The weekend and ahead.

As I stated in an earlier post, I think my bike racing season is over until at least March, when the collegiate season opens. But that doesn't force me indoors on the trainer all winter. While I have been doing a fair amount of spinning on the rollers, I took the opportunity to explore some of Ithaca's less traveled roads this past Saturday. Me and about 6-7 of the more intrepid cyclists from the Ithaca area met up for a proposed 'dirt road ride' based out of Slaterville. Temperatures were just breaking 40 degrees at 1pm, when we rolled out. The plan was to ride for a couple hours or so, hitting some dirt/low maintenance roads- areas we rarely see when on road bikes.

Most of us had cross bikes with fairly low profile tires; that morning I swapped my mud2's for my older 28mm michelins. However, one guy showed up on an older road bike, complete with slick tires and sidepull brakes. Given the difficulty most of us had with knobby tires and cantilevers, I'm glad I wasn't him.

I won't go into so many details, but once we climbed a bit into the hills, there was a good 2-3" of snow in the woods. Just a little more and some of the better dirt roads could have been skiable, provided you had a burly pair of rock skis like my Vischers (visu+fischer). Extended downhill sections made for some very hairy descents and the short uphills made sure you kept your weight over your rear wheel. The ice made for ample opportunities to eat it, but everyone stayed upright, due in part to some solid motocross foot planting in the turns. I can only imagine how much fun last year's cross nationals must have been with the snow.

While cycling in that was fun, it really made me want to ski again. I was fairly focused on the spring and summer ahead, but now I'm really excited to get back on snow. It only took a small reminder. If I weren't going home for break, I would think that some snow hunting on the Tug Hill would be in order. Maybe it'll be ready for when I get back upstate.

Following the ride, I checked Mont-Sainte-Anne's website to see if they got snow yet this season...apparently they had 15k open the weekend prior and the downhill mountain is just about ready to go for weekday skiing. Given the start in year's past, this is a good sign. I also looked at their photo gallery, which ultimately provided me with a poignant reminder of why I love skiing and Mont-Ste-Anne so much:

Trail 24...


Does it get any better?