Any Ottawa area roadies here?

[Onno]

My wife and I are on sabbatical in the Ottawa area. I've finally made the switch from xc skiing (where Gatineau is truly the place to be!) to biking, and I've been a bit chagrined that the only routes I have explored so far are include lots of roads that are in absolutely terrible shape, full of pot holes, wide cracks, and so on. Cobblestones would be safer. I'm renting a place in Gatineau, and trying to ride north, out of the city. I know that the Gatineau parkways will be perfect once the snow finally melts (next week??), but where else to local people go for rides that are not bone-jarring and rim-damaging?

[summilux]

Check out the Ottawa Bicycle Club. They have maps for their club rides and most are pretty good. Champlain lookout is a fantastic ride and Sunday mornings they close the parkway to car traffic. You have to beware of the people on wheeled skies though.

Ottawa Randoneurs also publish their brevt and populaire rides.

http://www.ottawabicycleclub.ca
http://www.randonneursontario.ca/sched/ottsked.html

[dsillito]

Local people put on fatter tyres, ha ha. Pot holes and cracks are just par for the course if you've grown up with it. I've seen some doozies this year. I may start a thread of photos of your favourite pot hole you have to dodge on the morning commute.

I have found roads in Gatineau to be in slightly poorer shape, on average, than those in Ottawa. The Wakefield ride is nice, albeit on crummy roads. It would be a paradise up there if the roads were smooth.

The ride out to Carp can be good. Alice's café is a popular cyclist destination. I second the Champlain lookout ride, especially once the car-free Sunday mornings start up, which is the May long weekend, I think. There is usually a window after the snow is gone, but before the road opens to cars as well.

I need to find more routes as well, but I suspect there are no magical smooth ones out there, or I'd have heard about it.

Good luck!

[Black Dog]

I used to live in Chelsea, just north of you. There are not a lot routes but there are some spectacular routes. My two favourites are through the town of Alcove and the other around MacGregor Lake. I can put them up on ridewithGPS for you if you would like. Also, loops through the park are so nice. If you like gravel there are some amazing roads through stunning scenery in the area.

[summilux]

Do you know about the Paris Almonte Roubaix? The race is on May 1 and registration is closed but if you feel like intentionally riding on tough terrain, the course map and GPS file is available on their website. It's 80km of nice asphalt, gravel and dirt roads, and water bottle stealing woodlot paths.

http://www.cyclocross.org/paris-roubaix-information/

[Onno]

I think I'll try the McGregor Lake ride this weekend, using bike paths to get out of the city (where the roads can be really bad). And once the snow has melted from Gatineau Parkways, I'll ride there a lot. I wonder if they ever run a plow over those Parkways to speed things along. The 105 is mostly decent, I've found, but Rivierre (which I rode yesterday) was, for a road bike at least, ridiculous. Cite des Jeunes and Mine also have crazy bad patches.

[Ernesto]

I just got back from riding to Carp. It's a reasonably smooth route, for Ottawa/Gatineau standards. I don't find it a good ride if you mostly ride solo as it's just a lot of long and flat stretches. Lots of group rides loop out to Carp.

The ride to Wakefield is always nice. Chemin de la Riviere is crumbly, but the views are excellent. Yeah, and Chemin de la Mine and Notch road are really terrible. I ride those roads on my commute. 28c or 32c tires on all of my bikes.

[Zoodles]

Lots of quiet roads around Chelsea see past the road conditions and look at the surroundings instead!

At this time of year I liked to do the path east along the Ottawa river. Throw in a few hills near the nrc crit.

Used to live there and lament that Carp and Gatineau were the only rides...can't believe how much I miss them.

[summilux]

The Carp ride is nice as a group ride. Cyclelogik runs two group rides Sat mornings there. The 8am is the hammer ride. 8:30 is the no drop friendly version. The route is the same so if you get dropped from the A+ ride you can just wait for the other.

http://cyclelogik.myshopify.com/pages/group-ride

[rousseau]

Will be in Ottawa for two days. I'm looking to do a 60+ km ride starting from a hotel around Bay and Albert, just west of the Parliament Buildings. From my cursory web research it looks like Promenade de la Gatineau would be nice.

So far I've come up with 48 km like this: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1691167265. My question is, how can I add to it? And how much further along Meech Lake can you go?

I don't mind doing stints on trails with shavings if they're solid and smooth enough for a road bike. Are there any extensions I could do that might require that?

Also, which is the best bridge to cross the river on a bike?

I'd be grateful for any suggestions.