It wasn’t near 70 degrees as the weather forecasters had predicted. Someone mentioned 61, but to me it felt closer to 40. Whatever, it was going to heat up once we rolled out of the parking lot.
Before the ride began “Uncle Gene” gathered us all together and gave us a good talking to, laying out the basic rules we should all be following when on a group ride regardless if we’re representing Gear Works or not.
Common sense we all need to be reminded of from time to time.
Was I the only one excited about the first Tuesday night ride of the season? My heart rate was hovering around 120bpm.
And that’s while we were still in the parking lot.
The A ride lined up – as usual Daren kicked several sand baggers out of the B group and sent them up to the A ride.
My thought on this is anyone who shows up in a team kit should be forced to suffer on the advanced ride.
Actually I think anyone who can ride up in front of the B ride all night should experience the fun of doing the A ride at least once in their lives. It’s a blast…… for about 10 minutes. And then it’s just a lesson in humility, unless you’re better than you realize you are.
Anyways, the numbers as I recorded them on my Garmin, which kind of accounts for the time stoppage to repair flat tires:
24 miles
75.5 minutes
19.07 average
The route was typical for this time of year, something that would give us a good ride and get us back to the shop before darkness set in.
We headed right on Hamilton, right from the start I knew things were getting fast when we caught the A ride a little ways up the road.
Okay, so it was at the red light at Hamilton and 13, and it will probably be the only time in my life I can say I latched onto Luciano’s wheel. So be it – it made the ride report, I caught Luciano’s wheel and now our children’s children reading this blog 50 years from now will know it’s true because it was posted on the internet!
From there the rides went their separate ways, the A ride going up Rt 13, the B ride taking a right and heading up Prospect following the roads that would take us onto Rt 70.
Not sure, but did anyone notice the big shit eating grin on my face as we pulled onto 70? I doubt I was the only happy rider as we took the right turn, the kids at the soccer fields cheering, 4 miles of fastness facing us as the train pulled out of the station and quickly began picking up speed. I don’t have the exact numbers, but my guess is we were going faster than Team Liquigas in a team time trial, probably in excess of 45mph for long stretches.
Why did I mention Liquigas and not some other pro team?
All I will say is it has something to do with the slice of pizza I ate before the ride to ensure proper carbohydrate consumption so I wouldn’t bonk on our grueling 75 minute ride tonight.
Thankfully the Specialized Romin saddle I purchased from GW has a nice split down the middle so as to prevent pressure buildup in the bib shorts when the pizza begins kicking in and I’ll leave it at that.
The ride down 70 was awesome – I wish the road was about 40 miles instead of 4 miles, with the wind at our back it might not have exactly been 45mph, but it was definitely fast. And fun!
After finishing 70 we took a right onto 117 and then onto Langden, the pace slowed a little as we headed out of Lancaster towards Sterling.
Checking Google Maps (because I still don’t know road names) we went straight onto Goss and hit the first of a couple of small challenging hills – for me they were challenging, but others seemed to ride up them without any problems.
Once we pulled onto Sterling Road things got cooking again, but then the riders out front didn’t have their GPS programmed to the route Daren picked and those in the front went one way at the fork while the rest of the ride went the correct way.
No harm, we slowed up continung along Sterling Rd and regrouped a little bit before crossing over 62 onto Chace Hill Rd.
Chace Hill starts out easy enough, until we hit the climb, I hate that road – it seems like the climb to the top will never end, and it’s not like you’re talking 12% grades, it’s probably closer to 4% but it hurts nonetheless, and even more so after the pre-ride pizza.
Okay, it’s getting late, need to put this into overdrive.
After cresting Chace Hill we came down Campground rd.
$700 billion in stimulus money, why can’t they repair the RR track crossing? It probably cost more than $700B in car an bike repairs going over those tracks.
No cracked frames that we know of.
But we did have our first flat.
Regroup and headed right onto Rt. 12 in Sterling.
2 minutes later another flat.
Regrouped again.
Finally things got cooking again through Sterling. Whenever we go through the center of Sterling I can’t help but to glance over to the left at Meetinghouse Hill Rd, it doesn’t look that steep, so how come whenever I do the Tour D’ Sterling RR that stretch of road seems like 20%?
It’s because I’m weak of mind.
Oh well enough reminiscing over painful climbs and the sound on bikes colliding.
Moving right along because it’s past midnight and I need to finish washing my bike stuff –
We headed down Rt 12, the fast part, and it was fast, and that stretch needs some stimulus money to repair all the cracks and holes, Noah must’ve hit one as I saw him hit the brakes – I thought it was another flat. Nope, just a broken spoke – no harm, we pressed on.
Once we got past the Twin Oaks took a left onto N. Row and did the Tour D’ Sterling in reverse – what you avoid by not going up Meeting House Hill Road you get in smaller doses on N. Row with the little climbs up to the top where it intersects Pleasant St.
And then more climbing up Pleasant St to Sholan Farms where we again regrouped.
And then the fun begins, going down Pleasant St towards downtown Leominster, we went all the way into Downtown and then began the sprint action through the city, sprinting though traffic and dodging cars is fun, but the red lights seemed to keep us in check.
“Uncle Gene” is prophetic in a way.
The nice long talk he gave us before tonight’s ride?
It all went for naught when we hit the intersection of 12 and 13, some of us assumed we’d go straight all the way to Hamilton St, then at the last second someone yelled out “RIGHT TURN!”, half the group made a smooth turn onto 13, the other half, myself included missed it and went around the traffic island taking a hard right direct into oncoming traffic (fortunately there was no oncoming traffic so we all survived.
Still I wondered what the cop sitting at the intersection thought when he saw this complete CF take place right before his eyes.
Had it been a cop from Sterling, Princeton, Harvard, Ashburnham, or any number of surrounding towns there would’ve been a MAJOR infraction levied against all of us, there might’ve even been jail time, at the very least calls would have been made to the CEO of Gear Works Cyclery letting him know his shop’s group ride was no longer welcome in their town.
But then I remembered, the “Bikes for Kids” philanthropy Gene sponsors every year during the Holiday Season and all the good will that goes along with it – and I think that’s why the cop shook his head, grinned and waved a hearty wave as we caused major mayhem at the intersection. “Gosh darn kids and their bikes” I could see him thinking to himself as he continued to grin and shake his head at the fun we were obviously experiencing.
Good thing there Health Alliance was nearby incase they needed to life flight anyone out of there.
From there we headed up 13, dodged more traffic after crossing over Rt. 2, I missed the shortcut left turn onto the one way street before the carwash (another infraction going the wrong way on a one way street), some of us opted to go up to the next set up lights and break more traffic laws cutting off oncoming traffic as we took the right onto Hamilton.
I think we all made it safely back to the shop.
And that grin I had on my face as we took the right onto 70? it never really left my face all night!
Thanks to everyone for all the fun tonight. See you back on the bike soon!
