Nice Rides in Cincinnati Ohio and Northern Kentucky

Triathlon Forum
1

I am planning to head south to the Cincinnati area this weekend to do some training in the hills. I am looking for a couple rides that are 80 through 120 miles long and mountainous and also a nice place to camp out. The dream location would also have a lake suitable for open water swims and some nice running trails. Can anyone recommend a nice region in that area for cycling and some nice hilly routes?

I am totally flexible— We are driving down from Michigan and can easily drive through Cincinnati into Kentucky.

Thanks in advance,

Marc

2

I would encourage you to head over toward Portsmouth, OH and Shawnee State Park. Some of the best and most beautiful riding you can do in Southern Oh. You will probably have to camp at the state park or maybe get a lodge room as there is a bike tour pulling into town that day with thousands of riders so all the hotels are booked. Contact the Shawnee State Park to see how busy the campground/lodge will be. There are some course maps available at www.hfpracing.com for the Triple-T courses that will be held at the end of May. Some of these have some very nice climbing. Lots of nice park roads to ride on and some good trails to run on also. Lampblack run at the base of the hill to the lodge is a great gravel fire road to run and goes for many miles.

3

I feel I should be more useful to you, as I grew up in Ft. Thomas, KY, right over the big mac bridge from downtown cincy.

That said… where the #$#$# did I ever ride in high school?

Maybe five mile road, Cincinatti side, heading east along the river through Anderson township?

Or Route 8, KY side, along the river, also east of Cincy.

Lots of bridges, some pedestrian only, to go back and forth from downtown, but Newport (KY side) and Cincy both don’t have a lot of bike lanes.

Try Caeser Creek State Park, north of cincy (like an hour?), I remember great swimming and running there. Probably biking too–and I remember they have a couple of tris there, so check online for the course routes. Probably pretty flat too.

Mt. Adams/Playhouse in the Park, which is the nicest yuppie part of the city, would be worth a spin, and you can head there from downtown/waterfront, where I think you can bike along the river… I can imagine you put together a scenic tour of the city + some of KY, with good hills, with some effort. It’s a surprisingly small city, btw.

Camp out? Hmmm… Caesar creek? Big Bone Lick State park, in KY, may have something.

Also check out http://www.cincinnaticycleclub.org/

They have some cue sheets.

BTW, be careful if you go more south in KY–while you’ll hit more rural areas, nice hills, good for biking, you’ll also run into the type of people that think cyclists could make good trophies…

–zee

4

Ok, I think I can help here. I agree, route8 is awesome, and indian hills is great for hills. there are a lot of group rides on the week-end www.cincinnaticycleclub.org (depending on how strong you are, some might be too slow), send me a message if you want info on that. Ceasar’s creek is good for camping, riding and trail running. It is about 45 minutes from cincy, there are some good hills out there too… east fork lake is closer to cincy and probably has camping too.

Now, here is another option for you… I am heading to Columbus friday night to go do TOSRV www.tosrv.org It is a 105 miles ride from columbus to portsmouth, sagged and supported, with lunch and option to camp sat night or stay in a gym. sunday you get up and ride back.(210 total) It is suppose to be fun, and great weather predicted. I think they accept friday night registration if you are interested. From what I heard, there are some hills at the end, probably nothing like cincy until you hit portsmouth.

If you are thinking about coming here, hurry up, the cicadas are coming, apparently sunday:)… the are suppose to affect just the cincy area. Other great idea if you REALLY want hills, may22 is Godzulla ride, basically from cincy to shawnee state park (you do need a ride back) www.godzulla.com and it is 125 miles of hell! apparently the first 35 miles are flat and the next 80 are all uphill. My friend said it made her NEVER, EVER want to ride her bike again!! My coach said no for me to do that one… So there you go! Well, I hope that helps, let me know if you need more info