the cobbled roads of cleveland...

 or cleveland cobbles if you will. 

I have been putting on this ride for; do the math, my daughter is x years old, minus the pandemic...12 years now. it started off as a good friend of mine were riding and we noticed a few brick roads near my house & as discussions go during rides "wouldn't it be cool to have a cobbled ride in cleveland?" but there couldn't be that many brick roads in cleveland...or could there be? so I g
ot to looking via google maps, & as I started scanning the area; I started to find more & more brick roads. I found questionable alleys to ride. then brick questionable alleys as well. I started to string together these roads, these alleys, & then throw in some quick hill climbs and a route was starting to come together. 

I then hit up a few good riding buddies & said "hey i've got this route..." & they were in. thus was the first official "cleveland cobbles" ride. so I kept looking for brick roads in cleveland, & linking them together in a way that made "sense". going the wrong way on a one way, made sense. overlapping roads & sometimes riding in circles, made sense. one of my all time favorite quotes from one of the early years was "who made this route? a 12 year old?!?! I LOVE IT!!!"

the ride continues to grow in popularity. I try every year to change up the route. to move to different areas of cleveland. so far, i've been pretty happy with my attempts. as this has gone on, I have found that there is enough in cleveland to keep it fresh & interesting. this is one of the reasons, I believe, that people keep coming back (& newbies come). what's the point of a ride if the course is always the same?

I always have the ride during the spring. usually the sunday after Paris-Roubaix. as everyone has the spring classics on their mind, lets keep that spirit going. that has proven to be very interesting here in cleveland with the weather. the 2023 edition was probably the worst weather we've had. just down right cold & rainy. a few people got flats that took forever to change, & that took the wind right out of everybody's sails. so cleveland can run the gambit from gorgeous sunny day (like this year) to snow (that was a fun year). with a beer stop near the end.

like I said before, the ride took a break during the pandemic (for obvious reasons) & when the time lifted to get back to socializing; I didn't know if i was going to bring it back. I thought time passed & everyone forgot about it. but holy cow was I wrong. I started getting messages. people asking me...when's the cobbles ride? so I brought it back. and holy shit did that ride open my eyes to how much people actually love it & look forward to it.

as I lead the ride, people come up to the front to chat; which is always cool, but that first ride after the pandemic...I got a whole new appreciation for what this ride means. the shit that some people went through & to just hang out with people & ride their bikes (this isn't a race) with other people meant the world to them. "hey man, thank you so much..." & then the stories would start. to be able to put on this ride where people could come together. hang. ride a crazy route through cleveland & have a good time doing it is cool. i've always been humbled by the turn out. I joke that maybe five people will show. but after that ride, I was truly humbled by what this ride means to people & what it does for people.

so to this end...I want to say thank you. thank you for coming out year after year. thank you for coming out for the first time. thank you for believing in me that i'll put together a "good" route. 

namaste...