North Loop

On Sunday May 8th, I rode the North Loop for the first time. I had heard that it was a pretty good ride with some climbing involved. This route from my house is 56 miles. The total elevation gain is around 2,275ft. The loop itself is around 50 miles.

The route starts at the corner of Hwy 25 and Hwy 64. This part of the ride has most of the climbs. The first half this course is pretty good pavement as you go past Beaverfork Lake, through Wooster, past 225, and finally Burkett Flat Rd. There is a good climb going into Wooster and then another before 225. After passing Burkett Flat Rd, you begin another climb and the road turns into chip seal. Also during the first climb, you may watch out for some dogs. The downhill on after the climb is rough, so be careful. It doesn't allow you for you to cruise downhill and recover. Once reaching the bottom, you begin another climb and downhill that has the same road conditions until you reach Hwy 124 and turn. The traffic on this road was light on a Sunday morning. There is no real shoulder on this route.

Once you turn left on 124, you go downhill a little before you begin to climb again. Upon finishing this uphill section, you are able to cruise downhill in to Springfield. Where you turn left on Hwy 92 and head south towards Plumerville. Hwy 124 is still chip seal but the road is in better condition than the route on Hwy 285. The traffic was still light on this road. There was no shoulder on the road.

Hwy 92 into Plumerville is pretty uneventful. There are a couple of small uphills, but it is maily a rolling route. There is a shoulder on this road. The traffic was heavier on this part of the route and you do encounter more semis. You finally reach Plumerville where you turn left onto Hwy 64.

Hwy 64 back to Conway is a flat to small rollers and is usually a fast section depending on which way the wind is coming from. The pavement is pretty good and there is a shoulder. There is traffic on this route but not real heavy.

Overall, I think this a pretty good route with the climbs and varying terrain. It is also pretty quiet in terms of traffic.

Cycling News from The Ride

Here is some local cycling news from The Ride. Looks like plenty of events for National Bike Month.

May is National Bike Month, get on your bike and get involved

Conway Commuter Challenge
May 16-20 is National Bike To Work Week. Go to greenlightride.com, sign up and join the Conway Commuter Challenge and enter all of your commuter and errand miles for the week of Monday, May 16-Friday, May 20 for a chance to win the first ever Conway Commuter Cup. You may also choose to use your personal miles to help a team win the Team Commuter Cup. Email erik@therideonline.net with questions.

Bike to Work Day with Mayor Tab Townsell
Friday, May 20th is official Bike to Work Day. There will be groups riding to Simon Park from four different locations in Conway. Breakfast will be served and other festivities at Simon Park 7-9AM. For more information visit CAB online, www.cycleconway.org.

Bike From Work Happy Hour
Friday, May 20th, as you are riding your bike home from work, make sure to stop in at ZaZa's in Hedrix Village, 5-7PM for Bicycle Happy Hour. Again for mor information visit CAB online, www.cycleconway.org.

Progressive Dinner Ride
Sunday, May 29, 3:00-7:30PM. Beginning at Simon Park. Riders of all ages and abilities are invited out for Conway's first ever Progressive Dinner Ride. The route will be a 20 mile route. Appetizer and Salad will be served at mile 4, the Priest home. The Main course will be served at mile 10, the Pascoe home. Dessert will be served at mile 16, the Leamon home. We will then return to Simon Park. PLEASE RSVP with how many adults/children will be in your party to erik@therideonline.net. If you would like to help prepare some of the food, please contact Tara at leamon@allinancecable.net.

Cadron Trail Work Day
Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 4:00PM-7:00PM. Meet at Cadron Settlement Park so we can clean up the trail and clean up our section of adopted Hwy leading out to the park. When we're all finished up we'll head in to ZaZa's for some refreshment. Pizza provided by The Ride!!! Please RSVP to erik@therideonline.net so we can plan the work crews.

Group Rides
Monday-5:30PM, The Ride. Morrilton Out and Back. Pace will be moderate as an intended fun ride/recovery ride from a weekend of good riding. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler to Hogan.

Thursday-5:30PM, The Ride. ?????? This is not a no-drop ride, please know the route and have your own supplies with you (extra tube and such). Everyone can ride as hard as they like. Bring a friend with you to grow the ride and make sure you always have company.

Saturday-????, Shorty Small's parking lot. Route TBD. Usually a longer ride with stops for regrouping along the way.

Sunday-1:30PM, CRHFC. Route TBD. Usually 40-50 miles. Pace to be determined by participants.

The Ranch Ride Training Program
Thursday-6:00PM, Conway Regional Health and Fitness Center,.

Sunday-2:00PM, CRHFC, Paintball AR, see www.theranchride.com for more details and for maps of the routes.

Change the Weekend Plans

Weekend plans can change in hurry sometimes. On Wednesday, I found out that the Spillway Triathlon that I was supposed to race in had been canceled. They canceled it due to storm damage/debris along the race course. Also, the volunteers were from Teen Challenge. The Teen Challenge facility was hit by a tornado this week, so the race could not put together volunteers on a short notice. The race director was gracious enough to allow you to roll your registration amount into any of the other races that DLT manages. Since, I have a couple more in mind for this year I appreciate this.

So onto to the new plans! I now plan to race in the Toad Suck 10k and participate in the Tour de Toad. The TS 10k is here in Conway, so I'll just have a short distance to travel for this race. I hope to beat my time from last year. My running is feeling pretty strong, so I'll just have to wait and see. The weather is also looking pretty reasonable for the race also. It will probably be in the 60s at the start with no rain.

The Tour de Toad is a bicycle tour that goes West of Conway. You can either do a 33 or 46 mile route. I'll do the 46 mile route. This will be a great training ride and also a chance to meet other riders from the area or elsewhere. I'm sure it will be a casual ride which will be nice. Hopefully the rain hold off for this or it rains Saturday night. Rain will cancel this event.

Cyclist Hit In Conway (Be Careful While Riding & Driving)

Looking at the local newspaper website here in Conway, a cyclist was hit on Tuesday.

According to LaTresha Woodruff, public information officer for the Conway Police Department, the "victim entered traffic from the sidewalk, drove between two vehicles and struck the side of a truck. Woodruff said his condition was not known".

I hope he recovers well. Everyone, drivers and cyclist need to be careful out there. Everyone should be obeying the laws of the road and be respectful of each other.

I do find it interesting to read through the comment section on people's opinion of cyclists. It's amazing how quickly the debate can turn ugly. There are some people who really detest cyclists. Comments/Article click here

Local Weekly Riding Information

This an email sent from The Ride about riding opportunities in the Conway, AR and Arkansas for the week of 3-21.

Monday-5:30PM, The Ride. Morrilton Out and Back. Pace will be moderate as an intended fun ride/recovery ride from a weekend of good riding. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler to Hogan.

Thursday-5:30PM, The Ride. Bigelow lollipop, pace very fast. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler. This is not a no-drop ride, please know the route and have your own supplies with you (extra tube and such). Everyone can ride as hard as they like. Bring a friend with you to grow the ride and make sure you always have company.

The Ranch Ride Training Program
...begins this Sunday. Meet at Conway Regional Health and Fitness Center at 2:00PM for some very valuable pre-ride education time regarding riding in groups and in traffic followed by a question and answer session. Then we will have time to change clothes and will ride at 3:00PM. The ride will be Lolly Bottoms. See www.theranchride.com for more details. There will also be a group trianing ride on Thursday night at CRHFC at 6PM.

Tour de Cure
Join CAB as they are building a Tour de Cure team to ride in the upcoming Little Rock tour. They aim to average around the mid teens. This will be a great ride. The Ride will be matching donations raised up to $1500 for the CAB team. For more details email Peter Mehl at peterm@uca.edu

Tour de Toad
The Tour de Toad is on and scheduled for Sunday, May 1st, 8:00AM at the Conway High School West campus. This year's tour is looking to be a great one and the order has been placed for good weather. Come out and support this great local classic and support the Faulkner Literacy Council right from your bicycle seat. Click here to register now.

The Slobberknocker
Saturday, April 30 · 8:00am - 11:00am. You'll want to put this new gravel grinder at Lake Sylvia on your schedule of events. This will be a great one to do the day before the Tour de Toad. Click CARVE to register for this new favorite.

Click for a complete listing of cycling events in Arakansas

The Ride Hours
Sunday 12-4
Mon-Fri 10-6