Paint Fork - Coxes - Bald/Sconces - Windy Gap - Old Murray by caselawz28 at Garmin Connect - Details
Great New Year's ride with teammate Frank. We did three nice climbs (Coxes, Windy Gap, Old Murray), a short one that sucks (Paint Fork), and a lengthy one into the clouds, rain, and snow on the road (Bald Mountain or Sconces Road).
01 January 2012
27 December 2011
New Cannondale TT bike. Perfected (hopefully) from when I saw it in Colorado and they could not get it to work for Basso's prologue.
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| From Colorado 2011 |
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| From Colorado 2011 |
07 August 2011
2011 Oak Ridge Velo Classic
4:10am alarm brought back memories of spring races with Andy. Being out the door by 4:30 should get me comfortably to Oak Ridge, TN for the Oak Ridge Velo Classic Road Race. I decided to go the Hot Springs route from Weaverville and it was a nice change of pace. Rolling to the Melton Hill Rowing Course was really nice with the mist over the entire lake. What wasn't nice was the complete lack of toilet paper in the out house from minute zero; glad I brought some shop towels. Andy's message at 23:30 of "see you there" left me hoping that someone was going to race with me - after all, Ryan Newman's bike is apparently made of sugar and didn't show given then 30% chance of rain.
Andy and I did a quick warm-up and lamented our recent decrease in motivation. Come the start though, we both led out a furious pace (...for the neutral 5km...). Right at the start Andy rolled off the front without effort and a Krystal guy shortly followed. Inexplicably the field was content with me setting a false tempo on the front before Jim Bob and Bobby put two-and-two together and said "are you going to let his teammate set the pace?" So a 30sec lead went to zero shortly thereafter. My only mistake in the race was not countering Andy's move with two others who would eventually make the winning break.
The race was four laps of approximately 24km per lap. There was one short climb in the last 3/4 of the lap preceded and followed by rollers, and a short climb to the finish/start of the race/lap. The first time over the 2-3 minute climb we shed almost 1/3 of the group. After the start of the second lap my race was nearly over prematurely as some doofus came blowing by me STRAIGHT when I was just about to turn right onto the next road of the course. I had to go down a hill, back up, and chase for a while before catching the field. Luckily it didn't do any irreparable harm nor did another break escape. Andy dropped back a little to help pace me up. I almost said "F-it" after last week and more bad luck.
On the third lap's climb of the obstacle climb, Andy said "I may not see you again." Fortunately two guys who decided to go to the front on the climb set a false bravado by chatting like they were Contador stuck in a training camp. During this lap we had a time check of three minutes to the leading duo. A teammate of a team of three said "Come on! Do we really want to race for third?!?" Andy and I said, "three minutes? Yea, sure. Sounds good." The poor bastards were all the way from Memphis and clearly had hoped for greater things.
Fourth lap to the last ascension of the climb was as predicted harder than the previous circuits. Myself and two others made it over the top but one moron (ie. one of the idiots with a false bravado) thought it was smart to play games with a short-ish distance to the finish and only three of us off the front of the main group; so we were joined by the rest with Andy - maybe eight or nine others. Going over the rollers and flats towards the finishing hill and hill sprint I stayed to the front and I think Andy was hurting. Nearing the hill I pretended to accelerate hoping to ignite something other than wheel suckers' flaming lips. Hitting the final hill with just over 1K to go I stayed on the front and was a little worried at this point of being in that position. About 300m later I gave a harder and longer acceleration to get people's legs burning and to shake things out. Finally a small selection was being made. Almost to the top before the lesser gradient of about 300-400m to go I accelerated again - one beside me and one just behind. After a bit I looked under me and we made a gap - so it was time for some more games and less brute strength. Homegrown rider passed me and a Clarksville Schwinn/Rapid Transit rider as well. Both going too soon I thought and me feeling strong enough I tucked in for slight time up the slight uphill drag and sprinted around them both for a 5th place finish.
I'm pretty excited with the result since it was a strong uphill finish, a sprint, and me being smart. While I should have made that decisive break, this was good confidence. I finished the race smart and strong. Andy came home 8th which was great given his anticipated resignation prior to the 3rd lap's climb.
Luckily we both finished out of the money and were able to have an early start home.
13 April 2011
GF Liotto
Numero 1576. What does that mean? Out of roughly 1700-2000 starters, I am 1576th. It also corresponds to my spot in the grid. Very quickly, the rough translation is that while it took me 2:56:09 to cover the course, my official time was 2:59:43. Yes, between "Tre, duo, uno, vai!" I waited for close to four minutes to cross the start line. While looking ahead, the riders with numbers 1-100 and numeri dei meriti are flying around the first turn. As a result, what follows is part of the allure and frustration all at once of participating in a grand fondo. The beginning of a grand fondo is all out. You're riding above threshold for as long as you can. Why? When things settle down, you are in the general group you will finish with. So you ride as hard as possible to get to the fastest and furtherest ahead group. With that I set off into the Piccole Dolomiti.
In the words of Hincapie, it's time to ride like an a-hole. The top of the first climb - Passo Xon - comes at 13,57km. Before the descent I had to get as far as I could. Words along the lines of "Il cane"and "cazzo" followed; not nice things to be called at all. It wasn't that I was riding in the style of Flying Squirrel, I was just climbing the first climb, which comes at the beginning of the race, as fast as possible. Others were frankly in the way and I was going much faster. Until the top of Passo Xon at thirty minutes in I passed a lot of riders to get in as good as a chase group as possible. In fact my one minute thru thirty minute periods of effort were the highest for the three hours in the first thirty minutes of the race.
The descent of Passo Xon was filled with hairpins (Europe, or at least Italy's, good design and construction of hairpins is part of what makes climbing and descending here so much fun) and was a little steeper than the ascent. Here, the key was to brake right and hit the turns good without letting gaps form in front that would be hard or too difficult to close; because at the bottom it doesn't flatten out completely, but is just enough to where chasing back on to a group would be extremely taxing. There are no breaks, and at the bottom it hits the ascent to Monte di Malo immediately. In these races you don't really rest, and people actually work. Periods of "la-di-da" don't exist - fortunately and unfortunately sometimes.
Monte di Malo was not a climb I found a lot of info on beforehand, but it was a stretch of 2.6 km at 9.3% and a total of 5.3 km at 6.4%. When my group hit this climb we could see the progress we made on the next group of riders - motos, follow cars, and cameras followed. We successfully integrated, and yet again began the process of trying to get as far ahead to the leading riders of this group, past the riders who were hanging on and may not make it, to make any split. As far as I could see, I made progress before the top of the climb and the neutral support. More words followed as I had to go to the right as two guys in front decided to either stop, or might as well have stopped, to grab the bottles instead of on the fly like everyone else. As a note, tell anyone doing neutral support to crack the bottles open. It allows slight give when taking the bottle, but doesn't explode like kids in the backyard, Fourth of July water balloon fight. The descent was again twisty, but the beginning was littered with water bottle caps and bottles. Beautiful views followed as we began the 5-6 km descent for the 8.6 km flat to the next climb.
The Torreselle from Isola Vicentina was the next climb at 4.7 km and 7.3% gradient. Many people seemed to start cracking here. It was an important climb though because the descent was very technical and what followed was a flat drag to a 2 km, 8% uphill, and then a long slow uphill until the final climb. Cresting the Torreselle and moving as far ahead as possible, about five or six of us motored mangia e beve for 2 km to get to the ~6 km descent. It was really quite technical and the first hairpin came up quicker than I realized. A balancing act of breaking loose, hard breaking, and putting thoughts of fishtailing into the wall were playing out. Note: You should use some high quality pads. I recommend SwissStop. To the bottom in one piece we caught some more riders, and were then caught by some behind us. For the remaining 30-35 km we had a good sized group.
After the long drag with two hills we approached the branch for the lungo and corto. I always feared myself being the one to miss the split, make the turn at the last second, and take out half the field. Someone else did it for me though. While I was near the front I was the lone one to be forced "down"; dropping my chain and being forced to put it back on by hand. With the rest of the field charging to the last climb before descending to the finish I set off to take back as many spots as possible. I charged by everyone that I could see (with surely only the fastest having escaped out of sight), cresting the top and not letting up on the downhill to the finish. The downhill was a great finish to the race with multiple switchbacks and sweeping turns.
After the finish I dressed down at the Cinquecento, hit the pasta party and watched the winners of the corsa lungo come across. I finished in 207th position in 2:59:43, 21:16 behind the first in my category and 22:03 behind the absolute winner in the mediofondo. Not bad given number 1576.
In the words of Hincapie, it's time to ride like an a-hole. The top of the first climb - Passo Xon - comes at 13,57km. Before the descent I had to get as far as I could. Words along the lines of "Il cane"and "cazzo" followed; not nice things to be called at all. It wasn't that I was riding in the style of Flying Squirrel, I was just climbing the first climb, which comes at the beginning of the race, as fast as possible. Others were frankly in the way and I was going much faster. Until the top of Passo Xon at thirty minutes in I passed a lot of riders to get in as good as a chase group as possible. In fact my one minute thru thirty minute periods of effort were the highest for the three hours in the first thirty minutes of the race.
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| Passo Xon |
Monte di Malo was not a climb I found a lot of info on beforehand, but it was a stretch of 2.6 km at 9.3% and a total of 5.3 km at 6.4%. When my group hit this climb we could see the progress we made on the next group of riders - motos, follow cars, and cameras followed. We successfully integrated, and yet again began the process of trying to get as far ahead to the leading riders of this group, past the riders who were hanging on and may not make it, to make any split. As far as I could see, I made progress before the top of the climb and the neutral support. More words followed as I had to go to the right as two guys in front decided to either stop, or might as well have stopped, to grab the bottles instead of on the fly like everyone else. As a note, tell anyone doing neutral support to crack the bottles open. It allows slight give when taking the bottle, but doesn't explode like kids in the backyard, Fourth of July water balloon fight. The descent was again twisty, but the beginning was littered with water bottle caps and bottles. Beautiful views followed as we began the 5-6 km descent for the 8.6 km flat to the next climb.
The Torreselle from Isola Vicentina was the next climb at 4.7 km and 7.3% gradient. Many people seemed to start cracking here. It was an important climb though because the descent was very technical and what followed was a flat drag to a 2 km, 8% uphill, and then a long slow uphill until the final climb. Cresting the Torreselle and moving as far ahead as possible, about five or six of us motored mangia e beve for 2 km to get to the ~6 km descent. It was really quite technical and the first hairpin came up quicker than I realized. A balancing act of breaking loose, hard breaking, and putting thoughts of fishtailing into the wall were playing out. Note: You should use some high quality pads. I recommend SwissStop. To the bottom in one piece we caught some more riders, and were then caught by some behind us. For the remaining 30-35 km we had a good sized group.
After the long drag with two hills we approached the branch for the lungo and corto. I always feared myself being the one to miss the split, make the turn at the last second, and take out half the field. Someone else did it for me though. While I was near the front I was the lone one to be forced "down"; dropping my chain and being forced to put it back on by hand. With the rest of the field charging to the last climb before descending to the finish I set off to take back as many spots as possible. I charged by everyone that I could see (with surely only the fastest having escaped out of sight), cresting the top and not letting up on the downhill to the finish. The downhill was a great finish to the race with multiple switchbacks and sweeping turns.
After the finish I dressed down at the Cinquecento, hit the pasta party and watched the winners of the corsa lungo come across. I finished in 207th position in 2:59:43, 21:16 behind the first in my category and 22:03 behind the absolute winner in the mediofondo. Not bad given number 1576.
11 August 2010
Breakfast Oatmeal+Muesli Pancake
From Ted King
While this may seem like a stick-to-your bones breakfast, a breakfast like this is recommended if you’re going to set out on your bike soon afterward. If that’s the case, you’ll easily burn these calories, you’ll fuel your metabolism, and your ride will be downright perfect. So in reality, it’s anything but literal-stick-to-your-bones as you’ll be lean and fit in no time flat, courtesy of the iamtedking pancake diet.
I find measuring to be tedious and therefore tend to just wing it when I make meals – which is often. But for the sake of mimicking this at home, I’ll ballpark the measurements the best I can.
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup muesli
1/2 cup hot(ish) water
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
2 eggs
1 gallon or so maple syrup. Fake syrup simply won’t do.
… + whatever else you deem fit for flavor. I recommend any of the following: cinnamon, blueberries, bananas, crushed nuts, or chocolate chips if you’re feeling saucy.
1/4 cup muesli
1/2 cup hot(ish) water
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
2 eggs
1 gallon or so maple syrup. Fake syrup simply won’t do.
… + whatever else you deem fit for flavor. I recommend any of the following: cinnamon, blueberries, bananas, crushed nuts, or chocolate chips if you’re feeling saucy.
Put oats, muesli, salt and hot water in a bowl and let it sit for just a minute. Most of the water will soak into the oats and that’s a good thing. Next add baking soda and eggs, plus anything additional you’re hankering for. This morning, for example, feeling a bit spicy, I went with cinnamon.
Oil or butter your pan. It’s fairly important that you use a small pan of the 6-8″ variety. The batter is rather liquidy, so it will spread out across the entire area of the pan’s bottom. A massive 12″ pan will probably just cause a headache and maybe a small mess.
The hot water won’t totally suffice in cooking the oat mixture, so you’ll want to continue to cook the oats/muesli on the relatively low heat. So whereas normal pancakes are cooked on a piping hot griddle, I recommend medium-low. Pour batter into the pan and wait 5 minutes or more. The pancake will become fairly tall and that’s a good sign that things are cooking and life is good. Pat yourself on the back and pour another cup of coffee. Then using a pliable spatula, try to get under the pancake to make sure nothing is sticking to the pan and to ensure the pancake will happily flip. I recommend getting an audience, taking a step back from the stove, and flipping the pancake dramatically. Practice is key so maybe you should make a dozen pancakes this morning. Cook the other side for 5 minutes or so and then saturate the pancake in enough syrup that should typically be reserved for a family of five.
Enjoy.
09 August 2010
7 August 2010
On Saturday I convinced unsuspecting teammate Brian Morrison to join me on a ride. The truth be told, I wouldn't have subjected him to this ride if he had chosen before the 3.5 hour mark that this was the longest he had been on the bike. As it was though we had almost 2500meters of climbing planned, four longer climbs and two to three smaller ones, over 108km.
We left from my house around 7:30am, which was neat because I never get out that early and looked forward to climbing above the clouds on the climb. A slight chill was in the air as we headed from Candler towards Canton along 19/23. Once in Canton and through West Canton the rolling warm-up was over as we hit Crabtree Mountain Road and headed north towards Pisgah National Forest and the Harmon Den Wildlife Management Area.
The first climb of Crabtree Mountain Road was from kilometer 23 to 26.9. Ridewithgps shows the gradient as being a tame less than 20%. That could not be further from the truth. The climb starts nice but turns brutally ugly. It is the kind of climb that makes you undo your front brakes, wonder which cassette you have on, and makes you think you should have used your lighter wheels instead of training wheels - as if that would help. At first I looked at my Garmin, but as the gradient [accurately] started counting up to percents of 20, 21, 23, 23, 24 and onwards, I stopped. Mostly because I had to stand up and lean far forward that looking at the screen wasn't much of an option. In fact, this climb was a little like a circus and making it to the top did not do much to dissuade thoughts of cutting the planned route VERY short. Brian was not far behind me which made me think the whole shebang today may not be in my legs enthusiastically. But time and descents heal all and I was ready for more. Now being above the clouds we descended through some very low visibility at the still early morning hour which made the descent more hairy than it need be. At the bottom we turned onto Upper Crabtree Mountain for Rush Fork.
The climb of Rush Fork runs from around 36.5 to 41km. It is not a remarkable climb but has you climbing for more than you realize. The descent runs to Betsy's Gap which is where some real climbing begins - long and consistent and steep with a great descent.
Betsy's Gap from 44 to 50 km mark was the climb I was curious about. I had thought this one contained obscene gradients - it did not, pleasantly surprised was I. It did however contain a tough gradient that allowed you to get into a rhythm though with most of the climb shaded until you neared the top. Great views were probably directly to my left but I was rocking along - and we were above the cloud cover anyway. On Rush Fork Brian started dropping off my wheel some. He recovered on Betsy's Gap for most of it before being dropped a couple of minutes behind. While waiting at the top, I met a nice lady who had grown up from where we came (Crabtree Mountain), which led me to tell her how ridiculous, thought pretty, it was. We descended Betsy's Gap all the way to the beginning of the next climb of 63 which would lead us to Leicester. To note, the second general store along the way awaits you there - a perfect opportunity to refuel if you need.
63 is a climb similar in difficulty to Betsy's Gap and runs from 59.7 to 67.8 km. This climb has some great views and is made more difficult by the amount of climbing that runs before in less than 60km. It was at the very beginning of this climb that Brian told me "this is the longest I have been on a bike." I was feeling it and felt like I went up the climb full of energy. At the top I met a 50-60ish year old and I presume his father around 80-90ish years of age who grew up in the area. We had a great talk while I waiting for Brian. This is where Brian hit the wall hard. He was throwing food down his throat to no avail and soon after this ran out of water. I almost went back for him after a considerably length of time when his bobbing rocking head came over the rise. The descent of 63 is fantastic and a great opportunity to practice.
Thereafter it is an uneventful, though pretty, ride to the end of South Turkey Creek where you meet Potato Branch Road topping at the 94km mark. The first time I did Potato Branch I came from this direction - it was hard. However I think the opposite direction - south to north - is far more difficult. Maybe it was Crabtree Mountain putting things in perspective, but Potato Branch wasn't that hard. Brian was definitely struggling on this really short climb and I hoped he wouldn't totally come undone on Hooker's Gap which was immediately to follow after the short descent and valley road.
Which leads me to a point I made, there are great roads and riding out this direction, but once you are there you are committed!
So, Hooker's Gap from 96.6 to 100km is a fixture for me, mostly since I live so close. The north to south direction I consider much more difficult, and longer in time, than the south to north direction. It is steeper and changes pitch more. You are also more exposed to the sun. After feeling better at the ~ four hour mark than I thought I would, I topped Hooker's Gap and waited for Brian. From there it was a ten to fifteen minute ride back home.
We finished the day just a few meters shy of 2500m (according to Garmin, could be higher or lower) and thousands of calories burned later. This was a fantastic ride with some new favorite climbs but it will be admittedly difficult to do repeatedly given the length, difficulty, and distance to get to those climbs.
We left from my house around 7:30am, which was neat because I never get out that early and looked forward to climbing above the clouds on the climb. A slight chill was in the air as we headed from Candler towards Canton along 19/23. Once in Canton and through West Canton the rolling warm-up was over as we hit Crabtree Mountain Road and headed north towards Pisgah National Forest and the Harmon Den Wildlife Management Area.
The first climb of Crabtree Mountain Road was from kilometer 23 to 26.9. Ridewithgps shows the gradient as being a tame less than 20%. That could not be further from the truth. The climb starts nice but turns brutally ugly. It is the kind of climb that makes you undo your front brakes, wonder which cassette you have on, and makes you think you should have used your lighter wheels instead of training wheels - as if that would help. At first I looked at my Garmin, but as the gradient [accurately] started counting up to percents of 20, 21, 23, 23, 24 and onwards, I stopped. Mostly because I had to stand up and lean far forward that looking at the screen wasn't much of an option. In fact, this climb was a little like a circus and making it to the top did not do much to dissuade thoughts of cutting the planned route VERY short. Brian was not far behind me which made me think the whole shebang today may not be in my legs enthusiastically. But time and descents heal all and I was ready for more. Now being above the clouds we descended through some very low visibility at the still early morning hour which made the descent more hairy than it need be. At the bottom we turned onto Upper Crabtree Mountain for Rush Fork.
The climb of Rush Fork runs from around 36.5 to 41km. It is not a remarkable climb but has you climbing for more than you realize. The descent runs to Betsy's Gap which is where some real climbing begins - long and consistent and steep with a great descent.
Betsy's Gap from 44 to 50 km mark was the climb I was curious about. I had thought this one contained obscene gradients - it did not, pleasantly surprised was I. It did however contain a tough gradient that allowed you to get into a rhythm though with most of the climb shaded until you neared the top. Great views were probably directly to my left but I was rocking along - and we were above the cloud cover anyway. On Rush Fork Brian started dropping off my wheel some. He recovered on Betsy's Gap for most of it before being dropped a couple of minutes behind. While waiting at the top, I met a nice lady who had grown up from where we came (Crabtree Mountain), which led me to tell her how ridiculous, thought pretty, it was. We descended Betsy's Gap all the way to the beginning of the next climb of 63 which would lead us to Leicester. To note, the second general store along the way awaits you there - a perfect opportunity to refuel if you need.
63 is a climb similar in difficulty to Betsy's Gap and runs from 59.7 to 67.8 km. This climb has some great views and is made more difficult by the amount of climbing that runs before in less than 60km. It was at the very beginning of this climb that Brian told me "this is the longest I have been on a bike." I was feeling it and felt like I went up the climb full of energy. At the top I met a 50-60ish year old and I presume his father around 80-90ish years of age who grew up in the area. We had a great talk while I waiting for Brian. This is where Brian hit the wall hard. He was throwing food down his throat to no avail and soon after this ran out of water. I almost went back for him after a considerably length of time when his bobbing rocking head came over the rise. The descent of 63 is fantastic and a great opportunity to practice.
Thereafter it is an uneventful, though pretty, ride to the end of South Turkey Creek where you meet Potato Branch Road topping at the 94km mark. The first time I did Potato Branch I came from this direction - it was hard. However I think the opposite direction - south to north - is far more difficult. Maybe it was Crabtree Mountain putting things in perspective, but Potato Branch wasn't that hard. Brian was definitely struggling on this really short climb and I hoped he wouldn't totally come undone on Hooker's Gap which was immediately to follow after the short descent and valley road.
Which leads me to a point I made, there are great roads and riding out this direction, but once you are there you are committed!
So, Hooker's Gap from 96.6 to 100km is a fixture for me, mostly since I live so close. The north to south direction I consider much more difficult, and longer in time, than the south to north direction. It is steeper and changes pitch more. You are also more exposed to the sun. After feeling better at the ~ four hour mark than I thought I would, I topped Hooker's Gap and waited for Brian. From there it was a ten to fifteen minute ride back home.
We finished the day just a few meters shy of 2500m (according to Garmin, could be higher or lower) and thousands of calories burned later. This was a fantastic ride with some new favorite climbs but it will be admittedly difficult to do repeatedly given the length, difficulty, and distance to get to those climbs.
Waking Life Espresso
Coffee and cycling, more specifically coffee and cyclists, go together like mafia members in a strip club. Rides frequently, or should, begin, stop in the middle, or end at a café (bar in Italy) if of sufficient length. A huge complaint I have about cyclists and Americans in general are their complacency with mediocre, bad coffee. In being swayed by the image over the quality, they buy the logo and false belief they are buying "good coffee." As awesomely put by Roger Greenberg, "Dear Starbucks, in your attempt to manufacture culture out of fast food coffee you've been surprisingly successful for the most part. The part that isn't covered by 'the most part' sucks."
I love coffee; which covers espresso and american coffee. I am very much a traditionalist with my coffee: never any sugar or milk in my coffee, never an espresso based drink with milk (ie cappuccio, macchiato, etc) after noon, I only put sugar in my espresso when in Italy, and then only sometimes, or on rare occasions when I am on a ride. This is another reason I love riding in Italy. It is not hard to find a bar. In fact, it is so easy, that time is spent finding the right bar and deciding which of the lot is "the one."
The great thing about Asheville is the abundance of good, independent coffee shops. I have been to the Double Decker Bus (ie Double Ds Coffee & Desserts), Izzy's in West Asheville, Firestorm, The Dripolator in Asheville and Black Mountain, Mosaic Cafe, West End Bakery and Cafe, and Zuma Coffee in Marshall. However, the bar I have made my coffee shop - and the one I feel is the best in the area - is Waking Life Espresso.
As a coffee traditionalist, what immediately caught my eye was the menu. Not included are drink names with numerous adjectives. Not only is this a sign you won't be waiting behind someone getting their low fat, soy vanilla chai whipped latte with whipped cream, hershey's chocolate and caramel syrup, but you get quality coffee.
In fact, you won't find airpots of two to five different varieties, with one being a decaf and another being some nasty flavored coffee, that have been sitting there for anywhere from thirty minutes to eight hours. With the exception of 7am to roughly 10-11am for the "on the way to work crowd" - where one airpot is present - every drink is made to order, ensuring freshness and quality with only minimal wait time. To that end you have your espresso drinks of course, but the coffee is made in a pour-over bar or if you want to be extra coffee-centric, you can do a Chemex. The pour-over and chemex methods have been perfected by Jared Rutledge, and dutifully duplicated by Peter Bull and David Manselle, taking into account TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), weight, grind, filter type, water temperature and volume. Espresso pulls are consistently on - and if they are not, they are redrawn. And to the small extent chocolate, caramel and vanilla is used - it is all made by hand using high quality cocoa, cane sugar, and vanilla beans respectively. Every drink is made with perfection in mind and the correct way to make it.
A small amount of pastries appear as well - with some cookies coming from Sugar Momma's Cookies (try the vegan Banana Maple Walnut, a personal favorite) and the muffins, bread, and "monster cookie" coming from a gal named Rachel.
This is one of the few 100% appropriate coffee shop stops during a ride in my opinion. It is perfection. It is focused on coffee, not menu filler, so you get fast service. There is great outdoor seating to park the bici and put your feet up sipping the espresso or coffee - no dealing with shopping centers and large parking lots. The fantastic cookies are well earned. I baristi are cool with cyclists (many stop in) and Jared follows the metric system so I don't need to do conversions for him.
Waking Life Espresso is doing phenomenally and garnering lots of attention for its mission of trying to educate and make people think about coffee in a different way. Check out this latest article in the Mountain Xpress: http://www.mountainx.com/dining/2010/062310dispelling_some_espresso_myths
You can follow Waking Life Espresso on Facebook and Twitter.
As a coffee traditionalist, what immediately caught my eye was the menu. Not included are drink names with numerous adjectives. Not only is this a sign you won't be waiting behind someone getting their low fat, soy vanilla chai whipped latte with whipped cream, hershey's chocolate and caramel syrup, but you get quality coffee.
In fact, you won't find airpots of two to five different varieties, with one being a decaf and another being some nasty flavored coffee, that have been sitting there for anywhere from thirty minutes to eight hours. With the exception of 7am to roughly 10-11am for the "on the way to work crowd" - where one airpot is present - every drink is made to order, ensuring freshness and quality with only minimal wait time. To that end you have your espresso drinks of course, but the coffee is made in a pour-over bar or if you want to be extra coffee-centric, you can do a Chemex. The pour-over and chemex methods have been perfected by Jared Rutledge, and dutifully duplicated by Peter Bull and David Manselle, taking into account TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), weight, grind, filter type, water temperature and volume. Espresso pulls are consistently on - and if they are not, they are redrawn. And to the small extent chocolate, caramel and vanilla is used - it is all made by hand using high quality cocoa, cane sugar, and vanilla beans respectively. Every drink is made with perfection in mind and the correct way to make it.
A small amount of pastries appear as well - with some cookies coming from Sugar Momma's Cookies (try the vegan Banana Maple Walnut, a personal favorite) and the muffins, bread, and "monster cookie" coming from a gal named Rachel.
This is one of the few 100% appropriate coffee shop stops during a ride in my opinion. It is perfection. It is focused on coffee, not menu filler, so you get fast service. There is great outdoor seating to park the bici and put your feet up sipping the espresso or coffee - no dealing with shopping centers and large parking lots. The fantastic cookies are well earned. I baristi are cool with cyclists (many stop in) and Jared follows the metric system so I don't need to do conversions for him.
Waking Life Espresso is doing phenomenally and garnering lots of attention for its mission of trying to educate and make people think about coffee in a different way. Check out this latest article in the Mountain Xpress: http://www.mountainx.com/dining/2010/062310dispelling_some_espresso_myths
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