My Challenge Ride at Lake Placid, September 15, 2023

Lake Placid, located in the New York State's Adirondack Mountains region, is one of only three places that have hosted the Winter Olympics twice, the others being Innsbruck and St. Moritz. Lake Placid held its events in 1932 and 1980 and remains a destination for winter sports enthusiasts, as well as for outdoor activities of all kinds throughout the year. It offers road cyclists some outstanding opportunities for riding and one of these is the Ironman Loop.

My route along the Lake Placid Ironman loop and Whiteface Mountain

The first Ironman triathlon in Lake Placid took place in 1999 and for many years was the only Ironman venue in the United States besides the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. The cycling course, which has varied slightly from year to year, is two circuits of a 90 km (56.5 mile) course. Each of these loops has an elevation gain of 640 m (2019 ft), with most of the gain coming in the second half.

Lake Placid, which is two hours' drive south of Montreal, is keen to market itself as a cycling region and many of the roads are marked to show bicycle traffic. Shoulders are paved and wideand generally in very good condition. All along the route, even when there is no Ironman on, there are “portable restrooms” marked with very visible signs. The scenery is beautiful although this route apparently ranks as one of the toughest Ironman courses. That said, the Men's Ironman World Championships, recently held in Nice, was much harder, featuring a bike course with double the elevation gain!

Main Street, Lake Placid

The Pines Inn, my hotel

On a beautiful early Fall day I rolled out of my hotel (possibly one of the very few budget alternatives in town and probably THE place to stay in Lake Placid circa 1912) and eased downhill and onto Main Street, which runs along the shore of Mirror Lake—for some reason the village of Lake Placid is not actually on nearby Lake Placid!--and takes you past an amazing number of restaurants, outdoor equipment stores, and realtors' offices. It takes you past the hockey arena where the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” match took place and the big high school, which has the Olympic speed skating oval in front of it. A little further and you are out of town and following Route 73 southeast in the direction of Keene

Olympic ice hockey venue

There are reminders of Lake Placid's Olympic past as you will see on your right the two towers that mark the tops of the 100 m and 128 m ski jumps, the only jumps in North America that are homologated for summer as well as winter competitions. Built for the 1980 Games, they were modernized in 2021. The next bit of Olympic history is when the Ironman course takes a little detour to the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex, which is the home of the bobsled track. The track was built in 1930 and used in the 1932 and 1980 Games. The most recent version of the track was constructed in 2000 and the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Although Route 73 had a fair amount of traffic on a Friday morning, the shoulders of the road make riding safe enough and for a good portion of the Ironman loop here the road goes downhill, making some sections very speedy indeed. Exhilarating, in fact.

Reaching the hamlet of Keene, you leave Route 73, turning left onto Hwy 9N, and enjoy a beautiful ride on a quiet road heading north alongside the Ausable River until reaching the hamlets of Upper Jay and Jay proper. Jay has a nice village green but is notable as having the only covered bridge in the Adirondacks. Originally built in 1857, it eventually fell into disrepair and was removed, while the current bridge, using original hand-hewn beams, was opened as a footbridge in 2007.

Another left turn takes you from Jay onto Route 86, which goes northwest and gradually climbs before the Ironman course takes another out-and-back detour along Haselton Road. Unlike most of the loop, this 22 km total section is shaded by tall trees and features lots of gentle climbs and descents as you reach the turnaround at the hamlet of Black Brook and come back. A really lovely section of road. Next stop: Wilmington.

Wilmington near the base of Whiteface Mountain and I took a break at the Visitors Bureau, which was all decorated for Fall. Speaking with the lady working there, I learned that she was the chief organizer of the bicycle race held every June that starts at the Visitor Bureau parking lot and goes to the top of Whiteface Mountain. She told me that the hardest part of the ride is the section up to the toll house, with the remaining 8 kms (5 miles) to the top being steadier. I had planned to ride up to the toll house to consider whether I should go on or just come back down and continue with the Ironman loop but, feeling encouraged, I set off on the big climb.

Passing North Pole, New York (“Home of Santa's Workshop”), a little theme park that opened in 1949, I found this section of the Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway to be fairly arduous. The climb has been described as the American equivalent of the Alpe d'Huez, which I have actually ridden, and both certainly start off hard. Reaching the Alpine-inspired toll house (fee for a cyclist is US$15), I needed a short break to recover before the next section.

Whiteface Mountain's east side was used as the Alpine skiing venue for the 1980 Olympics and features the highest vertical drop of any ski area in the Eastern United States. Opened in 1929 by then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Memorial Highway rises at an average of 8% to a parking lot at 4,610 feet above sea level, and access to the actual summit, another 280 feet, is either up a set of steps or an elevator. Those 8 kms uphill seemed to last forever. Unlike the Alpe d'Huez, the Memorial Highway does not really have any switchbacks until the last 2 kms so it is a steady grind, with no relief along the way. Stopping to take photos was tricky as getting going again at that gradient was not very easy. Views from the summit are impressive and it was a fine day but already quite cold.

View of Lake Placid

I had the foresight to bring a small backpack with extra clothing—arm and leg covers, glove liners—which turned out to be a good idea as returning downhill at speed (even for this terrible descender) felt freezing. The road surface is excellent but at the steepness speed builds up very fast and it was not so comfortable until I passed the toll house. Oddly, I found doing this final section into Wilmington much better as the curves were wider and easier for control.

Back in Wilmington, it is time to head southwest along Route 86 and the 21 kms back to Lake Placid. This section of the Ironman loop features steady climbing, including three little climbs known as the Three Bears, which would be very tiring if you were doing both loops of an Ironman race. Traffic was heavier here again and while the shoulder is paved it is rather narrow in some spots. There are little parking spots were people stop to go fishing in the Ausable River.

Soon enough one is back in Lake Placid and unlike the Ironmen/women, I did not have to run a marathon after getting off the bike, thankfully. In all, I had covered 120 kms and climbing just under 2100 m. A beautiful day out that can be recommended for any cyclist—well, maybe with more modern gearing that my 34-26!

Mirror Lake, on the shores of which is found the town of Lake Placid, oddly

As to the Ironman Lake Placid race taking place on July 21, 2024, this will be the 25^th Anniversary Edition, with various special events. General registration sold out in August already for the 3,200 participants so you just have to do it on your own.  The Ironman website provides a map and turn-by-turn instructions for the course here. The Veterans Memorial Highway information is here.  And if you really want to race up Whiteface Mountain, you can check out the event information here. 

I had planned to enjoy some craft beers at the nearby Lake Placid Brewing Company but my legs were so exhausted that the best I could do was stagger over to the nearby McDonalds, where I recall eating pretty much the entire menu.  The next morning was not much better as I walked to a local diner and had the biggest meal, the Adirondack Breakfast, on the menu, which disappeared as soon as the waiter set it down.  Apparently my ride the day before had used up something like 5,00 Kcal!

Feeling somewhat more myself and having packed the car, I drove over to a state historical park.  This was the one-time home, and then only briefly, of famed abolitionist John Brown, who helped ignite the Civil War by leading a slave uprising to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia in 1857.  Executed for treason, he is buried with some of his followers at this farm in North Elba.  It is a beautiful site and a peaceful setting considering its association with a pivotal and still-controversial figure in United States history.  More information on the John Brown Farm may be found here.

Return to Lake Placid

Yesterday was a low point in my cycling for this year.  I decided to ride the hilly loop in Gatineau Park in preparation for my upcoming trip to the Pyrenees.  It was a hot, sunny afternoon, and I decided to skip the 14 km ride each way to the park in favour of driving there for the first time and just doing climbing.  After I unloaded the bike, I headed uphill and felt pretty good until, at 14.3 kms and 350 m of climbing, there was a loud bang and my rear tire simply blew off the rim.  I use Hutchinson tubeless tires which, when flat, can be fixed temporarily by installing a tube, or can even be gingerly ridden on.  In this case, the bead that holds the tire flush with the rim seemed to have failed completely and the tire, with or without a tube, would not seat properly.  I used up two CO2 cartridges, and that of a passing cyclist, to no avail.

It has been an odd Spring in Ottawa and I have been able to ride without the clouds of pestilential blackflies buzzing around.  As I stood sweating in the sun, I discovered another plague: horseflies, and swarms of them.  Unable to get the tire back in working condition, and bitten repeatedly, I decided it was time to take off my shoes and start pushing the bike back to the parking lot.  Several cyclists offered to help but there was nothing to be done.  I thought I would try to get a lift from someone driving an SUV or pickup truck, but my hitchhiking attempts were for nought.  I saw a small car approach and it stopped beside me and the driver offered me a lift.  She was driving a hatchback, so we loaded in the bike easily and I was soon back to my car.  It would have been a very, very long walk and I was most grateful to my Good Samaritan.  After getting home and replacing the tire, I spend the rest of the evening putting AfterBite onto the dozen huge bites on my arms, knees and even my right hip, where the fly bit right through my cycling shorts.

So it is much nicer to think of pleasant rides, such as the one I did two weeks ago today.  This was a Return to Lake Placid to ride the Ironman Course.  After the success of last year’s expedition, I once again offered the ride up on our United Way auction at the office and had another eager taker.  Eric and I had a few beers in the weeks before the ride and I found him to be good company.  A beginning triathlete, he was keen to ride the course and we were hoping the weather would be as good as promised.

It was indeed.  After a 7:00 am start, we reached Cornwall pretty quickly (although not too quickly–police cars were after speeders all over the place, both in Canada and the USA) and fortified ourselves at that fine Canadian institution, Tim Hortons, with doughnuts, before crossing what must be the worst-paved bridge in North America.  A second, better bridge took us into the United States, where the border guard asked us a surprising number of questions.  He was doubtful when we said we were going cycling in Lake Placid since he only saw Eric’s bike on the hitch rack, and I opened the trunk so he could see my bike there.  He wanted to know how we knew each other, where we worked, when we were last in the United States, and if we had been convicted of any criminal offences.  It must have been a slow morning for him but after satisfying his questions, we drove off into the Akwasasne Mohawk Reservation, where the casino guarantees “Winners Every Day!”  Passing this opportunity by, we drove on towards Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.  It was a sleepy Sunday morning and we made good progess.

After parking in the big municipal lot we used last year, we got changed and rolled out.  I discovered immediately that somehow I had mis-downloaded my file for the GPS, so the directions ended after only a few kilometers.  However, the course is a very easy one to navigate around and since I recalled all the landmarks from last June, it was pretty easy to do the loop.

Leaving Lake Placid proper, we rode out on Route 73, which was not nearly as bad for traffic as last year, although I am always nervous about the number of pickup trucks, particularly those towing trailers.  We stopped to take some photos of the Olympic skijump before continuing onward, climbing gently and then getting a screaming descent down into Keene.  We stopped to celebrate the first leg of the ride at the Cedar Creek Run Bakery & Café, where we enjoyed some appallingly sweet pastry and coffee–perfect.  Then we turned onto Route 9N, heading towards Upper Jay.

We saw a few other cyclists out, and passed a couple of older gentlemen as we cruised along in the wonderful sunshine.  Of course, we did not neglect sightseeing, and photographed a buttercup yellow house as well as an impressive stone house built in 1829.  Eric is capable of taking pictures from a moving bike, something I don’t have the confidence to do, but we also felt unhurried enough to stop where we liked.  One of the other cyclists passed us, and then we came upon his friend in a parking lot and chatted for a bit after he was kind enough to take our photo.  We offered to tow him up to his friend but that didn’t work very well as he lost our draft as soon as we came to the first small hill.  By then his friend was coming back, so we did not feel too bad about this.

Turning left just before Jay, we began to climb gently again and caught up to two more cyclists.  One was wearing a Bike Colorado jersey and I talked to him about that ride, which he was training for to do this year’s ride.  He told us that the Lake Placid Ironman course was probably going to be changed slightly due to bridge reconstruction so after stopping to take some photos of some fishermen on the river, we turned right and followed the detour signs, hoping to match the Ironman course as closely as possible.  On this deserted country road we rode side-by-side for a while and, of course, this had to be the only moment some idiot in a speeding Pontiac decided to drive along, leaning on his horn as he caught up to us.  I cannot imagine why anyone on an essentially traffic-free and quite wide road would feel the need to do this but I suppose he thought he was teaching us a lesson of some kind.

Our detour required us to drop down to the river and we joined the original Ironman course, following it for what was probably the right distance into the woods.  On the return,we took a short break next to an old one-room schoolhouse that had been in use from 1863 to 1949.  It had an enormous stove inside and was in great condition, but the farm surrounding it looked abandoned, although all the grass was cut.

Retracing our steps, and after the steady climb up from the river, we found ourselves again in Wilmington and followed Route 86 back to Lake Placid.  There was more climbing than I remembered, although the rushing Ausable River next to us cheered us on, and the fly fishermen waved their greetings.  At one stop, we chatted with an ornithologist from the local college who was a falconer and was trying to look at perergine falcons on the cliffs below Whiteface Mountain.

We were both slowing down noticeably but the promise of the finish in Lake Placid and the opportunity to drink beer spurred us on.  We arrived in fine fettle, and after getting changed, repaired to the Lake Placid Brewing Company for beer and dinner, sitting on the roof deck.

The drive back to Cornwall went quickly, although clearing the border to get back into Canada took a while as the traffic was backed up for half an hour.  We got back to Ottawa by 8 pm after a very fine day out.  If you have the chance to ride this course, take it.  And as to the triathletes, who do the course twice (after swimming 2.5 miles and then having enough energy to run a marathon after the bike ride), all I can say is “Chapeau!”

Lake Placid Interlude

A View of Lake Placid, New York

As part of our United Way campaign at the office last year, we were asked to contribute to an an on-line auction. Although, this being the Foreign Service, some people came up with things like Fujian cork sculptures that had haunted dark closets for years, I decided that since I really wanted to ride the Ironman bike course at Lake Placid, New York.

Lake Placid is known as the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games, but it has other noteworthy things. It was the home of the Trudeau Hospital, established in 1885 as a sanitarium to deal with tuberculosis as the trend in those days was to treat people with fresh mountain air. It was also home to a group of abolotionists, including the famous John Brown. After his famous raid on the Harper's Ferry Federal Arsenal failed, he was tried and executed and his body was returned to Lake Placid. His home is a small museum and his grave is located in front of it. But we must return to the outdoor sports theme as it really is the kind of place where people naturally go hiking or canoeing or, even, cycling.

My United Way offer was for transportation there, the opportunity to ride the 90 km course (the triathletes do two circuits), a chance to cycle up the toll road to Whiteface Mountain (if so inclined) and dinner at the Lake Placid Brewing Company before the trip back to Ottawa. Amazingly, there were several bidders for the chance to ride with me (or drink beer) and after the auction the winner, Gwyn, and I agreed to pick a suitable date once the weather became good enough to do the ride.

This Sunday we were fortunate as the weather was perfect. Departing Ottawa at 6 a.m., we drove across the border via Ogdensburg, New York (the more convenient Cornwall crossing is presently closed) and headed south. For some reason, the creatures of Upstate New York were attracted to my car, including a large wild turkey hen that looked at us and then jumped into the road ahead of the car. But no harm done...

The Ice Center where the famous 1980 U.S.-Soviet Union hockey game for the gold medal took place

There was no traffic to speak of us we passed through small villages and soon found ourselves in the Adirondack State Park, which occupied one-quarter of New York State. By 9:30 a.m. we entered Lake Placid's busy Main Street and found a large municipal parking lot where we could leave the car. There was a clean washroom there as well and I changed into cycling gear and just after 10:00 a.m. we headed out on the open road, State Road 73. We passed a big horse show taking place at the local fairgrounds.

The course, which I downloaded from the Internet at www.gpsies.com began with a few little rollers and soon, just past the Olympic Sports Complex, we enjoyed some massive descents that saw some high speeds on excellent new asphalt. Unfortunately, Route 73 has more traffic than I would have expected on a Sunday morning, with the majority of traffic being large pick-up trucks, many towing boats. Although we enjoyed the downhill parts, it was with some relief that we turned onto Route 9N in Keene. The road was quite lovely, with a small river to our left and very few cars to contend with. We played road tag with two triathletes out on their bikes, and we were to see a great number of them during the day. Lake Placid, traditionally a huntin' and fishin' place and then a low-key summer resort, has found a new role catering to very thin and very fast tri-geeks. The Ironman race held each July here since 1997 is one of only six sanctioned by the Ironman organizers in the United States.



Unfortunately, our enjoyable ride along 9N towards Upper Jay was interrupted by a flat tire. My rear tire was not actually flat but was clearly losing air. I discovered I had not brought my Speedlever to change the tire and I was apprehensive about getting the very tight-fitting Hutchinson tubeless tire back on so we could complete the ride. So I just inflated the tire with a CO2 cartridge and hoped for the best. Of course, that is not always the best policy since a few miles on the tire had clearly gone soft again. Luckily, Gwyn had some tire levers and when I put in the tube I was able to get the tire back on without too much difficulty. Using my second (and last) cartridge, everything worked perfectly and we were back on the road in less than 15 minutes. It was clear that I had tried to take the tire one trip too far since the Hutchinson tread was looking pretty shredded.



Outside of Jay we turned left onto Route 86. There was a bit of climbing here but nothing too hard although there was some traffic. Reaching the village of Wilmington, we turned right onto Hasleton Road, an out-and-back leg where we saw a lot of triathletes. Doubling back after 8 kms, we returned to Route 86. We passed the road to Whiteface Mountain (the 8 mile climb was a bit more than we wanted to do today) and headed towards High Falls Gorge.



This stetch of road was also quite lovely, with a rapidly running river to our right. We saw fly fishermen standing on the rocks and high cliffs above us. It was beginning to get hot but, as if on cue, a dark cloud passed over. No rain but it cooled the air nicely.

Main Street, Lake Placid

The last third of the course is a gentle climb and was easy to do. At one point, I rode with one of the training triathletes. She looked very fit but when we came to the climb she definitely could not keep us with. I think if I had been riding my time trial bike I would have not gone as quickly either, given gearing and geometry. With 92 kms under our tires, we rolled back into Lake Placid. The organizers of the course had been smart to put the big descent at the start and the gradual climb at the end, but the final climb back up into the town itself was pretty steep for tired legs! But it was nice to have over 1000 meters of climbing in the bank...

Sampling our Beer Sampler

After getting cleaned up as much as possible, we walked along Main Street, which was bustling on this late Sunday afternoon. After a bit of effort, we found the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, which operates a small bar and restaurant, and we were able to get a table on the deck outside. We went with the sampler of their six available beers to get started. They were very good, and I was surprised at the coffee flavour that you could detect in the Sunrise Stout. I had a pint of 46'er Pale Ale, which had a pronounced hoppiness, while Gwyn tried the Moose Island Golden Ale.

Back to the car and we were on the road again (with a quick stop at Mountain Mist Ice Cream to celebrate our excellent ride). We were back in Ottawa by 10 p.m with a sense of a day well spent.

Riding with Coach Troy in New York State: A Recommendation

At this time of year I am hard at work, riding the Tour de Basement as the snow falls gently down outside. Maybe not so gently: we are promised the joys of 15-30 more centimeters (up to 1 foot, in the Old System) of the white stuff this coming Sunday.

Luckily I am one of the few people on the planet to actually admit to having no problem riding indoors for fairly lengthy periods. My personal record was the Braveheart Ride, when I watched the Mel Gibson film in its 3 hour entirety while turning the cranks.

My secret to indoor trainer success is to usually to watch old Tour de France/Giro/Tour of Flanders DVDs and pretend I am out there riding with the guys. This has worked well as there is nothing to detract from doing your own workout. My Cruel Coach has me doing the High Intensity Training regime of Dr. Arnie Baker and there is so much brutality in this that I can easily match my exertion to things like the 1 hour session of Marco Pantani climbing the Plateau de Beille.

In addition to my race library, I have several other DVDs that are training-specific. I will review these for the blog but I wanted to start with my most recent acquisition as I enjoyed it so much.

Coach Troy Jacobson of Maryland is well-known/notorious for his Spinervals training DVDs, which usually feature a team of cyclists riding indoors and creating serious sweat and tendon bulges while the coach walks around them and saying things like: "Good job!" This must appeal to people as the number of his DVDs seems to be increasing exponentially.

The latest series is one that features rides outdoors. Like, with scenery and movement. I purchased the second in the series. It features the Lake Placid Ironman loop of 56 miles. I would like to go south (Lake Placid is only 2 hours from here) and ride this course in Spring and thought it would be nice to see the route beforehand.

The DVD features Coach Troy himself riding the course. He is being followed by a car filming the whole thing, except for the sequences when the Coach Troy Cam gives you a cyclist's-eye-view of the road ahead. This helmet-mounted camera is a nice idea, but Coach Troy should spend a bit more money on equipment as the view always seemed a little blurry to me.

Coach Troy gives a running (rolling) commentary of the route and suggestions about where to go fast and where to pull back. He varies the gearing, and you can follow along: the DVD indicates the gearing, the time enroute and the level of exertion in percentage terms. Although it seemed to me that he was using the big chainring where I would probably not, it is very easy to follow along. You can listen to Coach Troy with music, or music without Coach Troy if you prefer.

Whiteface Mountain (5th highest in New York State)
Photo by Paul Duncan

You get a nice impression of the scenery as the DVD is divided up into segments and you pass through the village of Keen and through a series of nice rollers to Jay before getting in some good climbing. You can see Whiteface Mountain, famous as the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics alpine ski runs. Incidentally, there is a toll road that goes to the top and averages an 8 percent grade. It is described as being "challenging." The summit of the mountain is 1480 m (4867 feet) and the road gets to within 91 feet of the top. Hmmm.

Anyway, you can get in a lot of excellent training with this DVD. It is almost 3 hours in length and you can imagine that you are riding in the wild forests of the Adirondack State Park. Well, except that you spend most of the time actually looking at Coach Troy's butt but at least he is letting you slipstream him. The real Ironmen don't get that option in July.

Coach Troy offers the DVD at his website for $34, but I got it a bit cheaper on E-Bay.