Originally Posted by
clasher
That's pretty nice looking gravel, aside from the wet. I'll take gravel over a highway any day of the week.
We have two gravel 200k on the schedule in Ontario this year... both have around 2000m of climbing too.
It was decent gravel; I had about the right tires at 32mm. The downhill side had a few more potholes, so descending was a little slow.
This ride had a variety - wide highway shoulders with traffic, narrow highway shoulders with traffic, paved trails, beautiful quiet roads, bridge crossings, low volume/zero shoulder roads, and even a bit of muddy singletrack. I don't mind either the highway shoulder miles or the gravel miles, if they serve as connectors between nice segments. But that's me. Those different types of roads present different challenges.
BTW, I inspected my front tire last night, and dug a half-dozen or so small bits out of the rubber. No telling where I picked them up. I'll out the rear tonight.