Bill Neumann’s Howard/Carroll County Ride On a Fixie

The wheelsucker was on his way back from Collingswood NJ early Sunday morning and decided that since Bill Neumann’s ride was North of Annapolis, it would be better to go straight there, rather than go home first and do some other Sunday ride. But the wheelsucker’s coach was calling for a fixie ride, so the wheelsucker rode his fixie. He had checked this with Bill earlier:

"Is your Sunday ride still on? 9:00AM? Can I show up on a fixed gear?"

To which Bill had replied:

"Yes, yes, and yes!"

09:00 start time? You’re kidding, right? It was rather cold (26 degrees) and windy, but not as cold or as windy as Saturday morning in Philadelphia. The ride had a convenient starting point from a school parking lot, on route 97, a couple of miles south of interstate 70. After driving into the parking lot, the wheelsucker immediately noticed that no one else was riding a fixie. The wheelsucker became mildly concerned when some of the other riders expressed surprise that anyone would try it on a fixie.

Bill described the ride as "rolling". How long does a climb have to be before it stops being "rolling" and starts being "a lot of climbing"? The ride seems to cross the Patapsco River an inordinate number of times, mostly so one could enjoy the climb out of the valley. In theory one should enjoy the descent INTO the valley, but in practice, on a fixie, fast descents are not that relaxing. The ride pace is less than a hammerfest, which is consistent with what the wheelsucker’s coach was telling him to do, get good sub-threshold hours in, with a bit of pushing on short climbs. These are not "junk miles", but the ride generally avoids the frequent crossovers into anaerobic territory that the Saturday Davidsonville ride has. The course is much more rolling/climbing and turning than the Davidsonville Saturday ride, but at a slightly easier pace. This makes it a great winter training ride. This is NOT at a recovery ride. It is more like an Ellicott City ride at less than race pace.

The route is available on bikely.com at: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Western-Howard-County-Carroll-County. Bikely.org reports elevation gain as 2793 feet.

There is somewhat of a cumulative damage concept riding the fixie on a "rolling" ride; each time one forces one’s way up a hill at a slow cadence, the legs complain a bit more, and the next hill is a little harder. The wheelsucker was finding it hard not to think about this, as the other riders would urge him on with encouragements like "there are only two more walls to go." But a determined wheelsucker found that going slowly up a hill on a fixie was worse than going medium-hard, so the wheelsucker attacked most hills and was pleasantly surprised to find himself in good shape at the top on most of the climbs. Being a civilized ride, those to the top first would wait for the others. As per the wheelsucker’s coach, most climbing on the fixie is done seated, at least until that stops working and one HAS to stand.

Wheelsucker data: (no Power data on the fixie) 49.33 miles, time 2:57:38:

	Average	Maximum
HR	126	170
Cadence	74	163
Speed	16.66	36.2

Whe wheelsucker reports that doing 36.2 mpg with a cadence of 163 on the fixie is VERY exciting; but not relaxing.