I think the idea of a Heroic USA sounds great.
I would suggest that you don't get mesmerized and fixated on the sh....
roads you can find .
Get a few sections of old time Binda stuff but don't worry too much on
outdoing the Euros at how tough you can make it.
Make it fun, up and down and around our beautiful countysides. A couple of
miles and basta of how it was will be just fine for 90% of the participants.
Too much tough stuff on thin tire bikes, will have too much spilling and
equipment risk.
No matter how long your waivers are a good attorney will punch a black hole
so big through it you'll end up on Andromeda.
Old pavement, Pave, some dirt, a little gravel and away you go.
Remember you using classic oulde retro machines today.
Parts and the finishes on the classics are treasured, hard to come by and
expensive.
Make it a fun and memorable test and you'll be turning them away by the
droves.
Make it too 1890's and you'll have scorchers, thrill seekers and guys acting
like dune buggies because the crazies tend to come out and overdo everything
in our society. It's a curse of our overindulged culture.
I 've only traveled in about 35 countries and only have a smattering of
experience on American behaviour of you get the point.
The old timers in Europe grew up with the "rustic" conditions and have an
entirely different attitude and respect for the challenge at hand.
By all means, have a go, but temper the irrational exhuberance as it were,
please.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
> Todd, what about the areas around Mt. Diablo
>
> Mike Schmidt
> Stirling, NJ
>
>
>
>
> On 9/17/06 4:16 PM, "thteach@sonic.net" <thteach@sonic.net> wrote:
>
>> Of the places I've been in my life that would have interesting and
>> challenging dirt roads in the spirit of the great european bike race
>> courses, I nominate rural Boulder County, CO. When I lived there in the
>> 80's they had lots of dirt roads, many roads with long grades in the 4-9
>> percent range, and shorter grades in the 9-15 percent range. Add to that
>> elevations in the 8,000 to 12,000 foot levels and you get a real
>> challenge!!!! Boulder remains a road bike mecca so support is there.
>> Gotta watch out for those afternoon thunderstorms though.
>>
>> Michigan has a lot of dirt roads, too. Unfortunately they are too flat
>> or
>> too short.
>>
>> I would guess that Smokey Mountains (N. Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee)
>> and
>> Appalacians(sp?) in West Virginia would have some interesting routes,
>> too.
>> Do we have any members who can comment on these or maybe the Ozarks in
>> Missouri?
>>
>> The Marin Headlands on the other side of the Golden Gate from San
>> Francisco offers lots of dirt roads (fire roads and single track) but
>> they
>> are steep. I was evaluating a 100k route there. The route we did was
>> about 57 miles. It included about 22 miles on dirt and there was 9500
>> feet of climbing
>>
>> Todd Teachout
>> Hercules, CA