September 11, 1998

You've got the bike. You've got the afternoon free. You've even got some sub-80-degree weather. But where to go? When you've memorized every bump on the Rock Creek Trail, it's time to look for new routes. Fortunately, Gaithersburg cyclist James Menzies has already done the hard work, suggesting rides for both beginner and hard-core cyclists (the site includes a monster 104-mile, D.C.-Gaithersburg-Leesburg "century") on his "Urban ATB" page http://www.his.com/~jmenzies/urbanatb/.

"ATB" stands for "all-terrain bicycle," but most of the routes listed here are open to road or hybrid bikes, too. The diversity of travel options and the amount of detail – most routes come with detailed cue sheets, and some even include elevation diagrams – are impressive, as are the site's quick updates (its description of the Capital Crescent Trail had been updated to reflect the new Wisconsin Avenue tunnel in Bethesda two days after that tunnel opened last month).
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Rob Pegoraro rob@twp.com