121 MILES
5000 FT CLIMBING
The Tour de France is once again over with a great win for Sastre, the oldest winner in the race's history.
Well, it'd be shame if I were to have sat down and watched the final stage this morning...
...since my magnificent Tour de Cattaraugus must go on!
Like a hen proudly ruffles her feathers in the morning, I donned my Lycra suit at 8am for yet another ride in the Tour de Cattaraugus series.
Ok, this is not to say I'm a chicken.
Don't even go there...
Well ok, so I didn't plan the ride very well and had no intention of riding for practically half my day. But whatever...100 miles is 100 miles.
I heard though some friends that there were some majestic hills out in the east in no man's land.. hence I decided to exit Cattaraugus, enter Alleghany, exit Alleghany...enter Pennsylvania, exit Pennsylvania...ok, I'll shut up.
Quick recap : Areas 1 through 5 covered prior to this ride is documented here.
So, here is Area 6 below, route and elevation for a saddle time of 7 hours. Red arrows indicate starting, blue indicate turning back and trying to get the hell home (without a map :) )
The ride is basically me trying to go from Olean to Wellsville through Bolivar and Alma. South Bolivar had some of the best country roads and scenery I've ever seen in my life and Alma Hill Road in Alma NY was a grinding climb up to the highest peak in Alleghany, standing proud at a little over 2500 feet or 760 metres at the highest point.
As I climbed Alma Hill, I passed acres of Maple syrup trees on both sides and my host on top of the peak was a lonely AT&T Tower.
And not a single good looking human female in sight!
After the sweet downhill at a conservative speed, I rode to Wellsville NY and did some local suckers - some very steep climbs - all paved thankfully. Here are the conquests of the day :
Pictures :
Long road ahead
Golf course?
Very nice country..
Wanna sprint, huh?
Nice roads...
VILLAGE OF HANOEYE
Wonder what this plant makes..dairy?
Cows doing their thingsCERES (PA)
NY-PA Border
Humanity's common language - Beer!
Road to Alma (one of the best paved roads I've ever seen)
So which one of this is Alma Hill...hmm...
Nice to know...yohoo, anyone in there?
Dead as a dodo...
Time for lunch
in front of the Alma Pond (that's what locals call it..)
Some red indian red necks were here 2000 years ago
Nice..
Aaah, shying away are you, my bike?
A little unsettling to watch this hanging over your head during lunchtime..
Might as well take a dip
Bet that house is warm....bet there's no one living in this house at all!
Alma Hill road
Beginning section
Grind time
After the climbing, the road flattens..is this the peak?
Nearing...
There..! I found you, you little crook...this tower communicates with aircraft, not cellphones (I had no damn signal!)
Now thats what it should look like!
Being on top of Alleghany sure feels good (there's agood chance this might be the top of South West New York)
PETROLIA
Petrolia on my left, pretty sights downhill on my right
WELLSVILLE
The country part of Wellsville...
City part
Smile guys...no no...don't give me the finger...
Main street
Going up Rauber Hill... with 80 miles in the legs, this one was a hard grind
On top of Rauber to Voorhees
Voorhees Hill....last one of the dayTime to head back home and blog about this !!! 40 miles to home... on the 417 highway, in 80 degree temp with a headwind all the way. You must learn to stop bitching...
Posts
I really like the pictures. Especially the one with A's in a heart.Discovering a new place on a bike definitely sounds exciting.Makes me wanna go ride with my bf=].
ReplyDeleteWow what a great tour ron. I was down through upstate NY and into Vermont back to NS a couple of years ago and I must say there is something very nice about the New England States. You're a lucky guy to have such nice riding territory.
ReplyDelete-B
Yeah I absolutely love it. I probably will only be here for a year so before I move to a new territory, I want to experience this place to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteIf you were in Vermont, boy those places have got some real good climbs.
Out here, the main things to do are golfing, boating, hunting...but the trade off is that the precipitation is decent during the summer months. Still a great place to be in, especially with family.
Hey Ron,
ReplyDeleteIf Alma Hill Rd is the highest point in Western New York that may be an interesting geological place. The water (water shed) on the North side of that hill may flow to Lake Erie while the water on the other side of that hill may flow south to the Mississippi River Area.
Ron -
ReplyDeleteGreat job. This sure brings back lots of memories. I grew up in Wellsville and as a kid rode my bike on many of these same roads including Alma Hill travelling into PA. to visit my grandparents. One of my best friends lived on Rauber Hill (very interesting driving up that in the winter!).
I've lived in Dallas, TX for almost 30 years and just took up cycling again in the last 5 yrs. I'll return the favor by including a link to my recent trip to Colorado. We did almost 500 miles in a week. Our first day we climbed over 12,000 ft. Enjoy.
http://www.texasflyers.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=18