Longish Cape Cod road rides?

[NHAero]

I'm going over to the mainland July 4th weekend and my nephew's bike shows up Tuesday. He wants to do 40-100 mile ride. What route(s) can we ride that doesn't totally take our lives in our hands, and isn't on "bike paths" full of bladers, dogwalker, and baby carriages (as the Vineyard MUPs are)?

[eippo1]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I'm going over to the mainland July 4th weekend and my nephew's bike shows up Tuesday. He wants to do 40-100 mile ride. What route(s) can we ride that doesn't totally take our lives in our hands, and isn't on "bike paths" full of bladers, dogwalker, and baby carriages (as the Vineyard MUPs are)?

Look up the MS or PMC courses on mapmyride or ridewithgps. Lots of good roads on these routes.

[superbowlpats]

are you riding on the Cape (like your thread title) or mainland? lots of nice riding in Carver, Myles Standish State Forest, Plymouth, Rochester, Middleboro etc

[NHAero]

Fair enough! People on Martha's Vineyard think of it all as the Mainland. Even worse, when someone is going off-Island, the expression is, oh, you're going to America?

Any routes on the real mainland you like? Say, in the 60-ish range? And safer than the cape?

Originally Posted by superbowlpats

are you riding on the Cape (like your thread title) or mainland? lots of nice riding in Carver, Myles Standish State Forest, Plymouth, Rochester, Middleboro etc

[schwa86]

The CRW fall century ride is really pretty though VERY flat. Goes through Wareham as somewhat close point to you. Route is on RWGPS if you search crw cranberry.

[dbh]

Depends where on the Cape you're starting from? FWIW, this is the worst season for riding with roads filling up with tourists. I'm in West Barnstable and piece together 25-30 mile rides as best I can away from the main roads. Even then roads are narrow, shoulders are non-existent, and traffic is heavy.

[Tz779]

Originally Posted by dbh

Depends where on the Cape you're starting from? FWIW, this is the worst season for riding with roads filling up with tourists. I'm in West Barnstable and piece together 25-30 mile rides as best I can away from the main roads. Even then roads are narrow, shoulders are non-existent, and traffic is heavy.

yes, +1 to this. 6A is the worst. you may be able to map out a loop in e harwich, brewster, and orleans: Rt 39, 137, 124, old queen anne rd. eastham to p-town wld be suicide, imho.

[Ed-B]

About 26 years ago I ran an event ride for the Granite State Wheelmen (a New Hampshire club) through my old home town area around Middleboro MA that I called the "Cranberry Harvest Ride". The RWGPS "Cranberry 66" route covers some of the same roads that I mapped out back then. It's a nice rural route over lightly traveled roads.

Middleboro, Lakeville, Carver, Rochester, - all old New England towns with great back roads.

[NHAero]

I started with the CRW route (couldn't find the Cranberry 66 route :-( and cut out one loop and ended up with an 80 miler. Whaddya think, if you know these roads?

[stien]

I was gonna suggest bailing on cape for the July 4th week especially. Second road rider hit in as many days. I do have a nice 50-100 that we used to do a lot. Ride the coast from WH to canal, over to sandwich, out to Osterville via service road and pick your way back. It’s a nice ride. Just not the right season.

[verbs4us]

Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but when we lived on the Cape, in North Falmouth, the riding sucked. To make any decent mileage you had to get on main arteries for at least a few miles before you cold hit the next loop. And that would take you further Upper or Outer Cape for a spell, until you hit the main artery again. Like said earlier, 6a is beautiful but too treacherous for a bike and I stayed off it between Memorial Day and Labor Day. After Labor Day, it's like someone threw a switch and all the evil spirits evaporate. The frustrating part is that you have ocean on two sides and you can never get to it because the roads don't go there, or, if they do, they are private roads and deadends. There is an old rail bed further out, and one in Falmouth, but they are pretty boring and (surprise!) dead flat.

[carpediemracing]

This was Cape Cod. We were in Dennis Port? Or Dennis, I don't remember. Although we did a lot of riding it was quite nerve wracking (and I ride primarily so I can do crits and I love sprinting with cars so it's not like I never ride in traffic). On the very tight busy roads we would actually go with traffic and take a lane, but we couldn't sustain that for long (had to go really fast).

Our 100+ mile ride took place a lot on the MUPs. We rode to Provincetown and back, and did a short steep hill (apparently it's "the hill" in Cape Cod).

The picture was from 2010. Nowadays I avoid riding outside except to race.

[superbowlpats]

This one is pretty decent (Cranberry 67). you could start/finish in Wareham

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/3121693