Next Stop: The Sourlands Semi Classic

As a child and teen I vacationed at Chincoteague on Virginia’s Eastern Shore once or twice every year. I loved the island and the whole Delmarva peninsula, as the riding was good and flat and the area was nicely rural with great seafood. Then at the age of maybe 20 I was looking at a map and was dumbfounded to realize that Delmarva really was DEL-MAR-VA, for the three states that make up the peninsula: Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. I had thought it was named after some early settler named Joseph Delmarva or something. Every now and then it is good to be reminded that you aren’t as smart as you think you are.

I had the same experience about a year ago. I was looking at the website of the Sourlands Semi Classic and it struck me: SSC. That logo looks like the red logo on a pair of Mavic SSC rim wheels I bought off Clydesdale Eric Lepping back in about 1988. The acronym for the Sourlands Semi Classic is the same as for Mavic’s Special Service Course (SSC). Duh.

Not recognizing the duality of the SSC logo for two or more years after I first saw it is point three of me not being as smart as I might think. Hmmm, you’re thinking, point one was the Delmarva epiphany, what was point two? That would be buying used wheels off a Clydesdale. That rear wheel was never quite round and I only used them as cross wheels a few times. The Campy hub wheels are worth quite a bit on Ebay, however …

All of this inside-baseball talk is just a reminder that SSC meant extra tough back then: Today, it means that you might not want to do the the SSC ride on your lighter race wheels with expensive oh-so-supple race weight 700x23s. Some do, but I want a less stressful ride so I suggest wider tires and wheels that might be a bit tougher.

What should be used if this is your first foray in to a mixed gravel/dirt/pavement event?

I’ve done all of my several (3?) Sourlands Semi-Classic rides the easy way: On a relatively modern 10 speed cyclocross bike with 700×32 Performance brand Gotham tires. I like these tires because they are cheap, they are pretty much ‘true’ 32s in a tire world where some 32s look more like 28s and some look like 35s, and the tread is somewhat more road-ish than a full knobby cross tire. And did I mention they were cheap?

If you have a cross bike with room for these tires, or a more modern road bike that has disc brakes, these tires will likely fit your frame. If you have traditional caliper brakes on a road bike, 32s likely will be too fat/tall. Most bikes that aren’t extreme race bikes will, however, take 28s. But what brand and model? I’m still experimenting and Googling on this, and welcome suggestions at redbrickbikes @ gmail.com. I know I need to try Vittoria open Pave CGs, perhaps in a 27mm width and at 85 or 90psi. Hutchinson has some options too, I think.

I was on this event a few years ago in a semi coherent pack of maybe a dozen riders, navigating a stretch of dirt road. I wondered aloud or said to my brother what I think would be the perfect tire for a spring classic: “I wish Continental would make a GatorSkin that actually had some tread.”

A woman a few bikes back chimed in her agreement, and others agreed. Somebody tell Continental. Maybe they’ve made such a tire — I am just not on top of the rubber market. Otherwise, somebody let the frauleins who make the brand’s tougher tires know what we want!

For this year’s SSC I am making a change. My recreational rider brother has a conflict and can’t do it, so I am free to ride at a bit of a faster pace. I have decided that I will use one of my favorite, and fastest regular old road bikes. This may go out the door if there’s been a lot of snow and rain in theĀ  two weeks before the event.

I believe the road bike I am considering has a 26 or 27 big cog on the back and just a 39 on the front — that is enough for these hills. But what 28mm tires should I use? Maybe even 25s? I have more than a month at this posting to decide and test some options.

What is the SSC event? It’s the first Kermesse Sport ride of the year, set for Feb. 25, 2018. It is designed to showcase some of the wonderful tough, beautiful paved and gravel roads of New Jersey’s sourlands region. It’s also aimed at paying tribute to some of the lesser known one day Belgian spring classics. It’s 60 or so miles is tough, but not as tough as the 80+ miles of March’s Hell of Hunterdon. Both events fill quickly by the way — they may already be filled!

The SSC is a great first event for those wishing to get a taste of gravel or dirt. It is hilly and you may get muddy. Finishing it will make you feel tough. That’s good. It will prepare you for rides like the Hell of Hunterdon and the famous Tour of the Battenkill in upstate New York, an April event.

I have done each of my SSCs on a cross bike with 32s — most experienced riders would say this is overkill, but I have played it safe until this year. Many use road bikes with thinner tires with less tread. I’ve seen hybrids and mountain bikes as well, on the other extreme. Whatever you choose, practice a bit on some slop roads or gravel trails. I play it safe and a bit slow on fast dirt downhills, but that is just me.

Practice. Mountain biking and cross skills such as quickly evaluating the trail and gently finding the good, safe, fast line matter, and can best be developed by riding off road once or twice per week in the Fall and Winter. You’ll also learn to use momentum to get through slop, and that turning and braking aren’t always the best thing to do once you’ve hit the mud.

 

The Fat Fifty: An early miss on the 2018 goals!

The point of highlighting a failure is to remind newbies to the way of the wheel that an occasional miss is OK. Pick yourself up and do something to make up for it. My failure to do my second Marty’s Fat 50 fifty mile Fat Bike ride/race* on January 13 was partly due to some freelance writing work I needed to stay on top of, but really due to the fact that I just wasn’t up to another ride that started at 10 degrees below freezing and ended hours later after it had ‘warmed’ to just about freezing at best.

The cold is also why I failed to do my first ever Rapha Festive 500, which is basically riding 500 kilometers total between Christmas eve and New Years eve. This would have been nice to do as it could have involved a few rides from Rapha’s new, evolving Washington, DC, presence, but the sting of missing this was offset by what still ended up as my longest mileage December ever, or at least in 30 years.

And that was on top of my longest Q4 ever, which reflects the fact that I became a randonneur in October, joining RUSA, the PA Randonneurs, and also the DC Randonneurs. NJ may follow. But more on taking up Randonneuring later, including some advice on extreme cold weather riding and riding through the night from these folks.

So no Marty’s Fat Fifty. Next year probably, and see my recount of last year’s ride from a bike industry perspective here. This story is aimed at encouraging bike shops to get Fat, but it also highlights just why a Fat Bike would be a good addition to the stable. I am still glad I got the Fat Bike on the first day of a big snow period two years ago, as I hate the damned trainer and indoor riding.

Now on my medium-term radar I have the 200K/120 mile D&L Fat Epic Fat Bike ride, probably not this year but maybe next year. One of the reasons this is of interest is that it starts in Yardley, PA, right near Newtown, PA, where I grew up and still frequent. But 200K in February, on a Fat Bike?! I sent the organizers a message that people like me would do it at 80 miles, but 120 is just too involved in terms of prep, the logistics of the event itself, and recovery … not this year.

As an alternative to the Fat Fifty, I’m flying to Tucson, AZ, to do a metric century (an RUSA permanent populaire actually, which will be 25% of my P-12 goal) that involves climbing and climbing and climbing up Mt. Lemon for hours, followed by a long descent.

* It’s really not a race unless it has a sanctioning body that provides you a license. Bike racers sometimes get annoyed when people call bike-a-thons and such races. Bike racing is different. Now bike racers more and more are ‘racing’ events and people often note the fastest finisher of course, but bike racing is different.