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Popular New Orleans Area
Training Rides
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![]() Giro Ride - Saturday & Sunday, 7:00 am (Also an alternate 6:45 group) This is the standard big group weekend training ride in New Orleans. These very informal training rides leave every Saturday and Sunday at about 7:00 a.m. Saturdays tend to be a bit faster and larger than Sundays. Most riders meet at the Starbucks on Harrison Avenue, leaving at about 7:00 am, and riding toward the lake on Marconi Blvd., picking up additional riders at Robert E. Lee Blvd. and hitting Lakeshore Drive at about 7:05 am. (Jan. '17). Riders start arriving around 6:30 for conversation and coffee. Feel free to contact the Webmaster for updated information if you are new or visiting. The Giro Ride route, while a good choice for weekend mornings, is not necessarily the best option for solo weekday riding. This 50-mile ride traditionally follows Lakeshore Drive (you can catch the group there if you're a bit late) east to Hayne Blvd., continues on Hayne to Paris Road, and heads south to Chef Menteur Hwy (Hwy 90), turning East to Venetian Isles and returning essentially the same way. In-season rides can be tough, with sprints at the end of Hayne, Chef Highway, the Service Road, and the top of the two bridges. Group size varies from about 10 in the dead of winter to about 50 in mid-summer. These rides were started many years ago by Glenn Gulotta as a traning ride for his West End team, and subsequently became one of the most consistent training rides in town. A great way to get in a hard training ride and still be home before 10:00. The group does a slow warm-up on Lakeshore Drive on the way out, with the pace picking up to the high-20's and low 30's once it crosses the Industrial Canal bridge. Take a look at the Strava Route to see the route and to get an idea of what a typical mid-summer Giro Ride (in this case, June 2012) is like. This is a traditional training ride that is not organized or conducted by any particular club or bike shop. Alternate 6:45 Group: There is a regular group that does the same route as the Giro on Saturdays, starting at 6:54 am from West End, near Brisbi's. This group is usually smaller than the 7 am group and the pace is usually a bit easier and more steady. This ride started in order to accomodate riders who didn't want quite as much intensity as the Giro typically provides. |
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Wednesday Lakeshore Dr. Training Races - Wednesday, 6:00 pm Currently (March '17) the informal Wednesday Worlds training races are starting at 6:00 pm every Wednesday from the southside parking area just east of the Elysian Fields Avenue traffic circle on Lakeshore Drive (2240 Lakeshore Drive). Mandatory, standing start, foot down at 6:00 pm sharp from the East end if the parking lot. 3 laps (18 miles), possiblyincreasing to 4 laps as the days get longer. There is a Facebook page for the ride. Northshore training races have been held in the past on Tuesdays. Don't know if they are happening now. This was a standing ride - 5:00 PM start at Caboose (Koop Drive Trace Trailhead) - route is posted here - note that we take the Trace up to Josephine St north of Abita Springs (not Hwy 36 as shown on the map). We will normally be by Abita Springs trail head around 5:20 PM and St Benedict's Church on Smith Rd at 5:35 - 5:45 PM. The course is about 45 miles with some rolling hills and the pace can get fast.
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River Levee / Lakefront Levee |
As of April 2017 this group meets at 6 am at "the pipes" on the levee bike path near Dakin Street, just upriver from the Orleans/Jefferson Parish line. They ride the bike path out to around Ormond and return, about 40 miles round-trip. The pace can get fairly fast depending on who shows up. NOTE: As of November 2016 the river levee bike path is fully open from Audubon Park to the Spillway. Mississippi River Trail: The bike path atop the Mississippi River Levee, officially called the Mississippi River Trail (MRT), is a nice place to train and take in some scenery, particularly when it's not too crowded (early mornings). This silky-smooth asphalt path starts at Audubon Park near the Zoo and extends upriver about 25 miles all the way to the Spillway with no intersections and no traffic except for the occasional police car. It can get a bit windy up on the levee, particularly in the winter, but it still provides one of the only traffic-free places to train.
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WeMoRi | The WeMoRi (Wednesday Morning Ride) - 5:45 am Wednesday This group starts near Robert's grocery on Robert E. Lee Blvd. near Pontchartrain Blvd. on, obviously, Wednesday mornings at 5:45 am for a route that includes a lap of Lakeshore Drive, a loop around City Park via Robert E. Lee, Wisner, City Park Avenue, and Marconi Blvd., and a partial lap of Lakeshore Drive over the Bayou St. John bridge, around the fountain, and back over the bridge, ending at Shelter #1 on Lakeshore Drive. The ride includes a few sprint points and can get quite fast. for most of the year, this ride is largely in the dark, so bring your lights. |
Summer Northshore LSD Rides | There are weekend long, slow distance (LSD) rides on the Northshore geared toward offering riders a chance to increase base miles and/or recover from any harder rides they have done during the week. If you need a faster weekend ride, consider doing the Sat./Sun. Giro rides on the Southshore or the Saturday Team Earthquake ride on the Northshore. Distances are around 50 miles with a pace of 18-21 mph. This ride changes every week, so you need to check the NOBC e-mail group for details. |
Lakeshore Drive |
Lakeshore Drive has always been the city's most
popular location for individual and group training. For many riders throughout
the area, a typical weekday training ride involves a warm-up ride to Lakeshore
Drive, 10 or 15 miles along the lakefront, and a cool-down ride back home. The
complete 10-mile out-n-back course offers a good surface, relatively little
traffic, few intersections and pleasant scenery. The Eastern end from the
Seabrook bridge to Bayou St. John is a popular 6-mile loop that has also been
used for the summer afternoon Tuesday/Thursday training races. Riders can be
found training individually or in small groups on weekday mornings and evenings
throughout the year. Feel free to join in with whoever you can catch! |
St. Charles/ Audubon Park |
Some local riders can be found training on St.
Charles Ave. and Carrollton Ave. between S. Claiborne and Jackson Ave., along
the streetcar line , although this route is not for
the faint of heart, and is best before 7:00 a.m. on weekdays. It offers a
reasonably good road surface and is sufficiently wide, but has lots of
intersections and opening doors. The compete out-n-back distance is 10 miles.
Despite the 10 mph speed limit, riders often resort to the Audubon Park loop
when traffic uptown is bad. The long loop that crosses Magazine St. is about 3
miles, but you really can't go faster than about 15 in the front section except
very early in the morning. This ride can be extended by turning onto the new
bike path atop the Mississippi River Levee (see below). In 2013 a bike lane was added on Carrollton Avenue from St. Charles to S. Claiborne and on St. Charles from Carrollton to Nashville Ave. |
City Park Loop [SEE A MAP] |
The perimeter of City Park is a popular training route that offers relatively few intersections and a generally good road surface. There are numerous variations of this loop, which can be extended to include a piece of Lakeshore Drive. One circuit follows Wisner, City Park Ave., Marconi, and Robt. E. Lee, and is popular in mid-winter with riders avoiding the piercing North wind coming off the Lake. The distance around is about 10 miles, but can be shortened by cutting through the park in a couple of places. Wisner Blvd. has a wide freshly paved (2010) shoulder and also a meandering bike path along the bayou. Marconi Blvd. and Robert E. Lee Blvd. were both repaved in recent years with Robert E. Lee getting bicycle "share arrows." In 2017 a bike path along Marconi Blvd. fromRobert E. Lee to Harrison Ave. was added. |
Jefferson Lakeshore Bike Path, Linear Park |
The Linear Park was originally an old road (Hammond Highway), now converted and mostly relocated into a bike path between the lake levee and the lake itself. It runs along the South shore of Lake Pontchartrain
the entire length of Jefferson Parish. In early 2014 the last of the bridges across the outfall canals was finished, and an underpass beneath Causeway Blvd. was added in 2012, so it is now a nice continuous path. You can get on at Bucktown, and at most of
the major North/South streets like Causeway. The path runs all the way to the
West edge of Kenner, then crosses the levee and continues South almost to the
Interstate. Note: Beginning in 2017 levee raising work may cause temporary closures for heavy equipment but the path is expected to be open otherwise. Work is expected to end in the summer of 2017.
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Abita Springs & Northshore
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See also the Northshore winter ride link above. Abita Springs has long been a popular starting
point for "country rides" north of the Lake. Weekend rides generally start at
the school in town, near the Abita Springs park, and head north toward Enon,
Folsom, Franklinton, and Bogalusa. Various groups organize rides out
of Abita Springs throughout the year. Roads in the area are generally
lightly traveled and offer some small rolling hills. Typical early spring
training rides allow riders to get in 60-80 hard miles before noon. Get there
via La.-59 north of I-12. There is a rails-to-trails route (the Tammany Trace)
from Mandeville to Abita Springs that may be of interest to "significant
others."
Popular rides out of Abita Springs include:
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Red Bluff SEE A MAP
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These legendary training rides will consume much
of your day (it's about an hour and a half drive), but periodic group training
rides to this Mississippi location (click for a map
of the area) can serve as valuable tools for assessing your fitness for
competitive road racing on courses with significant hills. The out-and-back ride south of
Montecello, Mississippi incorporates some significant climbs, even though about
half of the ride is essentially flat. What we're talking about here isn't
exactly Everest, but it will show you what it's like to have to stand up in a
39x21 and wonder how much farther it is to the top (and whether you'll make
it). If you are really looking for a serious workout, an alternate loop of around 33 miles provides much more climbing, and serves as a good test for the masochistic or sadistic rider
(depending on fitness level ). |