I haven’t checked in in a while, so there’ll be a lot of somewhat unrelated things in this post. First of all, I did Ascutney back on July 18, and posted a report here. The next day, I drove up and did a loop around Lincoln Gap and App Gap. For Ascutney, I (with help from Brian, of course) set up the Circle A as a single front chainring of 26. Matched that with a 13-29 in the back. The gears felt just about right. I spun out on the brief down-hill/flat section at mile 2.5, but otherwise was fine. I spent a lot of time in the 26/29, but never felt like I wanted to downshift, and was able to shift up and down pretty smoothly as the pitch changed. (Contrast that w/ okemo where I was firmly stuck in the 34/29 from bottom to top.) For Lincoln, I of course needed some bigger gears (for the flat and descents), but also needed the low gears. I used the Gazelle for that, which, if you don’t remember, has a compact triple (46-36-24, w/ a 13-26 in the back). The 46/13 is a little easier to spin out on flats than you might want, but otherwise the gearing was also pretty good.

Ascutney Setup

Ascutney Setup

Lincoln Gap…starts out with a short steep section. Nothing to worry about. It levels off and gives you some extended false flats, which eventually become dirt. When the pavement returns, that’s when the fun starts. The transition from 36 to 24 is pretty hairy, so I stopped and shifted into the 24 right at that point, since I didn’t want to mess with it once the gradients really picked up. The next section is very steep, probably mid-teens. At a certain point, you turn a corner and see an immense section of over 20%. That part is going to hurt anyone, probably no matter what gears you bring. I did it in the 24/26. Once you get up that and turn the corner, it “eases up” to about 18%. It was at this point that I stopped for a breather. I couldn’t tell what would happen around the next corner, and the Gazelle doesn’t have a computer, so I didn’t know how far I had gone. Turns out if I had just perservered another little bit, I would have been at the top. Oh  well.

Next Item: Carrie went to a wedding a month or so back, and google maps inexplicably sent her on some back road on her way up to Burriville. Turns out it was a hill, and she asked if I had done it, which I had not. I went out on tuesday to give it a try. The road in question is Brayton, and is right near Burlingame. Nothing too difficult, but definitely worth knowing about. There’s another road (Rogler Farm) that also goes up to the same point. Here they are: