CycleFest is coming - 6/13/04 Bethel, CT

CycleFest, the invitational ride of the Hat City Cyclists' (Danbury, CT) is on
6/13/04 a Sunday. My plan is to be there, Bethel, CT at 7am when registration
opens and break last year's record of four jelly donuts. I'll be doing the
century, but there are several other distance choices. This is one of the three
best invitationals I have done. Here's last year's ride report:

Ride Report: CycleFest

I arrived at Rogers Park school, Danbury about 7:15 am, June 8th (2003)to start
the Hat City Cyclists invitational ride. Since there were just a few cars in
the lot, I asked about attendance last year and this year. One of the
registrars said they had 300 riders last year; but fewer so far this morning
perhaps because of last night’s rain. I was given a map and a fanny tag to
prevent banditos from stealing food from rest stops.

The map had the rest stop on the 25 mile route closing at 12:30, so century
riders had to do that route first. I would have preferred to ride the 78 mile
route and then see how I felt and check the weather before committing to the
century.

Around 7:30 I was off under sunny skies and roads damp from yesterday’s rain.
Within minutes I was on the first climb across some small brooks and then along
Limekiln Brook enjoying the freshness of air cleaned by a strong rain. A great
start to what I hoped would be a great ride. The road was well marked with
large yellow arrows in advance of the turn, at the turn, and beyond the turn.
Sometimes there were just straight arrows. This was one of the best (if not the
best) marked routes I’ve ever ridden.

After a short distance on US302, I stopped to take a picture. A SAG drove up
behind me wanting to know if I needed help. I should have asked which f-stop to
use, but I just waved my camera at him. Since I was doing this ride alone, it
was comforting to know that SAGs were out; I was passed often by SAGs during the
rest of the ride. Soon I was off US302 and in the middle of the woods often
without another rider in sight and more importantly no cars in sight. After
riding along the north end of the Saugatuck reservoir I turned back north toward
Danbury. Around here I rode by the first rest stop because I didn’t need water
or food. Rest stop workers waived at me so I would be sure to see them.

After I got on CT53, I saw some cars until I turned off in two or three miles.
Again I was on almost desolate road with few other riders or cars around. For a
while I rode with riders who were familiar with the route until one dropped a
water bottle. I continued on almost to Memorial Drive, Danbury, but I skipped
the rest stop there. I followed a SAG through Danbury until he made the light
by the train station and I had to stop. It was a long mile before I crossed I84
and into a residential area. These couple of miles were the only bad parts of
the route.

The route went close to Lake Candlewood, but it was a while before I was close
enough to see the water. About this time Team Zephyr came by. I tagged on at
the end of their paceline for a while. They dropped me on the descent to
Squantz Pond where I was having some shifting problems. When I was between
Squantz and Candlewood I stopped to take a picture of the large house halfway up
the hill to the west.

About this time I began noticing that I was dodging lots of potholes. I was
also noticing that I was getting hungry and thought that I should have stopped
in the bakery I passed. I can remember my father taking me to the local bakery
when I was less than five and having the baker pass me a jelly donut through the
window. I thought about eating a Clif bar, but decided to wait for the rest
stop.

The ride continued along the lake until reaching Sherman where I rode almost in
a circle following the route. It directed us off CT39, first west, then north
and east, and finally south back on CT39 less that a mile north from where it
left CT39. That part of the route was particularly pretty.

After a few more miles I rode into the Gaylord’s rest stop. The first food I
spotted was a large box of jelly donuts. From that moment this ride became the
jelly donut century. At the rest stop it was - now you see it; now you don’t
and that jelly donut was history. There were other kinds of donuts there. I
looked at some cookies and decided to put a couple half bagels in my back
pocket. I had half a banana passing up oranges and watermelon. While I ate a
second donut I thought about the sushi century; the Harmon Hundred serves sushi
at its second rest stop.

The Gaylordsville rest stop was along the Housatonic River which I crossed a
couple of tenths of a mile after leaving. Onward to Kent, Macedonia, and NY
state. The route which had little traffic and lots of scenery went along the
river and the Housatonic railroad line until the route crossed the river at
Kent. I rode along with a couple of other riders who left the rest stop about
the same time I did. Then a tandem with a rider in tow went by. Two of us
grabbed onto the train and went along for a while. Just across the river, the
Appalachian Trail crossed our route on CT341 and then I crossed into New York.
Rural roads in New York were quiet with too many potholes while state routes had
too much traffic. As I rode on NY22, I ate a bagel. About half of this upper
loop was in New York. When we crossed back into CT we were just a couple of
miles from the Gaylordsville rest stop and another jelly donut. The rest stop
was running out of bagels.

Initially the ride back to Danbury went along the Housatonic River and then
along Lake Candlewood. While the ride was pretty, there were lots of cars and
potholes. Views along the lake were great. After passing the end of the lake I
was ready for the ride to end. I muddled my way across I84 and through Danbury
to Rogers Park and the registration tent where the “survey person” got to give
me an oral survey. And my question back was: “The Hat City Cyclists gave free
t-shirts to the pre-registrants. How come the Hat City Cyclists aren’t giving
free hats - cycling hats, baseball hats, towel hats, straw hats, etc?”

The refreshments table still had jelly donuts, so I got to take a jelly donut
for the drive home!

Delorme’s Topo 3 assessed the route at 106.6 mi and 8025 ft of climbing.

EVALUATION

Brochure – I never saw a brochure, but there was some good information on the
Hat City Cyclists website.

Routes – good. Excellent terrain if you like hills, lakes, rivers. Some roads
had too much traffic; others too many potholes. It’s not necessarily easy to
find alternate roads

Intersections - excellent. Well marked with at least one warning mark, a mark
at the intersection, and a mark after the intersection plus many straight arrows
indicating the route.

Cue sheet – good. No map – not so good, since a map gives you the option to
pick a short cut if you are tired, it starts to rain, etc.

Rest stops – good. Great jelly donuts. There was a good selection of bagels,
cookies, fruit, but an alternative drink to water or Gatorade would be
appreciated. Shouldn’t run out of bagels. Great jelly donuts.

Sags – excellent. Sag wagons were all over the route.

Value – excellent.

Conclusion – I’ll be on this ride next year looking for jelly donuts.

Maybe they would rename this to JellyFest!

pete salomone wrote:

:: EVALUATION
::
:: Brochure - I never saw a brochure, but there was some good
:: information on the Hat City Cyclists website.
::
:: Routes - good. Excellent terrain if you like hills, lakes, rivers.
:: Some roads had too much traffic; others too many potholes. It's not
:: necessarily easy to find alternate roads
::
:: Intersections - excellent. Well marked with at least one warning
:: mark, a mark at the intersection, and a mark after the intersection
:: plus many straight arrows indicating the route.
::
:: Cue sheet - good. No map - not so good, since a map gives you the
:: option to pick a short cut if you are tired, it starts to rain, etc.
::
:: Rest stops - good. Great jelly donuts. There was a good selection
:: of bagels, cookies, fruit, but an alternative drink to water or
:: Gatorade would be appreciated. Shouldn't run out of bagels. Great
:: jelly donuts.
::
:: Sags - excellent. Sag wagons were all over the route.
::
:: Value - excellent.
::
:: Conclusion - I'll be on this ride next year looking for jelly donuts.