Tuesday night ride report 6/15/10

As advertised June is here and the Tuesday night ride is now officially fast!
And last night’s route seemed the cruelest of the year.
Daren took us along a route that had hills, hills and more hills. There were a couple hills that had hills on top of hills. And that’s no joke.
And when we finally reached Princeton Center and he told us that there were no more hills to be had, it was a lie.

The stats I have are:
Miles: 47
Time: 2:23
Average: 19.7
Very respectable considering all the climbing we did.

This week there were no pre-ride accidents in the parking lot, we saved all the falls for the ride itself.
New rules are being enacted every week now.
Last night it was decided the warm up portion of the ride would occur over the first ¼ mile between the shop and the lights at Rt. 13.
Once we hit Prospect St. the ride begins in earnest, you’re either with us or your not.
By the time we reached the top of Prospect there was already a noticeable gap, Daren commented on burning a match trying to bridge up to the lead group.
So now everyone needs to pay attention, even early on in the ride, to prevent gaps from opening up.
The ride up Prospect set the tone of the night.
Took the right and rode down past the shopping center – since it’s only a T bone intersection another new rule, no stopping for the red light.
A quick regroup when we hit the intersection of Mechanic St.
Left onto Mechanic St, more fast riding leading out to Rt. 70.
Once on Rt. 70 you had a choice, either hold the wheel in front of you for the next 4 miles, or be dropped. It was every man woman and child for themselves as the speed continuously picked up as we made our way deeper and deeper into the pain zone.
By the time we got to the end it appeared the ride was still mostly together.
Taking the right onto 117 we nearly lost our first rider, Beth, to an idiot in a pickup who didn’t feel like stopping to let the ride take the left onto Langden. The driver either had a serious case of road rage or was late getting home for dinner, but he was a complete a-hole, even as Beth was stopping to take the left, he continued on before slamming on his brakes to avoid running her over.
The speed was moderate along Langden, I think everyone wanted to save themselves for the climbing to come.
Once we took the right onto George Hill Road the events of the night begin getting a little fuzzy.
Hitting the first hill of the night I tried going off, not intentionally, I just knew there were a lot of really good climbers with us and expected people to start launching attacks – Natalie was close behind, as we were going up she warned me to save myself because there was a lot more climbing to come.
Being a man I’m not prone to take advice from others, no matter how good the advice may be.
Don’t know the name of the road at the top, went right heading into Sterling before coming out onto Rt. 12.
This is where I realized I had problems, only 1 GU to get me over the next 30 or so miles with lots of hills in front of us. Need to plan this just right, should I take a ½ pack there and save the rest for later – or should I wait. If I only take ½ the pack I have to put the other ½ back in my jersey pocket which leads to relationship problems when my wife does the laundry and wonders what all the sticky stuff is all over my jersey. I tried explaining, but she has this vision from the movie “Something about Mary” – nuff said about that.
I decided to save my GU for later.

More hills going up N Row, riders off the front, should I stay or should I go? Chase or stay back? Decisions decisions. I don’t like the road condition so I sat in and watched Thomas, Jeff and several others ride away.
Quick regroup at the intersection and this is where things get real fuzzy for me – I can’t remember which way we went – straight across or a left onto Heywood. Whatever, more climbing, more suffering.
Reached the next intersection where some people rolled through, others stopped to wait for an oncoming car.
One thing I need to learn is don’t expect the rider in front of you to think the same way you do. I would’ve rolled with the rest of the group, but the rider in front of me played it smart, unclipped and stopped. But I didn’t have time to react and fell over before I could unclip.
The first casualty of the night.
The only harm done was to my ego. Picked the bike up, quick check, no cracked carbon, good to go. Took off, but damn, those who rolled through were already ½ mile up the road.
I was pissed at myself so I took off with the intent of bridging the gap, "Turning the pedals in complete anger" as Phil Ligget would say, "he wants to annilhilate the competion behind him to make up for his momentary lack of concentration at the earlier stop sign".
Sometimes I’m not as smart as I think I am. Not only was I unable to gain on the front group, Jeff goes flying past me on my left as if I were standing still, grabbed his wheel and tried to hang on to the next regroup. More pain!
At this point of the ride I don’t even know what state I’m in – but this might be where we pulled into Sterling Center and regrouped.
Took a left and then a right in Sterling and started the climb that never seemed to end.
Looking at Google Maps I see Kendall Hill Rd, Swett Hill Rd. Chace Hill Rd., I’m sure we hit everyone of those, but where the hell was Downhill Rd?
All the climbers had their fun, Thomas, Jeff, Sarah on the blue Spin Arts bike, Dawn on the 650s, Amy, a lot of riders getting ready for Mt. Washington.
Count me out for that one - I have other plans for that day that don’t include trying to get up 8 miles of 12% average gradient. They involve a couch, six pack and a Sponge Bob marathon.
Besides, if I can’t make it up Pack Manadnock in my 39/25 without unclipping 3 times, I’d never make it up Washington, even with the proper gearing.
Eventually came out to 110 in Sterling, somewhere along the way a couple of other riders fell, or maybe it was one rider who fell a couple of times as the story was told to me today.
And while on 110 heading into W. Boylston I heard the unmistakable sound of a crash, something I’d never heard before on the Tuesday night ride.
Everything stopped while we waited to make sure the person who went down was okay. I heard he was, but his bike was in distress. Not sure if he was able to continue on.
Some hung back to help while Daren sent the rest of the group off to wait at the store up the road.
Between the crash and the store Psycho on the green Liquigas bike flatted.
Noah swings back to help.
World record tube change – I stood over him with the stop watch, started the watch, tick tick tick, Noah had the wheel off the bike in 10 seconds.
Another 55 seconds to have the tire and tube off the rim (no tire lever for Noah, it only slows him down).
20 seconds to inspect the tire, no foreign objects in the tire.
Partially inflate tube, wheel over the tube, quick inspection to ensure bead is secure inside the rim, 65 seconds.
C02 cartridge on the valve, inflate to 60psi, quick check, bead secure, finish inflating to 120psi, 10 seconds.
Click! Stop watch stopped!
Total time 2 minutes 45 seconds, world record time!
Look for the video on You Tube sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Regroup at the store in W. Boylston, I inhaled my GU, no sticky residue on the jersey tonight - headed right onto 140, taking a left onto Laurel St, nice quick pace all the way to the intersection of 31.
One last regroup, time to think about what’s ahead.
Roll out onto 31, the pace is nice and steady as it should be.
Somehow I ended up near the back, sat in for minute before getting worried, not about the climb but rather that I might miss a move up front.
Pulled to the left and started moving up until I was at the front.
And then off the front, completely unintentional.
Sometimes I’m not as smart as I think I am.
Oh well, what’s done is done, I'm off the front, alone, these things usually work better when you have 2 or 3 others make the move with you, but no one wanted to help me in my suffering – once you’ve made a move and are off the front it’s against the rules to sit up and wait for help, you’ve made your decision to go it alone, enjoy the ride cuz it’s going to hurt.
While I was enjoying my alone time I kept wondering where Thomas, Jeff and all the other climbers were.
Why didn't they paying attention to my move?
Give a guy some help, this friggin’ hurts!
But they were all playing it smart, knowing these Cat 5 breaks usually go one way, and that’s back.
Nothing left to do but find the right gear and ride it alone and see how things work out.
I have no idea how far I made it, up to my eyeballs in pain I started hearing the clicking of gears, the climbers covered, one last effort to try and stay away but I was doomed, too many burnt matches making it as far as I did.
I finally found Thomas and Jeff, they were on my wheel, and then off my wheel (where were they when I needed them?) – oh well I’d be willing to accept a podium spot for 3rd, except then someone else passed me (John on the Tarmac?), and another (Dawn?), and Dave Lystra?– and then the lights went out as just as the yellow building in Princeton Center came into view.
Damn that was fun!
One last regroup trying to figure out the best way back to the shop.
Daren made the decision – go down 31 all the way to the right onto Hobbs and finish up by coming out by Grandview CC. “There’s no more hills if we go that way”.
Leaving Princeton Center things got really fast as we headed down the next several miles of Rt. 31.
I couldn’t hang on with my 52/12, yet there were a lot of female riders, many of them riding compact gearing who were keeping up.
Took the turn onto Hobbs, things were getting dark, and scary with the quick turns on those down hills, sand and holes all over the place, riders all over the road and cars coming around corners does not make for a good combination.
The fun ended when the hills began again.
I knew Daren was full of shit when he said there were no more hills left, there’s a huge hill going up Hobbs/ Lucas Rd and to add to the suffering it gets steeper when you take the sharp left onto Hastings, and it continues going up all the way to Grandview.
I couldn’t believe how hard the women in the group were riding – the group I was in included Sarah on the blue Spin Arts bike, Cathy on the Colnago, Dawn, Beth and I think Amy might’ve been there as well. They were hammering while I was doing what I could to hang on.
Finally made it to Grandview.
The climbing was over for the night.
Things were already split up when we began going down hill, and even more when we hit Pleasant St. Missed Pond Street, came out by Wyman’s and went through Downtown Leominster, some of riders took the right onto 13, I’ve been down that road at night before and decided to ride up to Hamilton to Global Fitness.
Given the large number of vehicles in the Gear Works parking lot and taking up spaces for customers, I would suggest more people part in the Global parking lot. Much more convenient getting out of.

Next week is Summer Solstice so we have to at least get in 50 miles.