Today I rode four of the proposed temporary Tuesday routes:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1376810060. They each have pros and cons which I will try to break down as objectively and without bias as possible.
Keep in mind the parameters we are looking for on the Tuesday "Speed" laps:
*Flattish
*Safe. Few cars/ pedestrians /driveways; wide roads
*Not disruptive to the community
*Few stop signs/ traffic lights
Also keep in mind that each proposed route has similar inherent risks (i.e. deer, puddles, falling branches) that are basically equal, so should have no bearing on the decision.
I'll go north-south.
#1 - Lister's Lap (Cedar Hill X/Gordon Head/McKenzie/McGill/Ring Rd. Sprint on Cedar Hill X)
*Flattish: Yes. Small rise coming onto McGill and small rise coming off of ring rd. No worries
*Safe. Few cars/ pedestrians /driveways; wide roads: Yes. Potential problem area turning onto McKenzie has very good visibility to the left, wide lanes with bike lane. Crosswalk at Midgard has decent visibility to left and right with a street lamp overhead.
*Not disruptive to the community: Yes. No driveways on the right, very few on the left.
*Few stop signs/ traffic lights: Yes. We would have to slow down coming off of McGill onto ring rd; there is very poor visibility to the left. That's it.
Pros: No driveways, wide roads, good lead-in for the sprint, smooth pavement, most streetlamps
Cons: none
#2 - John's Lap (Cadboro Bay/Beach/Lansdowne. Sprint on Cadboro Bay)
*Flattish: NO! Big down hill, followed by big uphill, with the sprint section in the middle.
*Safe. Few cars/ pedestrians /driveways; wide roads: Yes. Lansdown is a bit narrow, and the road is pretty bad condition.
*Not disruptive to the community: Depends how loud we are, lots of residences on Beach and Lansdowne.
*Few stop signs/ traffic lights: Yes. Exception being the very sharp hairpin turn onto Beach Dr.
Pros: Good long, wide, straight stretch for sprint.
Cons: Hairpin, too hilly, inspired by CX
#3 - Rolf's Lap (Beach/Dorset/Nottingham/Lansdowne/[Rutland]. Sprint on Beach just past Cattle Point)
*Flattish: Yes. Small rise on Dorset, rise on Beach leading into sprint
*Safe. Few cars/ pedestrians /driveways; wide roads: Yes
*Not disruptive to the community: Yes. Close to park land.
*Few stop signs/ traffic lights: Yes. Exception is turning onto Beach from Rutland where there is ZERO visibility. I propose avoiding Rutland, staying on Lansdowne until Beach, where there is very good visibility of Beach as we approach.
Pros: ticks most of the boxes, closer to coffee than the first two
Cons: uphill lead-in to sprint, poor-ish road conditions
#4 - Andrew's Lap (Beach/Newport/Currie. Sprint... ???)
*Flattish: Kind of. OBB Hotel climb is a bit of a grind.
*Safe. Few cars/ pedestrians /driveways; wide roads: Yes. Newport might be a tad narrow?
*Not disruptive to the community: No more than usual.
*Few stop signs/ traffic lights: Yes.
Pros: Fun to ride
Cons: OBB Hotel climb, no feasible spot for the sprint, errant golf balls, wind.
I would rank the options, from best to worst, as: Lister's, Rolf's, Andrew's, John's. Based on the length and location of the lap we would have to figure out how many laps to do to keep the distance similar.
Okay, not really.)
