Good luck! Haven't done it yet but it's on the list. You'll go near the Warren Country Store at ~mile 10 when you turn off 100 towards Lincoln Gap, and then pass it at mile ~50. Great sandwiches.

https://www.warrenstore.com/

What gearing are you using?

Wow! I thought the three notch ride over here in New Hampshire was challenging. Adding this one to the list. Give us a write up on it after you're done!

I second the Warren Store in general. There's also a nice stream next to it. If the day is hot, take off your shoes and put them in the cool water

As for other places to stop, in general, there's usually some place at the start/end of most gaps.

• There's a general store in Lincoln, after you come down off Lincoln Gap. Be careful on that descent. At one point, you come around a curve and the road goes from paved to dirt just like that.
• There's nothing after that until after you ascend and descend App Gap. Once you get to Route 100, there's a gas station. Turn right (south) on 100 towards Warren and there's also a decent pizza place on the left, a few miles down (sitting in the middle of nowhere) if you prefer pizza to the Warren Store sandwiches.
• Once you descend Roxbury Gap, there's a general store right there in Roxbury where you turn south on to Route 12A. Then there are a couple of places in Randolph, about 12 miles south of Roxbury. After that, there's nothing until you descend Rochester Gap into Rochester

I hope you have some easy gears for Lincoln Gap.

Great! Thanks - I'll add the Warren County store into my notes for nice sandwich stop.

I'm using a compact 50-34 with an 11-32 cassette - this should be fine for me I would think. I know Lincoln is steep, but it's early in the ride and we don't plan on going too hard. Enjoying the day is the plan.

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For sure! I'll update this thread on Monday. It looks quite challenging. The only single day of climbing that I've done that would rival this is D2R2 - both around 4,200m (I'm Canadian!).

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Thanks or the info JoeO. Roxbury looks like a good time to stop based on our route. Pizza will likely be awesome at this stage in the ride.

What about coffee? Any good coffee house's?

Oh, I'll be using 50-34 with an 11-32.

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The town of Roxbury doesn't have the Pizza place. It just has a general store. The Pizza place is on the easy section of Route 100 between your descent of App Gap and before your ascent of Roxbury Gap. I looked it up to refresh my memory. The pizza place is called "Shepherd's Pub" and its easy to miss. It's not much but they do serve pizza.

https://goo.gl/maps/ZXaSPt82RDQ2

As you can see, the Warren store is at the end of that same easy section just a few miles later. You turn off route 100 into Warren. That's basically the start of the ascent of Roxbury Gap.

https://goo.gl/maps/t7MNw7HRiM32

(In other words, the town of Roxbury actually comes after you climb and descend Roxbury gap)

As far as coffee shops, I have no idea. I don't drink coffee. I suspect you'd get better coffee at the Warren Store than you would at Shepherd's pub though!

Thanks for the clarification - I read that too quickly. Warren is looking a bit too early in the ride for pizza - I don't want to do jersey pocket pizza! Stashing a nice sandwich will be good though.

Hopefully we find something good in Roxbury!

Thanks again for the info.

Edit: we are actually going up the 100 from Hancock and turning left on Lincoln Gap RD, so it doesn't look like we are actually going through Warren! Maybe we should make detour and go through there.

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Here is the planned route starting and finishing in Hancock:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/...82353-22114-map.html

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You really won't. I'm sorry to say. There's that general store and pretty much nothing else in Roxbury. Not until you get to Randolph, 18 miles south of Roxbury. Randolph is certainly quite a bit more of a major town so it is bound to have something good, if you can wait that long

My friends and I typically do Brandon and Middlebury Gap first so by the time we get to Warren, we're famished. For us, Randolph is just the the last chance to fuel up before our final climb (Rochester) so we don't typically look to get lunch there.


You have to go through Warren in order to climb Roxbury Gap. I realize you turn away from it to go up Lincoln but you'll come back to it from the North after descending App Gap. I'm assuming you are doing the gaps in this order, yes?

Lincoln, App, Roxbury, Rochester, Brandon, Middlebury

Oh, one last thing: Another word of caution:

When you descend Rochester Gap, be careful again. The pavement is great and it's fun to go fast, but when you are on the fastest part of that descent, you abruptly come to a stop sign with a left hand turn for the last section taking into Rochester. That stop sign can come up on you really fast. You don't see it at first. So be sure to let you demon descenders know.

I don't actually know the order - someone else designed the route (I linked just now) - it actually looks like Irasville has some good options - a smokehouse and a place called 3 mountain café.

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I've noted your two cautions thanks - we do tend to descend like madmen.

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Oh, I see. You are avoiding that long, southerly section of 100 and coming south on another road. So you only go through East Warren.

I think you should be OK to wait until Randolph for lunch.

Yeah, based on where we are starting, Warren is pretty early in the ride. We could hit Warren post ride though! It's quite close by car as we're camping in Hancock.

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Done and dusted. A group of us arrived in Hancock Vermont late Friday night, set up our tents, and hit the sack pretty much right away. Our small rider group of 4 clipped in at 8am and proceeded directly to the Lincoln Gap. It was a nice, fast, mostly downhill getting to Lincoln which was beneficial in getting the legs turning.

Lincoln certainly starts pretty tame, but once the steep gradients begin, there is no respite! The early part of the climb is rolling and not a big deal, then shit hits the fan and it turns into just over 2km of sustained 20% grades ~ 15min. of very uncomfortable cycling! Wow, I knew it was going to be steep, but I figured there would be some rest between pitches. I planned to pair my 11-32 cassette with my 50-34 rings, but I was lazy before I left and didn't take off my 11-28. I definitely regretted that decision.

Nothing was overly difficult or steep on the other 5 gaps. We had great weather and rolled at an enjoyable pace with no drama. We ended up stopping for lunch in Randolph and found an awesome place called The Chef's Market. They had Kombutcha on tap and made some amazing ready to order grilled sandwiches! I highly recommend this as a lunch stop if it fits the timing of your route.

Overall 7:15 of rolling time, 29.2 km/h, 215km, and 3,900m of vertical. No flats, no mechanicals and no bonks in our group. It's a nice bucket list ride for sure!

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Awesome, congrats! Definitely a ride on my list!

Sounds amazing!