Monday, July 14, 2008

Tour de Cattaraugus : Area 4 Ellicottville and Around

54 MILES
1800 FT CLIMBING





Another day, another new route in my quest to ride Cattaraugus.

I somehow managed to wake myself up early at the rooster's crow and head out to Ellicottville with Mike to meet up with his weekend warrior gang of 6. They have this weekly Sunday recreational ride thing and the route is moderate to slightly challenging and the pace can be fast as well.

You may have heard but up here, Ellicottville is ultra famous for its ski slopes, especially Holimont. The Holiday Valley ski resort is located here at a summit elevation of 2250 feet and has 56 or so ski trails served by 13 lifts. If you're serious about snow sports, this is one of the hot places to visit in winter. Click here to get more information on Holliday Valley.


So I met these new folks today, and it was an interesting and surprising experience for me when one or two of them said that they read my blog. Wow...


The weather dished out rain from point one and over time it just got worse. But my cheerful friends today made me want to ride and climb more in the wonderful rain than stay at home in bed doing nothing with my life.

We did this 45 mile loop with a fair amount of climbing, visiting some really small towns known for nothing particularly interesting except for the fact that they somehow exist on the map.

Here are today's views from my recreational office :)







Somewhere along the way, the brakes started squealing and I went pretty fast down this hill scattered with all sorts of muck and gravel. An untimely and stupid hard left turn got me up and over the handlebars and I crashed on my side.

Being a sport about it can cover up for any shameless act of self injury-fication, so here I am with my fantastic work. Okay, not much to see here but that left knee is bleeding. Nice!!



Speaking of blood, here's my spokesperson. Ha!

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