This past Sunday I enjoyed leading a WCC B level ride from Fort Montgomery North to the Newburgh-Beacon bridge and South on Route 9D through Cold Springs and back to Fort Montgomery. It was a busy weekend for rides and only two other’s joined me. Wayne Palladino from New Rochelle, brother of Ernie Palladino The Journal News sports writer and Juanxto Royo or Yonkers.
We climbed Mine and Mine Time roads right out of Highland Falls, which we took slowly to warm up as it was cool at 09:00am. This long off and on climb was perfect to raise the heart beat and work the lungs which got our core body temperature up.

We then headed across 293 to 218 just North of West Point and meet two riders looking for directions to the West Point Visitor’s center. They were with a group riding from Buffolo during the past week. We then dropped down 217 and found the road closed due to the heavy rain storm the night before. We decided to skirt the gates and descend with great care through the downed branches and debris. This was Juanxto’s first ride on these roads and they brought back memories of his climbs in his homeland in the Basque region of Spain as we snaked along the cliffs of the Hudson Highlands.
After crossing the bridge we stopped for a cup of coffee at the Muddy Cup in Beacon before heading quickly down Route 9D back the Bear Mountain Bridge and to the cars.
Juanxto also showed us his unusual crank that has made his rides pain free in the past year. He has cracks in his meniscus that have bothered his knees when he pushed a big gear or climbed a difficult hill. He found Rotor Cranks a little over a year ago and switched them with his Dura Ace cranks on his beautiful Carbon Orbea. Here’s what Juanxto has to say about why he looked for alternitives, My issue on the bike was that I just couldn’t push hard on hills or any other situation where I had to put a lot of pressure on my knees. Not just I felt pain but the pain will remain with me the rest of the day, sometimes one or two days more after that, which literally would ruin the whole experience.

The cranks have arms that move from twelve o’clock to the one o’clock position to move the dead zone at the top of t he peddle stroke. The cranks have nearly doubled the weight of his Dura Ace but more than make up the difference in comfort. Rotor crank says this increases the amount of watts transferred to peddle and even decreases lactic acid build up. Riding behind Juanxto I could not tell a difference in his peddle stroke. He is smooth and quick while maintaining a high cadence even when climbing. Here’s a link to Rotor Cranks website for more info.
Juanxto’s gearing is a bit out of the norm with a small 36 ring and a 52 big ring. This makes a lot of sense to me and something I want to look into. I’m riding a 34/50 and as I’m finding more fitness I’d enjoy that extra leverage of the 52. Free of pain he’s back on top of his peddle stroke.

“Since I’m using the Rotor crank I can ride with almost no pain and sometimes no pain at all during or after the ride.The crank is expensive, heavy and hard to put together, but as far as I’m concern, totally worth it, every gram and every dollar.” According to Juanxto.

It doesn’t hurt that these cranks were developed in his home country Spain at the Aeronautic Engineering School in Madrid, where some students developed an initial prototype back in 1995.

I’ll lead this same 42 mile look off and on throughout the fall and winter as a B or B+ level ride.