RTR Training Ride 2, The Ridening the Ridgening

Let’s get ready for our second Ride the Ridges Training Ride! We had a blast last week, it’s time to step it up a notch! This Sunday we’ll be adding some miles and adding some elevation. We gotta get down to brass tacks here, there’s less than 3 weeks people! More MILES, MORE FEET, MORE RIDE SNACKS!!!

Here’s the ride details:
Sunday, August 24
At Vermont Bicycle Shop (42 Summer St. Barre)
Gather between 9:00am and 9:15am.
Wheel roll at 9:30am

The ride will be 25 miles with a QUITE a few good hills in the mix.
The ride will be a mix of pavement, gravel, and narrow wooded path through the woods.
The ride is best with at minimum 35mm tires that have some kind of slightly knobby tread.
Riders should give themselves a window of 3 to 3 and a half hours for this ride.
The ride is pretty easy other than the hills, come and ride bikes with us! And while you’re at it, register for Ride the Ridges!

Here’s a preview of the route:

Here is a link to a GPX file of the route.

Cabot Ride the Ridges is an amazing fundraiser bike ride for the Cabot Mentoring Program. It’s 100% run by volunteers and there’s no ambiguity about where the finds go, all the proceeds from this event go to this amazing program.

Each year the Vermont Bicycle Club and Vermont Bicycle Shop crews participate in some form or another. This year we’re expecting our largest crew yet! Check out the page and if you haven’t signed up! There’s a super easy 10 kilometer ride (for the kids!). There is a 30k (about 19 miles) loop that you can decide to chop down to a 25k the day of the ride. The 60k is a good option for experienced cyclists who may not want to suffer the insanity of the hills. There’s also a pretty crazy 7000+ feet elevation 100k route as well. Cabot means of course amazing food at rest stops and at the end fo the ride. Plus the amazing wood-fired pizza after the ride in the town square make for a pretty great day in Cabot.

Everyone knows Darren works too much and rides too little. This year he has been busier than ever and Darren is wildly behind on the gravel miles. While he does have an ebike, it won’t help him with getting ready for a half day of saddle time without doing some training rides!

We all know Darren isn’t going to ride a traditional gravel ride, always expect a little adventure mixed in.
While these rides will still mostly be a party pace kind of ride, we’ve decided to call them a slightly more than beginner ride.
Riders are expected to have some kind of way to navigate the route on their own. You can do that in the Ride Club app, click here:

Riders are expected to keep pace with the group while also being patient enough in the instance that we decide to stop and make mud pies or help frogs cross the road.
Riders should expect some hill climbing at a slow to moderate pace.
Riders are required (if they haven’t yet this year) to sign our rider waiver. You can do that here.
Riders are required to have a helmet and a flashing rear light.
Learn more about all the requirements here:
https://vermontbicycleclub.com/2021/03/26/joiningus/