Here are the photos I took before the cheap replacement battery on my camera conked out with one hour left in the Pro/1/2 race. I'll be editing the photo captions as I collect more race data. Needless to say, there is a very good 11-14 Junior who will be making news for a while if he sticks to this sport (He raced in both Junior races AND Cat 3!).
On Yer Bike!
First, the obligatory Queen video:
On 13 Sep 09 the Carolina Cup will be run in Country Park on the north side of Greensboro.
Here are a few pics from while we were getting some setup done this morning.
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| From Carolina Cup 2009 |
The Start/Finish area being laid out.
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| From Carolina Cup 2009 |
The starting stretch going into Duckwalk Corner under construction.
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| From Carolina Cup 2009 |
The run-in to the Finish line. It's a slight uphill, maybe 2% tops, after dropping off a short 4% drop. This should be the place to see some high speed fire works.
Hope to see everyone there!
On Yer Bike!
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
I've lived in Greensboro for almost a year and within 1/2 a mile of the beginning of this trail but until yesterday I had never taken the time to explore it. I want that year back! I'm not sure how good this trail feels on an upright bike but on my 'bent trike....
The photo above was taken while climbing back up a section of twisting descent that had me tapping the brakes to prevent rollovers. The G's necessary to roll my trike in a gradual curve are pretty impressive (I did go on two wheels in one corner).
Then there's this section of false flat near the northern end of the trail. I thought it was the wind keeping my speed down to 12MPH while traversing the field. Not so. Once I hit the end of paved trail I turned around (1.5" tires and no suspension is no fun on the big gravel used on old rail beds). Very quickly I found I was now going downhill--it wasn't much effort to get to 27MPH and I still had gears left. There was traffic ahead so I coasted back down to sane traffic speed and was very effortlessly maintaining 15-17 MPH before I had to stop for a road crossing.
If you live in or near Greensboro and want a nice short to middle distance ride (I added a couple loops around the military park and Country Park to total 21 miles) with no motor traffic (but some ped and bike traffic--mind your speed and distance when passing) I strongly recommend hopping on this trail at its start in Guilford Courthouse Military Park and heading north.
On Yer Bike!
Today we have a collection of photos of the Cone Rd Underpass under construction. The first few are my own, the balance were taken by a GDOT employee.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
Looking south while north of Cone Rd.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
Looking north from Cone Rd.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
Looking north while south of Cone Rd while Michael J Fox oversees.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
Looking south from Cone Rd.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This is the first of the GDOT photos. The balance of the photos are also courtesy of GDOT.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
On Yer Bike!
Here are my first photos of the BRT as it is being built.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This view is from about 50 yards south of Total Wine looking north. The trail will connect to the sidewalk just before the driveway for Total Wine/CVS. This looks to be a crash waiting to happen. In fact when I headed through the driveway intersection I had a ROW conflict with a right turning pickup. Fortunately we were both alert to the potential for problems and no harm done.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This shot was taken from the same location as the first but looking south. The crushed stone bed looks reasonably wide.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This view is from Martinsville Rd looking north. Hopefully that speed bump is not part of the design.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This shot was taken from Isaac Pl and Martinsville Rd. It illustrates two things:
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
This next segments have much work to be done at this point. Here is the segment that curves around the Toyota lot to begin running parallel to Patriot Way.
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| From Battleground Rail Trail |
Same location as the last shot but looking west now.
I hope the designers have thought about the conflict zones I have highlighted here. It seem to me the money being spent to tunnel under Cone would have been better spent tunneling under Martinsville or Pisgah Church. On Cone a crossing pedestrian or cyclist only needs to negotiate with traffic from one direction at a time. They get to change their focus once the median is reached. Martinsville affords no such luxury and I have yet to figure out how the Pisgah Church crossing is expected to work but unless those high speed corners are squared back off I expect it can't help but be dangerous.
On Yer Bike!
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