I saw a coworker out on his bike a few months back along a path I frequently drive at lunch. It is a nice little loop, crossing over two bridges and through the woods. I asked him about it and he said it was a nice little 10 miler that fits in perfectly with out required hour long lunch.
So I mapped it out, it turns out to be 11.2 miles.
So I brought in my bike to give it a go.
I will never, ever, be doing that again. Leaving work you head down Admiral Cochran, a two lane 30 mph road. Not all that bad. You then get on Route 2. Down to the first bridge it isn't bad, a large shoulder. Going across the bridge is great. After that? Screw everything about that road. A three lane highway with a "bike lane" that starts and stops randomly and way too many cars getting on and off. Luckily that is only for a mile or two before you can take an early right to get over to Route 214. At that point, there is a rather large shoulder and the speed limit isn't all that bad. Eventually you get on Riva Road.
Screw everything about that. Small-ish hills with no shoulders riding into curves.
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Luckily, I got through that mess without any issue and the cars behind me were kind enough to wait for a good minute until I was over the hill and they could see around me before they passed. After that little juncture the riding is fine until a few miles from work, where Riva turns into the second busiest street in Annapolis after West Street, there are no bike lanes, and there are businesses for cars to pull in and out of.
No. I don't think I'll be doing that route again anytime soon. I'd rather run laps around the shopping center.
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wow theres a place called Londontowne!
ReplyDeleteTheres some steep climbs there, although I suspect that 2 of them are the GPS seeing the river bed and not the bridges. Glad you made it all safely mate.
Haha aye, Londontowne. And yea, the bridges are probably 10-15 feet above water, so some of those steep climbs that appear in the altitude map aren't bad at all.
ReplyDeleteSounds a bit hairy mate but like Adrian said London is like that most of the time, a lot of the cycle lanes u cant use coz that part of the road is so badly rutted, so i spend a lot of my time avoiding the ruts and hollows, and of course some idiot drivers
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