Had a nice 3 hour road ride this afternoon, weather was glorious, with very few cars and no other bikes around. As I rode along I couldn't help wonder about how bad the roads are where I live - its almost like riding off road, only on an aluminium road bike its probably harsher than on a full suss mountain bike.
Anyway after about an hour I hit a stretch of about 500m of freshly laid tarmac which was so smooth and fast that I almost went back and rode it again. It did get me pondering the question - is "freshly laid tarmac the road rider's equivalent of singletrack ?
Fresh tarmac is beautiful, lovely feeling.
Mind, I'm pretty partial to a nice gravelly, pot-hold descent with leaves and water. About the only time I can put a gap into people much fitter than I am. 🙂
yep, smooth undulating, slightly twisty downhill roads with a tail wind. Almost as good as a good bit of singletrack - Almost !
i've ridden 25 miles to go bag some fresh tarmac, up, down, up again, down again, just the right sequence of bends, just the right gradient, then i rode the 25 miles back home
it helps when friends send you pictures of said fresh tarmac near their homes
🙂
well this bit was just bliss, came at just the right time and was also unexpected 🙂
I was lucky enough to ride up (and down) the Kitzbuhler horn two days after it had been resurfaced. 1000m vertical gain, 10 mile length, and 18 perfectly crafted switchbacks. The best road ride I've ever done!
JoB- next time you're Cheltenham way come and ride the road through Cranham. Super smooth and undulating. Think it got resurfaced 1.5years ago. Yummy.
Also have a nice warm up uphill spin getting there. Sure we can make some excuse to call it work!
The new bits where I live are the worst, loose flint chips just chucked down that take months the get flattened in.
The state of the roads is why I use 25mm tyres (not that it makes much difference!).
It's all hills and bumpy roads here, I get aa buzz when I reach some flat tarmac... how sad...!