Saturday Rock Creek Rides

For those looking for an alternative to the Saturday Davidsonville Park & Ride rides, the two Rock Creek rides are worth considering.

7:00AM
The 7:00AM ride starts at Beach Drive and East West Highway. There is a brief description on the DC Velo website at: http://www.dcvelo.com/rides.php. There is parking on the shoulder for the soccer field.

The route description does not actually mention Clara Barton Parkway (shh, apparently bikes are not allowed on the Parkway, but the peleton apparently takes the safety in numbers view), I am so busy holding a wheel and making sure gaps don’t open in front of me I am not certain it is Clara Barton we ride on (plausible deniability?  ) The ride starts easy, then there are some decent climbs, and then the ride gets fast on what I think is Clara Barton, and then comes the McArthur climb. This splits the group. The strong/fast guys do an extra climb and the ride regroups at Brickyard Road and Falls Road. There is at least one more sprint point, but things slow down on Democracy and for the ride back to East West Highway. The ride continues past East West highway and goes south on Beach Drive with some sprinting for the gaps in the road closure barriers. This is apparently a year-round ride.

10:00AM
The 10:00AM ride starts at the gate on Beach Drive and Broad Branch Road (just north of Peirce Mill on Beach Drive). There is a brief description on the DC Velo website at: http://www.dcvelo.com/rides.php A number of riders join at East West highway and Beach Drive (where the 7:00AM starts). This ride goes easy for awhile, and then as it turns of Tuckerman the cat 1-2 and 35+ guys decide it is time to have some fun with everyone else and drive the pace on the rollers and climbs. The peleton shatters over this, and there is no official regroup point, though frequently dropped riders reform into a second groupetto. Ace, Nat and I did one of these a few weeks ago; I was dropped on the rollers while Ace and Nat beat up on the surviving cat 1-2s.

Both rides are harder – at least for me – than the Saturday Davidsonville ride, as there is more climbing and more strong riders to drive the pace.