it, so I thought it would be fun to do a century ride on the 'bent with Tommie.

I picked a route that covered roads I'd ridden before, south of here, a route that was overall pretty flat. But I wanted to avoid Rt 17c west of Owego, so I plotted a route on the other side of the Susquehanna.

We left and headed east on Rt 79. I don't think I'll do that again, the traffic out of Ithaca in the morning, especially the big trucks, was pretty awful. Anyway, we got out of town and continued on 79 all the way past Caroline, and turned right onto West Creek Rd. This is a nice pretty quiet road that is relatively flat, a few rollers, and it brings you all the way down to Rt 38 just north of Owego. I decided to take Back West Creek Rd, which has almost no traffic, but is a bit hillier than West Creek, and unfortunately is gravel at a couple of points. We then headed into Owego, where we stopped at the pizza place on Lake St., then at a store to get a rain poncho for Tommie, since it had started to drizzle.

After eating a bit, we crossed the bridge over the Susquehanna and turned right onto Southside Drive, and then turned onto Sulphur Springs Rd. This turned out to be more of a climb than I thought -- 300 feet over about 1/2 mile or so -- and remember, 'bents aren't as good on climbs as road bikes. We made it no problem. It's really a beautiful road, hardly any traffic, through forested area. We turned onto Smith Creek Rd and followed that to the end. This was a rolling road, through forests and fields, very nice. The problem came at the end. The maps, both online and paper, showed this road going all the way through to River Rd. But it actually dead-ended at a huge warehouse, with a road going around it. We turned left, hoping to find a way to River Rd, but nothing seemed to go there, and the road was quickly headed uphill. So I stopped and asked some people; turns out they rerouted the road, and we should have turned right at the end of Smith Creek Rd. So we headed back, went around the warehouse, and found River Rd.

We biked along River Rd, and met up with our friend Denny -- on a 'bent, of course -- in Nichols. We rode with Denny through Athens, up to Sayre, along the bike route on River Rd, right alongside the Susquehanna, then at Chemung onto Rotary Rd and up onto Wyncoop Creek Rd. This is a great ride, rolling and headed uphill from Chemung, but quiet and nice. Denny rode with us part of the way then headed back. We continued on to Van Etten, climbing to the crest of the hill, then a big downhill. From Van Etten, to Spencer, back to Ithaca on Rt 34/96.

Overall this was a fun ride. It was slower than my other centuries -- I haven't yet developed my "bent legs" -- but definitely more comfortable! There was also more climbing that I'd planned, almost 3600 feet, rather than the 2700 or so I was hoping for. But I'm planning another bent century in September.


The route

Route: Ithaca - Owego (via 79 & West Crk Rd) - Sayre - Van Etten - Ithaca
Total distance: 105.92 miles
Ride time: 07:59'17
Avg speed: 13.26 mph
Total climb: 3576 ft
Low point: 390 ft, Ithaca
High point: 1348 ft, on Wyncoop Creek Rd outside of Van Etten
Avg climb: 33.76 ft/mile