December Century Ride: N-S Double Loop, Fleming-Candor

The routeI did my first winter century ride of the season on Tuesday. December, January and February are the most challenging months for century rides because there are many fewer days that are good for all-day biking; plus, in December and January, the days are really short. In general when I'm planning a century ride, I check the weather reports for the next ten days, figure out which day is most likely to be good in terms of weather, and hope I can take that day off.

Checking ahead, this past Monday seemed like it would be great for an all-day ride: temps were to be in the 50s. Unfortunately I couldn't take that day off, but it ended up being warm but also raining.

So Tuesday was the day. It was supposed to be cold, in the 20s, but the roads were dry and it was partly sunny. So I took the day and rode.


Part of the balaclavaThe temperatures that day ranged from 22 to 30, so I dressed for the weather: on top, a merino wool base layer, a cotton turtle neck shirt, and my wind-proof and water-proof commuter biking jacket. On the bottom, merino wool base layer, biking shorts, and denim jeans. On top, a new fleece balaclava (just bought it at Target last weekend for $12) with breathable mesh over the mouth (this worked great, no glasses fogging!); and Visorgogs, which look a bit goofy, but do an excellent job keeping my eyes and upper face warm while not fogging up. On my feet (always my biggest challenge in winter riding) I wore cotton socks, two plastic shopping bags on each foot (for waterproofing), chemical hand warmers, then wool socks, and my regular biking shoes. This arrangement was a tight fit, but it actually kept my feet warm all day. (on edit: Forgot about my hands! I did wear gloves, my blaze orange fleece "Hot Shot" hunting gloves, they're great, with little grippers on thumbs and first two fingers.)

When the temperature is in the 20s, I usually arrange my century rides in loops that take me back home about half-way through the ride so I can warm up, change into dry and warm clothes, and eat. For this ride I plotted a north-south ride with two loops, first heading about 30 miles north to the town of Fleming, then back to Ithaca, then out about 20 miles to Candor and back.

I started out at 8am, half an hour after sunrise, which gave me 8½ hours total time before sunset. When I left it was 22 degrees, and there was a stiff north wind. Fortunately the roads and shoulders were all dry.

As I pedalled up Route 34 alongside Cayuga Lake, I could feel the wind, and knew that my northward ride was going to be slow.


Looking east from Indian Field RdIthaca to Lansing is about 7 miles, uphill climb of about 600 feet, but after that the ride is relatively flat - the remaining 23 miles had about 1000 feet of climbing. This part of the ride is entirely along state Rt 34, so I was riding on nice wide shoulders. It goes through mostly farmland, fields and dairy farms, and just before Genoa a very smelly and huge pig farm (which is much worse in the summer).

But I really felt the winds: they were 10-15 mph from the north pretty much the entire way. Then there are the huge trucks that just roar down 34, and it's amazing how much wind they generate, and when they're headed in the opposite direction, how much that really, suddenly, slows you down on a bike. I knew it would be really slow when I got to Genoa, at mile 18, and saw my average. Usually my average at Genoa is about 15-16 mph. On this ride, it was only 11.9.

I got to the Fleming-Scipio town line, at mile 30.51, at about 10:30. It had been slow going, so my average for the first 30 miles was only 12.38 mph.


At the town line road, I stopped for some water, then turned around and headed back south. About a mile down the road I turned right onto Black Rd. Black Road is also called Indian Field Rd, and is a north-south road that runs along the top of a ridge, so has a great view, including of Rt 34 across a big valley. Indian Field Rd. goes through fields, by barns, a sheep and goat farm, a number of dairy farms. It's rolling for about the first half, but from Rt 90 southward it's pretty much downhill and flat until Ludlowville.

At the Lansing town line the road becomes Salmon Creek Rd, and runs alongside that creek. Salmon Creek Rd runs through forests as well, and ends up in the little hamlet of Ludlowville. There's a steep downhill to a metal deck bridge, and then an immediate climb up Brickyard Rd, left onto Rt 34b, then right onto 34 and back into town. My average on this leg of the ride was better, 16 mph.

The first 60 miles of the ride went well. Apart from the strong north wind, I felt good. I stayed warm, kept up a reasonable pace, and got home at about the time I'd planned, 12:30pm.

At home I stripped off my wet clothes, changed into dry clothes (same outfit as at the start), ate some soup and other stuff, drank water, juice and soy milk, and by 1:10 was off again, now headed south for the second, 40 mile loop.

By this time, it had warmed up to about 29 degrees, and the wind had died down to a reasonable 5 mph. I climbed up South Hill along Rt 96b, which I followed all the way to Candor. This is a ride I'd done a few times before, the shoulder is nice and wide, and here too the roads and shoulder were dry. Interestingly, there was almost no snow on the ground on the northern part of my ride, but on this southern part, the ground and fields was still covered. Rt 96b from Ithaca to Danby is a climb of about 1000 feet over 10 miles. After Danby it's basically flat or downhill with a few rollers. I got to Candor, mile 80, at about 2:30, averaging 13.7 for that leg of the ride, which had an average climb over 20 miles of 57.4 ft/mile. The temperature had again fallen down to the mid-20s.

Stopping at Candor I saw that my water bottles had partially frozen, including about 1/2 inch at the very top. I used a key to chip a hole through the ice and managed to drink the unfrozen water. By the time I got home, all the water would be frozen along the sides of the bottles.

At Candor I turned around and headed back north along 96b. (BTW, as I was pedalling north, right near Mill St a car honked a few times at me, was that anyone out there?) I turned onto Wilseyville Rd and then onto Coddington Rd. Usually this is a ride into a strong headwind, but this time the wind wasn't too bad. Coddington is very flat, going through a kind of valley of farmland. I turned onto White Church Rd and headed towards Brooktondale. White Church is rolling, through farms and forest, very little traffic, and a steep downhill to Valley Rd, through Brooktondale, onto Brooktondale Rd, which is a flat couple of miles with an uphill to Rt 79. I then followed 79 back to Ithaca, this is flat to downhill, bringing you into downtown Ithaca.

I got home at 4:15, 15 minutes to spare before sunset. I felt fine, my feet weren't frozen, I wasn't exhausted. This turned out to be a nice winter century ride.

This marked century number 17 for me for 2008. I'll be doing the century a month challenge again next year. I can hope for a 50 degree January day (like we had in 2008), but I now have my cold winter day century strategy down. All I have to hope for are a few days of dry roads. And not too much wind!

Route: Ithaca-Fleming-Ludlowville-Ithaca-Candor-Brooktondale-Ithaca
Total distance: 101.80 miles
Ride time: 07:15:03
Avg speed: 14.04 mph
Total climb: 4263 ft
Low point: 394 ft, Ithaca
High point: 1310 ft, Danby
Avg climb: 42.63 ft/mile