How Routes are Made, Part 4

Behind the Cue Sheets, Part 4 

Where Bold Meets Practical 

By MARK ANDREW 

Ride for Runaways Committee 

 
Most route refinements are incremental. A safer shoulder. A cleaner connector. A better SAG approach. Progress usually happens in small, deliberate steps. 

Occasionally, though, you look at the map and decide to be bold. 

This year, the inspiration was Day 2 — Winchester to Frederick. 

On paper, the vision had everything you want in a ride: an iconic river crossing, a historic backdrop, a rolling terrain progression — even a brief change-up onto an infamous rail trail. It wasn’t a tweak to the existing inventory. It was something new. 

And we dove in. 

Fall and winter route scouting exist for a reason: to test ambition against reality. In this case, a temporary stairwell on the Maryland side of the Potomac crossing — newly installed — changed the calculus. 

One hundred riders dismounting. Walking bikes across a bridge. Descending a narrow, graduated stairwell. Staffing it. Managing flow. Managing hesitation. Perhaps enduring a spotlight that comes with a group our size. 

It was solvable. 

It was manageable. 

But manageable is not the same as right. 

This is where practicality meets ambition, where the desire for change runs up against what works. 

Not everything that can work should work ... now. 

The stairwell called for an operational workaround that distracted from the ride itself. It introduced potential friction into a day that otherwise would flow naturally. And flow matters. A lot.  

So we made the call to dismiss Harper’s Ferry, WV, for this year. Not because it was impossible. Not because it was unsafe. But because timing matters in design. 

Eventually, that stairwell will be restored with a permanent structure sporting switchback ramps. When that infrastructure is in place, the concept works cleanly. Elegantly. 

So, we wait. 

What we as riders ultimately see is the final cue sheet — a clean set of turns that suggest the route was obvious all along (or a retread). But route design rarely works that way. The road may dictate ninety percent of the story, while the remaining ten percent is debated, tested, and sometimes abandoned after long days of scouting. 

Much of that work never appears in the final product. It happens behind the scenes, where ideas are explored and occasionally set aside. Not everyone is happy, but the outcome lands on what is best for the Ride. 

So when the route seems simple, remember: there were likely other chapters written before the one that made it to the final release.