- As a pro rider, sometimes you're on your bike
for 20, even 30 hours, a week.
And so you end up riding the routes
that you always ride over and over again.
During my career, I loved trying to find
all the little roads.
And here in New England where I'm from,
there are literally hundreds of roads
that all end up in the same place.
So today, I'm gonna walk you guys through some tips
and tricks that I used to use
to keep the roads fresh and to keep you smiling.
(deep bass)
One of our partners here at GCN is Komoot.
Komoot is a mapping software.
There's a route that I used to take all the time as a pro
that I really disliked, because it was on a super main road.
I've looked for an alternative route on Komoot
and Open Street Maps that is gonna look like
it takes me behind there.
So we're gonna go, and we're gonna check it out.
(inspirational music)
So before we go out there and check everything out,
I wanted to show you guys exactly what's happening here.
So, the route that I like to do starts over here
where I live, goes down, comes around,
and then this is the interchange that I don't wanna go near.
People are driving like lunatics, crazy,
texting, who knows what they're doing.
I hate this intersection, I don't wanna be anywhere near it.
When I was on Komoot, I can see
that there was a trail system that I had never ridden before
that basically will take me right around that area
and drop me right in the downtown.
So then I went over and I double checked my idea
against Strava global heat maps.
And if you can imagine what that is,
it's essentially the heat, meaning the amount of times
that Strava's users have gone out
and ridden a section of trail.
And I can see that it actually,
riders have gone through part of the trail
that I wanna use, but there's an area where I,
where it's not gonna work.
So instead, I'm gonna take this area,
and it's gonna drop me out right in downtown,
which is gonna be perfect.
So the last thing is that you wanna make sure
that you check with the local trail conservation.
And you wanna make sure that they allow bikes,
because the last thing that we wanna be doing
is out riding on trails that are meant for hikers,
and bird watchers and things like that,
and ripping our bikes through there
and getting everybody upset.
Make sure that you put it forward,
make sure that you check it out,
and don't ride on anything
that's not supposed to have bikes on it.
This is the main pathway that I'm trying to get away from.
It's all of the highways coming into one area,
going back into downtown.
Unfortunately, this is a great way to come back,
but now that I've seen this new trail,
I think that's gonna be a better option.
(fast staccato string music)
Here we are.
I'm just gonna make sure that bikes are cool.
See what we've got here.
It doesn't say there aren't bikes allowed.
So let's hit it. (grunts)
(adventurous music)
Okay, so,
this is definitely the right way to go.
That is the opposite direction.
We need to go this way.
This trail is sweet, the perfect cut through
to get around all that nasty traffic.
(adventurous music)
I'm so pumped about this.
We skipped the crazy traffic,
get a beautiful view of the range,
the mountain range in the background,
with a little bit of extra planning,
we get this extra section of gravel and trail.
Pretty sweet!
(adventurous music)
That was the perfect cut through
to get me off the main thoroughway
and onto my local bike path.
(soft melodious string music)
Okay, so my next tip is a good one,
one that I've used many, many times.
And that is, don't bite off more than you can chew.
And what I mean by that is if you're planning
a 60, 70-mile ride, then make sure
that when you go out,
you do the first half of it on day one.
So like let's say 30 miles or something like that,
you go out, you make sure that that wild rest stop
that you don't know is actually there is in fact there,
that the roads that you chosen actually go through,
and then you're in good shape.
Because if you get out into mile 45, 40, 50,
and you're in the middle of nowhere,
and you still got another 50 miles, 20, 30, whatever,
to go home, you're in trouble.
No, do the first part of the ride, 30, 40 miles.
Come back, next day, do the other part in reverse.
Then you meet in the middle,
and then on the third day, you go through,
and you do the entire loop.
You know everything flows good,
you know where your rest stops are, all that.
It's saved me from a lot of bad days on the bike,
and I'm happy that I've implemented that process many times.
(relaxing music)
All right, so we were originally gonna shoot this outside,
but it's literally thundering and lightning,
and there's rain, and it's crazy out there right now.
So we're here inside my local cafe,
which brings us to our next tip.
And that is about every 20 miles or so,
you wanna make sure that you have a nice rest stop
with provisions and food and water,
'cause if not, these roads go out in the middle of nowhere.
You plan something that looks really adventurous and fun,
but there's literally nowhere to get water or food.
It's not gonna be a good look.
So you need to come back into a town
or to a place that has a country store
or something like that, so you can get a pastry
or a cookie and some water.
Google Maps does a really good job of this for me.
And every time I'm out in the middle of nowhere,
basically I zoom in on the area that's around 20 miles,
I type in store, and then I look up
where the local country store's gonna be.
After I find it, I include it on my route.
And then at 40 miles, I do the same, and so and so on.
It's really good to be able to plan like that,
'cause if you don't, you could caught out.
So those are my best tips that I have
for planning a good gravel ride,
knowing how to use Komoot,
knowing where to use Strava heat maps,
knowing Google Maps, knowing, all the little tips and tricks
in planning just that perfect ride
to make sure that you never are bored when you're out there,
because who wants to be bored?
And also, who wants to be lost in the middle of nowhere?
You don't, you don't wanna be crawling
onto someone's front doorstep and,
"Hello, can I please have some water?"
You don't wanna do that.
So make sure that you implement this stuff,
and have fun with it.
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