The Grapes of Wrath

I rode out of Thompson today heading east toward the Grand River along the roads with names like Cork, Callahan, and Ireland Road. I've ridden those roads before, but didn't spend any time on the many gravel roads out there. Here's a map. The vague outline of a Paris-Roubaix style race started to come together.

The best "worst" road of the day is Atkins Road, which at one time was paved, but has since decayed and has become a mix of several surfaces. That means you can go fast, but you have to be careful. Bombing down that road in a pack would be a thrill.

There's even a potential Forest of Arenberg section toward the north end of the road where it crosses a stream through a shallow valley--I guess that's called Mill Creek.

The road ends up running through the vineyards of the wineries up along South River Road. There are countless farm roads through the wineries.

So the hypothetical race "The Grapes of Wrath" would be held probably in early November. It would start somewhere in southern Geauga county and work its way north and east toward Atkins road, wind around a couple winery roads, and finish at South River Road.

Now the fun part will be to knit these roads together into a hypothetical course to see what the major planning obstacles would be.

Here's a few more pictures from today's ride.