Summary:
-This is my favorite ride of the year, plus it's held in my hometown
-There were over 160 registered riders, almost doubled from last years ride
-I combined all three loops to create an "unofficial century" ride
-Total riding time was 5 hours and 34 minutes
-I seen other riders add 6 miles to the 30 mile loop by taking an extra lap around Lake Santee
General:
This is my favorite ride of the year, I've been looking forward to this ride all year. It has a great mix of challenging hills, beautiful countryside, a covered bride, a loop around Lake Santee plus the longest loop is short enough for my camera to catch the entire ride before the battery dies. Combined with the facts that it's put on in my own hometown and I'm a ride committee member are added bonuses. What more could you ask for?
The Tree City Rolling tour consists of three loops, a very hilly 60 mile, a 30 mile plus a 13 mile loop. One of the nice things about this ride is that it follows the same route as last year, so returning riders are less likely to make a wrong turn.
There was plenty of food at the sag stops. The main starting area also had Hamburgers, pork tenderloins and even a massage therapist to help work out the aches and pains after the ride.
I'm still the only recumbent bike, but not the most unusual rider, this year there was a unicycle that rode the 30 mile loop. He, like I had seen other riders do this year, added an extra loop around Lake Santee, making the 30 mile loop into a 36 mile loop. There was also one tandem bike, I'm not sure which loop they completed though.
The 60 mile loop:
This loop has some hills, since it goes through Buena Vista then South towards Hamburg and Enochsburg. The worst/best hills are between the 17 to 28 mile markers. The first hint of any real hill climbing are the two climbs on Stipps hill road before riding into Buena Vista. Then there is the triple threat south of Buena Vista which consists of three very steep but short rolling climbs one right after another. These aren't the only three south of Buena vista, but seem to be the most severe. Once through Hamburg You'll start on a long downhill trek, you can easily coast to speeds in excess of 40 MPH down a scary, curvy descent with a posted speed limit of 25 MPH. Then you'll be at the base of the longest climb for this ride. This climb goes on for almost a mile with an average grade of 5%. Once you hit the town of Enochsburg all the major climbs are over.
Last year I treated this loop like a time trial, I rode as fast as possible with no sag stops. I competed it in less then 3 hour and 9 minutes. This year I decided to do the same. I felt great, and was well rested. I stopped at the Lake Santee Sag stop to refill the water tanks. Even with the sag stop I still competed the ride faster then last year at under 3 hours and 6 minutes. If you count the riding time only, I did it under 3 hours and 5 minutes.
The 30 mile loop:
I decided to do an "unofficial century" meaning it wasn't advertised as a century ride. I created the century by combining all three loops, the 60, 30 and the 13 for a total of 103 miles. This loop as uneventful compared to the hilly 60, it does include a repeat of the trip around lake Santee though. I took my time on this loop, it took me an hour and 46 minutes.
The 13 mile loop:
This is the least eventful of the three loops, again I took my time. It took me a total of 47 minutes to complete this loop.
Ride Details Link
Ride Summary image:
