Crush the Commonwealth
 

Was this past weekend. CtC is a fully unsupported race from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in odd years, and reverse in even years. It's pretty close to 600km. It's so unsupported that it has been hard to find results. Text the organizer when you finish.

25 riders did it this year, with the first sub-24 hour finish.

I hate bike route S with a passion, so I doubt I will ever ride it.

WHYY had a story. https://whyy.org/articles/no-prizes-...jNsKgaG28rwno8

If I read correctly, Dan Blumenfeld did it under 24 hours? Was he on a bent?

I had thought about doing CTC a few times but some of the roads seem sketchy.

No, I don't think he did. I think Dan's fastest ride was about 33 hrs., or thereabouts. Yes, he was on a bent for his rides.

The CTC route blows the big one, in general. I doubt I will ever do it again for that reason.

I developed this route, and scouted most if it too, as an antidote. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/6762091
Cue sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1288654115

Not that I plan on doing it, but what sucks about the CtC route?

It goes on some roads with high volumes of fast traffic and the shoulders aren't great for a lot of it. Pennsylvania state bike routes are known for that sort of thing. They are increasingly in use by motorcyclists, which is generally a more appropriate audience for these roads.

First, a little over a quarter of it is on the GAP, which is only slightly more interesting than being a trainer in your basement.

Second, a large chunk of it (about 30% of it, I'd say) looks like this: https://goo.gl/maps/KdzvdBhG9wV7LEAc6

And about 20% of it looks like this (high speed road with small or non-existant shoulders): https://goo.gl/maps/2yjtwMwzfBzsmjvZA

So, in short, about 75% of it sucks.

Wow yeah looks brutal. I like the look of your transPA route better... maybe I'll try to add a PA brevet to my plans to do some other brevets in the northeast USA. I also agree on rail trail, I don't mind a bit to avoid a busy stretch of road but to spend a 100km on them is a bit much for my tastes, would rather gravel roads.