The midwest is FLAT

[Catrin]

I wimp out in the cold, and tend to push the heat a bit too much. I do, however, change where I ride in the heat. If temps =>90F then I will only go on routes where there are substantial shaded portions. Locally that means Eagle Creek Park - certainly not out in my totally unshaded corn fields I find my body seems to perform far better in the heat than the cold, I just have to monitor myself and make certain my body has what it needs.

This preference for hot riding has been a surprise to me as I've never considered myself a heat lover, but on the bike it is different!

[Jo-n-NY]

Last year we did an organized ride in the Hudson Valley and I have to say that after 40 miles those hills were the worst I have done. We ended up with 75 in 90 degree temps. It was a tough ride.

Emily your post was interesting as I thought Ohio was very flat from what I hear. It just goes to show that you never know what different areas are like until you experience them.

~ JoAnn

[emily_in_nc]

Emily your post was interesting as I thought Ohio was very flat from what I hear. It just goes to show that you never know what different areas are like until you experience them.
~ JoAnn

Some parts of it are dead flat (like around Cleveland), but where we were riding was unreal hilly. Mind you, these were very much back roads, not highways, not county roads, just cut-throughs, some of which weren't even paved until recently, and most had some fresh tar and light gravel on them, so they weren't paved up to county standards. The roads had names like "blahblah Hill", so I wasn't imaginining it, and there was just one after another of them. I definitely think that ride helped me on our weekend rides back home here in NC, though. The hills around here pale in comparison. Wish I had an elevation profile of our Ohio ride!

[Owlie]

Some parts of it are dead flat (like around Cleveland), but where we were riding was unreal hilly. Mind you, these were very much back roads, not highways, not county roads, just cut-throughs, some of which weren't even paved until recently, and most had some fresh tar and light gravel on them, so they weren't paved up to county standards. The roads had names like "blahblah Hill", so I wasn't imaginining it, and there was just one after another of them. I definitely think that ride helped me on our weekend rides back home here in NC, though. The hills around here pale in comparison. Wish I had an elevation profile of our Ohio ride!

Cleveland itself (and much of the rest of the area immediately surrounding the lake) is pretty flat. Go a little bit south of Cleveland and you hit hills again, big ones in some places. (I'm thinking of Chardon and Chagrin Falls in particular. Some of them were terrifying.)

[OakLeaf]

Wish I had an elevation profile of our Ohio ride!

The worst thing about doing CFC two years ago was that the rain blanked out the barometric altimeter on my computer. So I have no elevation profile even from a ride I actually did.