My favourite ride: Larry Warbasse and the Leelanau loop

'My Favourite Ride' is a new series from GCN, in which famous figures from the world of cycling talk us through the rides that mean the most to them. First up is Larry Warbasse, former US champion and current WorldTour pro with AG2R Citroën. Larry is based in Nice, where there's stunning riding to be had, but he's taking us back to his home roads of Michigan.

I’m from a town called Traverse City, and it lies at the base of two peninsulas that open out onto Lake Michigan. There’s one that’s small and narrow, and another that’s bigger, dotted with small lakes of its own and a TONNE of small winding roads and hills.

This is Leelanau, and my favourite ride is a big loop of the whole peninsula.

I would say that, in the US, this is one of the best places I’ve ridden a bike. In Europe I live in Nice, which also happens to be one of the best places you could wish to ride a bike, so I guess I’ve been pretty fortunate with the places I’ve lived.

© Google Maps

Larry's home ride is nestled in the north of Michigan

Where I’m from, it’s not like we have mountains, but we do have a lot of hills. You won’t find any climbs that are more than five or six minutes long, but you can easily get above 2000 metres of elevation gain in a few hours. It’s just continuously rolling. What I like to do is try and hit all the hills I can on the peninsula.

It’s just beautiful scenery the whole time. You get these nice vistas over Lake Michigan, and also all the smaller lakes on the peninsula. Up north you have all these nice orchards.

Then you have all the tiny little towns that are really nice to ride through. Shout out to Barb’s bakery in Northport, who do a really, really good doughnut.

© Larry Warbasse

Lake views are never far away on this ride

It’s not the best place to ride in winter, because you can get a lot of snow, but in the summer it’s really awesome. There are just a million different roads – just twisty, hilly roads the whole day. And not many cars.

I’d say I do this ride for both enjoyment and training. It’s a beautiful ride, but it’s still a solid ride.

The route

I’ll start out from home in Traverse City, and I’ll take a road called Centre Road, a really hilly road that runs alongside Lake Leelanau. You would then come towards a town called Suttons Bay, where you can go over Herman Hill, which is a five-minute climb.

I’d then continue north towards Northport, a town towards the top of the peninsula. I’d probably throw in a little loop around some orchards up there, then stop at Barb’s Bakery, which is always a nice destination to add onto the ride.

© North End Guest House / Instagram @northend_guesthouse

Barb's Bakery is the mid-ride doughnut stop

From there, it would be back down heading west, going through a town called Leland on the shore of Lake Michigan. I’d add in some hills inland, including a super nice four or five-minute climb called Hlavka Road, then drop down and take Trumbull Road into Glen Arbor.

There are two lakes in this town and I’d go around Glen Arbor Lake and there’s a nice little hill that goes to a lookout called Inspiration Point, which is a super steep cliff overlooking the lake, which is super pretty.

From there, I’d pretty much go straight back south east to Traverse City, although there are a few little deviations you can do and plenty of hills if you still have something left in the legs.

Why Larry loves this ride

I don’t get to spend much time back home. Being based in Europe, with a busy season, there aren’t that many opportunities to come back to the US. In the last couple of years, I’ve only come back a handful of times, and haven’t been able to do much riding here.

Contrast that with 2020, and COVID, and I was there for months, so if you look at my Strava I was probably doing this ride – or a variation of it – five times a week or something. It was good to have it as an escape during that very strange period, but there is something kind of cool about riding these roads as my ‘homecoming’ roads.

For most of the year, I’m based in Nice, which is just an unbelievable place to ride. You have quiet roads, amazing climbs and descents, café stops, views over the sea… I could easily have chosen one of my go-to training loops for this piece. But while my adopted home does mean a lot to me, my Michigan ride is special because it’s where I grew up riding, and it takes me back to my roots.

I still ride this loop with old friends. There were some guys who I would go out and train with when I was younger. They were already masters racers when I was a junior, but they’re still riding, so I’ll go out with those guys when I’m back home.

When I was younger, there weren’t that many people riding out there, but now there’s a tonne. Every time I go back, I see more and more cyclists out there on the Leelanau Peninsula, and I appreciate that.

© Larry Warbasse

Warbasse out on the Leelanau loop

In Nice, you spend a lot of time riding with fellow professionals. There are so many of us there that you’re never going to be short of company for a ride, and that’s honestly one of the best things about being down there. For me, the social element of bike riding is super important, and I’m seeing more and more of a tendency for pros to isolate themselves as they become so hyper-focused.

It’s worth remembering that we all got into this because it’s something we had fun doing. Riding my home roads in Leelanau with familiar faces certainly takes me back to that mindset.