East Bay Bike Path

Around this time of the year, I begin to sense that one amazing ride will come along that will catapult me back into the cycling scene, putting the New England winter behind me once and for all.

Last weekend that ride finally arrived.  I rode the wonderful East Bay Bike Path in Rhode Island:

Running 14 miles along old what are now near-hidden rail lines...

... from Providence ...

... to Bristol, Rhode Island ...

... the East Bay Bike Path is everything a great 21st-century bicycle path should be.  It's beautifully paved with a clear yellow line down the middle, has well marked road crossings (where every car I encountered patiently stopped to let cyclists pass), the scenery is beautiful and fascinating, and it's full of people on a warm spring afternoon.  Plus, the path winds its way through well-populated areas, which I love.  Unlike roads that often shape the landscape around them, bike paths gently meander between backyards, beside parks, along harborfronts, and through forests, making even the simplest sights seem quaint and lovely.

The "Bay" in "East Bay Bike Path" is the magnificent Narragansett Bay.  Running in a craggy southward line from Providence to the Atlantic Ocean, Narragansett Bay is a mix of rocky New England coastal scenery and the gigantic machinery of a busy port.

Driving in a car, you usually can't get too close to large tankers ships.  But on the Providence end of the bike path, huge tankers are just a couple hundred yards away.

 

This one is named "Alpine Mystery" and is registered to Hong Kong.  I'm not sure what the Alps have to do with Hong Kong, or even a seagoing vessel, but maybe that's where the "mystery" part comes in!  Anyway, being so close to a gigantic ship like this is pretty awesome.  You can even here the sound of its engines idling.

Another awesome feature of the East Bay Bicycle Path is the roar of the wind.  The bay's headwinds swooping in from the Atlantic were unbelievably strong, giving this otherwise flat bike path its own unique set of challenges.  But the great thing about battling a headwind on a linear path is that once you reach the end and turn around, that headwind becomes a tailwind, and it's pure cycling bliss the whole way home.

Some of my favorite sights on the ride were the Pomham Rocks Lighthouse...

 ...and little shops along the way, like Dell's Lemonade:

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon on a perfect bike path, under warm and sunny skies.  If that's not a sure sign that spring has arrived, then I don't know what is!

Providence Cyclo-cross Festival

If the Gran Prix of Gloucester is all about the North Shore seascape, then the Providence Cyclo-cross Festival finds its mystical center in the trees.

Providence's Roger Williams Park was the setting for this exquisite and exciting two-day festival, centered around the park's neo-classical "Temple to Music".

The familiar faces of the elite racers from Gloucester were here -- Helen Wyman, Tim Johnson, Gabrielle Day, Jeremy Powers, and many others -- not to mention some of the same fans and photographers.  After all, this was the final event of "Holy Week of New England Cyclocross"!  Having had such a wonderful time in Gloucester, I knew I had to be in Providence for at least one day as well.

But which day?  Saturday or Sunday?  So I looked at the weather forecast beforehand.

Saturday: 75 degrees, dry, and sunny. 

Not very interesting.

Then I looked at Sunday:

50's, with rain in the afternoon.

Now that's New England!  I decided Sunday was the day for me.

As you can see in some of the above photos, the weather was actually very pleasant in the early afternoon, although a bit chilly.  The initial races were battled out on dry conditions overall.

But just before the elite women's race began at 2:30 pm, the rain started to fall, hard.  And it lasted for hours, turning this beautiful course into something wickedly magnificent.

Holding my camera steady while also trying to keep it dry was a bit of a challenge!  So some of these shots have focus-issues, but here are my pictures from the elite women's race...

These off-camber sections were particularly treacherous

Helen Wyman wins Day 2

...and from the elite men's race:

How they ascended that steep "flyover" is beyond me!

The rain let up for a few moments towards the end...

...as Zach McDonald crossed the finish line and won the Day 2 elite men's race.

Bronze medalist and local fan favorite Tim Johnson gave a nice post-race interview...

 ...as the vendors from the food and cycling festival packed up their tents.

And I loved it all.  I loved the fans and their mismatched ensembles of street clothes, retro cycling caps, and team jerseys (looked great!).  I loved the friendly vendors in the festival.  I loved the amazingly-good cup of hot chocolate I hovered over between races.  I loved the sound of the racer's tires cutting through the dirt, careening so gracefully around impossible curves.  I loved the wonderfully over-the-top race announcers.

And I loved those amazing trees of Roger Williams Park, looking down on us from dizzying heights, fascinated by the spectacle of bright colors, good feelings, and fast bicycles.