The midwest is FLAT

[Pax]

Welcome to my little corner of heaven, you were about 90 miles from me when you were in Springfield. What speed we have on the flat roads gets hammered away by never ending wind... heaven.

[Tri Girl]

Agreed- it may be flat, but dadnabbit- the blasted wind that blows at 15-20 mph every single day (many days much stronger than that) more than makes up for the flatness.


When I ride someplace hilly and tree-lined I always think: is this better or not? I mean, with hills you always get a downhill break, with flats and wind- not so much.

[indysteel]

Agreed- it may be flat, but dadnabbit- the blasted wind that blows at 15-20 mph every single day (many days much stronger than that) more than makes up for the flatness.


When I ride someplace hilly and tree-lined I always think: is this better or not? I mean, with hills you always get a downhill break, with flats and wind- not so much.

I can either ride the flats just outside my door and be blasted by wind or go southwest about 20-30 miles to some horrible 15-22% plus gradient hills. Ugh. We can't win in Indiana. That said, I'd much rather ride hills than deal with the wind. If you train, you can master the hills. The wind, however, plays minds games with you no matter how used to it you are.

[OakLeaf]

You forgot the ragweed! Corn, soybeans and ragweed!

(happy to live in the OTHER part of Ohio )

[Kathi]

Yes, Glaciers have made those areas very flat. There is nothing flat about Southwestern Ohio around Cincinnati, except the Little Miami Bike Trail. Southeastern Ohio has the Appalachian Mt's. Do TRIRI (The Ride in Rural Indiana) especially, the southwestern part, or the Hilly Hundred and you will find plenty of good steep hills. Joe, the organizer of these rides, is out to prove Indiana is "not" flat.

I don't know a lot about Illinois but can tell you that around Galena it is not flat. I did a bicycle tour in that area last summer and was quite surprised how hilly it was.

I will agree I think the the hills around Cincinnati are small compared to the Rockies but there are many and I miss riding the rolling terrain in the river valleys of Ohio, Indiana and Ky.

And how can I forget? The humidity and air pollution in the Greater Cincinnati Area!

[Owlie]

There's something about being run over by a mile-high sheet of ice that tends to flatten places. (Of course, then it dumped some of it here...) And even the bike trail's not totally flat! It hurts more going north than south! (Though it's pretty close to flat...) The connecting trail in Lebanon has some hills. I haven't checked it out yet. On my to-do list.

Kathi, that humidity and air pollution was certainly in evidence today! At least, the humidity was. I went on a ride this morning and if I stopped for too long, my glasses fogged up!

[Pax]

Agreed- it may be flat, but dadnabbit- the blasted wind that blows at 15-20 mph every single day (many days much stronger than that) more than makes up for the flatness.


When I ride someplace hilly and tree-lined I always think: is this better or not? I mean, with hills you always get a downhill break, with flats and wind- not so much.

I have a friend here who goes out to CO and does Ride the Rockies and some other ride where they ride up to Ouray, she says riding against wind non-stop makes hill a breeze for her.

[Roadtrip]

Hummm.. I think I'm in the hill over wind club here. The wind just DOSENT stop. You get to the top of the hill. You get to go down the hill. The only reward to riding in the wind is a nice tailwind the pushes you along, but you could slog along and finally get out of the headwind only to have the wind change or swirl and try and take you off your bike by gusting from the side.

My only least favorite is going uphill INTO the wind. OY.

Shannon

[OakLeaf]

There's a park near me where you can stand on top of a hill and see where the glacier stopped. It's more a diagonal across the state, from northeast to southwest.

PS to BSG - Come down here and ride Columbus Fall Challenge one time, then tell us about "a few hills."