Please Support our Sponsors

As many of you come into our area from a distance and may be spending today (Saturday) in the region as well, please consider visiting and patronizing our sponsors (http://www.farmersdaughtergravelgrinder.com/sponsors/). They each make significant contributions to the success of our event each year, and to making it a unique event. And for those of you who live in the NY Capital Region, please patronize these good folks throughout the year!

You’ll find everything you need in last-minute cycling prep for tomorrow at Steiner’s at their convenient locations in Albany and Valatie, the latter just a short drive from Chatham.

Bountiful Bread is a great place in Albany to get a casual meal. Stop in for lunch and thank them for supporting Farmer’s Daughter, then go next door and enjoy some fine ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.

Also, Chatham Brewing has good food, and of course fine beer and ale at their brewery every day, and often has live entertainment. They will be featuring Strangled Darlings tonight, and have a special offer for Farmer’s Daughter participants: mention of the Farmer’s Daughter Gravel Grinder will get $1 off their first beer. About Strangled Darlings: The music is built on deep sense of rhythm and groove, carried by George on mandolin and Jess on custom tenor bass & foot drums. His mandolin bursts out in a slalom of notes and snare drum rhythms. Her solid body custom tenor bass weaves an intricate counter melody and her feet pound a percussive groove.  The voices and the lyrics are the hidden third member of the band and the story behind the music.

 

6 thoughts on “Please Support our Sponsors”

  1. Hi! I don’t have a mountain bike or cyclocross bike. I started riding gravel grinder rides last year and used my touring bike (Surly Disc Trucker) with the 1.5″ stock tires (Continental Comfort Contacts). I used these on a couple of group rides last year (JAM Gran Fundo and the F2G2). It worked fine for the JAM ride but the F2G2 had some more off-road sections that sounds a bit like you’ve described for the Farmer’s Daughter … won’t lie, I walked a few sections of that ride. I know you discouraged using a standard road bike but would you also discourage riding my Disc Trucker? (btw, I’m 64 and would be one of the slower riders on the course!). Thanks!

    1. Hi Dennis,most of the course consists of dirt roads and off-road trails that are not particularly technical. Based on what you’ve said, you can expect to do some walking here and there on the trails, especially if they’re wet. No shame in that, we designed the course to be rideable on cyclocross bikes by cyclists with experience riding that type of bike on trails. Many cyclists on ‘cross bikes will walk a few parts, especially if conditions are wet, which they can be in May. I can’t think of a section where you’d be likely to have to walk very far. The most technical section is a small loop behind the final aid station; it’s easy to skip if you’ve found the earlier stuff overly challenging.
      If your Surly is equipped as described on the Surly site, it’s not a standard road bike, and should be fine. I would strongly suggest a more aggressive tire, though. Assuming that you’re equipped with the 700c wheels, I’d suggest going to at least a file tread 40c gravel/cyclocross tire, and probably going to the next level of aggressive tread, something with some small knobs on it. You might go slightly slower on the roads, but you’ll be more confident on the trails. You’ll also ride more, walk less.

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