Tuesday night ride report 5/11/10

I think the Mavic rep who rode with us last night summed things up when along the ride he said “For a B ride, this is pretty fast”.
I thought it was a bit of an understatement, but he was impressed with how fast the ride was and how well people worked together "almost like in a race" he added.
I'd been off the tuesday night ride for a few weeks, but yeah, we do ride well together - almost like a race.


I forgot to reset my computer before the ride, so I don’t have the exact numbers. I think it was probably around 35 miles which averaged about 20mph.
But the way my legs are feeling today it felt more like 50 miles at 25mph.
That ride hurt!

So when I got to the shop everyone was getting their aero wheels so I figured I’d better too or I was going to get dropped hard.
Charlie was right when he warned me about the wheel candy. His analogy was riding those wheels was going to be like test driving a BMW M5 after riding a beat up Subaru for the past 5 years. In the end you’re going to want new wheels just like you would want the BMW M5.
I should’ve listened to him, because now I want a set.
Shamelessly I will ask Natalie if she wants to part with her 404s, I will pay you twice what you paid for them!

Oh well, carbon wheels are the real deal. They are nice, and it seems like once you hit a certain speed it’s a lot easier to hold it. But when people like Andrew, Noah and Suzanne are riding the same wheels it's still painful trying to hang on.

So let’s see, last night’s ride took us around the reservoir the back way.
I’ve only done this route about 30 times, and up in the front I still end up bearing (edit) right instead of left off Pond Street.
1 match burnt turning and chasing to get back on the back of the group.
The pace was brisk heading up Pleasant St., but not punishing, at least not at the beginning and middle.
After a couple days off my legs felt fresh enough to start moving up.
As we got about ½ mile to Sholan Farms I decided to go for the King of the Mountain points and tried to break from the group.
The attack lasted about 10 seconds before 1, 2, 5, 10 riders went past my like I was standing still. I remember a green kit, YETI on the Felt, Daren, Natalie, Paul Skerry, Jeff St.Laurant, Noah, Andrew and a couple others I can't remember... some of these guys need to get back on the A ride, seriously.
Once I was off their wheels I couldn’t get back on.
Damn, 2 matches burnt!
Regrouped at N. Row in Sterling.
Fast and furious down the hill to Rt. 12, fast right onto Rt. 12.
About 4th wheel, just where I didn’t want to be.
I didn’t see who was up front, but they were pulling like a freight train for what seemed like forever.
Then Tom Stevens took his turn, I have this love hate thing with Tom pulling. He’s a great person to draft off of, but he’s strong and fast and makes things painful when trying to hold your position.
He pulled for a long way.
Nat’s turn.
I have a hate/ hate relationship with her (but only when trying to hold her wheel). She can make herself even smaller than she already is when she gets down on her bike giving me absolutely no cover to draft off of, and she’s fast as hell, even when recovering from a cold.
A quick look at my computer, I think we were around 23mph.
Deal time – when Natalie peeled off I set my sights on a landmark somewhere up the road, if I could maintain something close to 23mph to the landmark it would be a big bowl of Ben and Jerry’s Magic Brownies when I got home.
No prize for failing.
I had my Ben and Jerry’s.
And burned another match.
When I peeled off the group was still pretty much in tact – good news, maybe we could just keep riding without having to stop.
Not stopping seems to be the group’s new philosophy and I kind of like it. I can’t imagine too many rides where 2 water bottles and a couple of GU’s aren’t going to get someone through a 2-3 hour ride except maybe on the really long hot nights in June and July.
Passing Sterling Center we continued along Rt. 12.
As the ride went along I heard this really strange noise as a car was approaching us. No idea what that was.
But out of the corner of my eye I could see the car pacing alongside us.
And then the gray Taurus pulled up alongside my position, I had this creepy feeling he was stalking the ride.
And then I saw the shattered passenger’s side wind – damn! Someone must’ve launched a rock from their tire and scored a direct hit on the window. The guy looked seriously pissed. (edit, I could tell he wanted to roll down his window and yell at us, but he was f'ed because rolling down the window would've spilled the glass all over the inside of his car. This is what's called a lose lose situation for the driver).
And it was weird – he kept pacing himself with the ride, every once and a while falling off to let other cars go by, and then he’d be there again.
I started wondering if the guy wasn’t some sort of Christopher Walken whack job hunting us down. A cross bow, couple of axes, chainsaw and a wood chipper in the trunk, he could've chopped us and our bikes up, tossed the remains into the wood chipper before the cops even had time to finish their coffee and donut back at Dunkin' Donuts.
Nonetheless I tried turning my concentration back to the ride, the short hard climb in West Boylston was coming up, I marked a couple of wheels and tried like hell to hang on.
When the hell did Chet Fortier get so fast, I mean I know he was fast, but he was faster than I remember when I hurt myself trying to hold his wheel before falling back further and further, the adrenaline started pumping hard when I realized the Christpoher Walken guy with the wood chipper was still following us. I went into the red trying to get over the hill and to the convenience store parking lot where I would be a little safer.
One more match burnt…. I was beginning to wonder how many I had left in the book.
The weirdness really started when we pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store.
And Christopher Walken in his gray Taurus with the woodchipper in the trunk pulled up beside us.
He got out of the car, cell phone in hand, and started bitching about how someone in the group threw a rock and broke his window.
At that point it was still in one piece, not really broken, just shattered.
The guy didn’t think it was funny, but I laughed when he slammed his door and the shattered window fell out onto the parking lot..
A few people tried their best to reason with the guy, but there’s no reasoning with Christopher Walken, the guy’s a psycho!
And then he started pointing out people he noticed were mouthing off to him as he was riding alongside us.
He specifically pointed out Jason from the shop – this is the point where I expected him to go into his trunk and pull out the cross bow and start taking out the troublemakers. I really wanted to stick around to make sure Jason was going to be okay, but the ride was leaving and I didn’t want to have to work to hard to get back on so I left.
Does anyone know if he made it back to the shop okay?

As we pulled out of the parking lot 2 police cruisers came flying down the road, one with his lights on. I guess they take broken windows pretty seriously in West Boylston.

Riding on we came upon the store we usually stop at, I really didn’t want to stop because I hate stopping – and someone from the back either yelled “go on” or “hold up”, not sure which, but someone made an executive decision to roll on and so we did.
We were meandering along 140 and a nice safe 20 mph pace, I was checking out the houses and people’s nicely manicured yards, wildlife, the sounds of crickets chirping.
And then I got bored.
I moved up to the front.
I went off the front.
I still have a lot of fitness to regain so I was going to try a 3 minute interval.
My goal to take the town line sprint.
I won! And as far as I knew it was uncontested.
I assumed others from the group were holding my wheel because I’m not strong enough to go off the front, at least not very far.
So when my 3 minute interval was up I flicked off.
And that’s when Andrea came up on my inside and swore at me for peeling off when she just bridged the gap.
Sorry, I really had no idea.
Shortly thereafter someone flatted, rumor was it was Daren.
I hope the Mavic guys aren’t reading this because I knew Daren was trying his best to destroy those R-Sys wheels he was trying out. Version 1.0 of those wheels had a problem where they would spontaneously explode (you can google this if you don't believe me), I’ve seen pictures of this happening in races where guys were sprinting at 1000+ watts and the wheel would shatter like the window of Christopher Walken's Gray Taurus.
But I think this was just your ordinary run of the mill flat.
We waited at the intersection of 140 and 70.
Once the group was together we continued up towards Boylston Center.
More troublemakers going up that hill, I won’t mention names but 3 or 4 opened up a gap, I managed to get into the 2nd group, it took about a minute or 2 to close the gap when things got real fun!
I know it was fun because all I remember was things got real fast and everything started going black, the next several miles were a complete blur trying like hell to hang on.
We stayed together until the damn hole in the road came out of nowhere.
Some got around it.
Andrew did not and ended up blowing a tube.
Got it changed before he noticed the tire was trashed.
Noah to the rescue.
Noah has this McGuyver kit he keeps in his back pocket that has everything you need from fixing a flat to overhauling your bottom bracket and hubs. No shit, he even had a chain tool in there!
And some clear plastic mylar, perfect for patching a tire well enough to finish the last 15 miles of the ride.
Things again got fast as we headed for Clinton, people started riding off the front as we headed up towards the dam, and then down the hill, a couple of riders came damn close to going over the double yellow into oncoming traffic – I closed my eyes because I didn't want to see, and then sprinted back up the other side of the hill, where we regrouped for the last time before heading back to the shop.
Nothing very eventful happened all the way to Rt. 70.
Once onto Rt. 70 I was surprised at the nice leisurely B ride pace we were maintaining.
Of course I was waiting for it.
But it wasn’t coming.
Always stay near the front on 70, and I did, waiting.
Still nothing.
Still up near the front, still no attacks.
If I recall correctly there is a slight downhill, and then a slight uphill shortly before the new Kimball’s farm stand –
I saw it coming and I thought I had it in me to respond – the red NEBC kit, I called it an attack, she said she was just trying to lift the pace to what we usually do on Rt. 70.
Whatever it was, I wasn’t able to respond – I was a spectator watching 6-10 riders started pulling away. Along with the NEBC rider, I saw Daren, Noah, Andrew, Dave, Paul, Jeff and a couple of others who’s names I don’t yet know – they had it going on running away with the Rt. 70 sprint.
I caught onto a group of 3, I was pretty gassed but I think it was John on the white/ red Tarmac and Amy on the Giant, we were working it pretty good, but we were out of contention of finishing in the winning group.
Limped along for the last couple of miles – cursing the double hill climb just after the shopping center. It does make you appreciate the downhill on Prospect Street.

It was a tough decision to pull into the Gear Works parking lot instead of heading up to Global Fitness where I had my car parked. I didn’t want to give up those Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels. But I didn’t want to end up getting arrested either, so I did the right thing and returned them.
Thanks Daren for the carbohydrate drink when we were done. It tasted pretty damn good.

Another great night of riding. Another shit eating grin on my face for most of the ride!
Hopefully we can all get together to kill ourselves again next Tuesday!

April 20, 2010 Tuesday Night Ride Report

After all the crappy weather we had this past weekend it was a pleasure to see that the weather for last night’s ride was going to be a lot nicer. We had partly cloudy skies with a light wind of 7-10 mph from the Northwest; it was 66F at wheels down and 56F when we arrived back at the shop at 7:50pm.

I parked at the Global Fitness Gym just a few hundred yards from the shop. Lots of parking available there so it’s a good alternative to the shop’s parking which can be pretty hectic if you arrive close to 6pm..

Another good turnout for both the “A” and “B” groups. I estimate about a dozen riders in the “A” group and about 30-35 riders in the “B” group. Just before launch Daren announced that we were doing one of our oldie but goodie loops, Fruitlands in Harvard, Ma.

We headed over to Prospect Street a gentile tempo going up and over onto Harvard St, and Mechanics Street. Upon turning right onto Route 70 in Lancaster right at the Toyota dealership the pace picked up and it started getting fast as usual. Moving right along this stretch we arrived at Route 117 in good order. A right onto 117 West, then a left onto Langen Street where the pace dropped off to a more manageable level. This gentle pace would not last for long as the red and white blur (Natalie) went blasting to the front of the group to whip up the pace. It’s like she had a formula 1 boost bottom for overtaking. So there I was gasping to air again trying to stay with the group just like on Route 70. I was starting to regret not warming up prior to the ride.

Slowed down once we arrived at Atlantic Union College in Lancaster where we cross Route 70 onto George Hill road which become Bolton Road heading over to 5 corners where we pick up Route 110 heading over to Bolton Orchards where we cross over Route 117 onto Still River Road. Up to now we had a nice steady tempo going but all that would change once we started the climb up to Still River. The pace kept building and building and I fell off the lead group about ¾ on the way up and we had’t even arrive at Prospect Hill Road yet. Why do I hate roads with the word “hill” in them? You know like Justice Hill Road!

Well a finally arrived at the top of Prospect Hill Road, shattered , beaten and humbled. I did get to enjoy the view and a good joke when one of the women cracked that we were blocking her driveway. Get out of town!

Looking at the views would not last for long as we were off again down Prospect Hill to Old Shirley Road all the way to Route 111 where we turned left in Route 111 over to the Ayer rotary. From here we cut through Ft Devens and I must say that once we turned onto Barnum Road it got very fast and racy. Many thanks to Noah for offering encouragement and helping me stay with the front group.

Somewhere in Devens we stopped with a 20.5mph average and regrouped then rode a quite pace that took on various winding roads that brought us out by Shirley Center where we took a left onto Phoenix Street which brings you up by Shirley prison. Nice steady tempo up past the prison then it picked up even more as we approached the end of Shaker Road.

Re-grouped at the top of Shaker Road where we all said goodbye to Andrea as she turned to head home. Very fast once we got on Old Union Turnpike road all the way to the Toyota dealership where we cross Route 70.

Now I can smell that little red firebox on the top of the hill. I’m well placed after stopping for the light after the mall entrance. I have visions on being there for the finale sprint. It’s really a two tier little climb and I get up the first tier completely gassed. Now I’m have different visions and none of those included coming up the red fire box anywhere near the front group. Going in the second tier that red and white Ferrari with the power boost overtake goes by at warp speed, Dave L. as well as a few others. Somewhere in the distance they finished well beyond my eyesight, SIGH!

April 13, 2010 Tuesday Night Ride Report

While John Barry is on the disabled list for the next few weeks I’ll be your contributing editor. Let me be the first to say that John’s editorial and literary skills are significantly better than mine. His will be a very tough act to follow.

John has some surgery last week and is home now recovering. Before the ride last night I stopped over to see him and he’s in very good spirits. Could it be the happy pills he taking? I brought over some of the TDF DVD’s that I had so he could fill in his recovery time watching cycling races. We all wish John a speedy recovery and that he’s back in the peloton very soon.

So here we are another Tuesday night ride on deck. I parked at the Global Fitness Gym just a few hundred yards from the shop. Lots of parking available there so it’s a good alternative to the shop’s parking.

57F at the start last night under partly cloudy skies with the winds light and variable. Once again as we were all queued up in the parking Daren did a good job balancing riders abilities and having them in the correct groups both “A” and “B”.

Launch took place a little after 6pm with about 25 riders in the “B” group. We headed over to Prospect Street and getting through all the traffic at the light was a little dicey but we all made it safely onto Prospect Street. From there we had a nice tempo going onto Leominster Shirley Road where we took a left onto Reservoir Road by Keating Gravel and onto a real bumpy section where I lost my water bottle. Not sure who but he offered me his “spare” bottle (many thanks!) so I was able to keep going and not disrupt the flow of the ride. A quick right then a left and we all gathered together on @A to re-group and our ace mechanic Daren helped a ride with a frame vibration issue.

Shortly thereafter we had lift off again heading East on 2A then a left on 225 over to West Groton center. From there we took 225 over to Groton and thundered up the climb to Route 111 where once again we re-grouped. Nice tempo along 111 to Ayer where we turned right onto Macpherson Road which basically rungs alongside the Nashua River. We come out here at Ayer road where we turn right and head to Shirley center where we turned left to go up by the prison. Another thundering bunch up the hill to Shirley Road where we turn left cross over Route 2 and then right and a fast run over to the Toyota dealer in Lancaster.

Ok now were in the home stretch with one last thundering bunch sprint to the firebox after you go by the shopping mall on the right. There was some swerving and bumping along here but everyone stayed upright which was a good thing.

All in all we had a really good ride last night thanks to Daren’s ride leadership keeping everyone together along our 30 mile loop.

First tuesday night ride of 2010

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!

Saturday morning’s Tuesday nighter

This felt more like a tuesday night ride than a typical saturday morning ride.
Total Distance: 37 miles
Total Time: 113 minutes
Average speed: 19.6

Despite being sick for the better part of the past two weeks, and only having 1 ride in during the previous 10 days, I was really looking forward to Saturday’s ride.
I rode out of my house about 8:40 and arrived at the shop just before 9:00. It’s only a 5 mile ride from my house and I didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would. But hindsight and all, I wish I had driven instead of riding.
Coming down the hill towards the shop it was amazing how many riders were already in the parking lot, with even more pulling in as we all sat around waiting for the ride to start.
One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the fair number of FCC kits in the group, along with a couple of NEBC kits. I was wondering if this wasn’t going to turn into an early season training rides for the locals.
Another thing I couldn’t help but notice was everyone seemed to be in pretty decent shape after the off season.
A little after 9:00 Charlie pulled things together, letting us know we’d be going around the reservoir by way of Pleasant St., to Rt. 12 in Sterling, through West Boylston, Boylston, Clinton all the way back to the shop.

Before most of us even got out of the parking lot Charlie put on a good demonstration of all the things one shouldn’t do on a group ride including pulling onto Hamilton Street against a red light, dodging cars coming at him in both directions, and pretty much showing a complete disregard for any and all traffic laws.
I applaud Charlie for showing any first timers all of the things you don’t want to do on a group ride, all in about 30 seconds. Well done!

Once the rest of the group got out onto Hamilton St. we made our way up to Rt. 12, and then took the twist and turns that would eventually lead us to Pleasant St.
I mentioned this last year, but it’s worth mentioning again. The climb up Pleasant St. is anything but pleasant, especially when feeling less than 100% feeling the after effects of the flu. And my apologies to anyone riding behind me enduring my constant hacking throughout the ride.
Heading up Pleasant St I quickly realized a couple things.
One is that a lot of the people on this ride did not spend the winter on the couch watching football, drinking beer and consuming huge quantities of calories. It was apparent that some actually train in the off season.
The other thing I realized was this wasn’t going to be the typical Saturday morning ride I’d become accustom to.
As most know, a typical Saturday morning ride averages about 17 mph, nice leisurely pace along a fairly flat route. The group spends a lot of time chatting, joking, stopping at a bakery along the way for a coffee, muffins, scones, donuts, cheesecake – seriously there’s nothing quite as good as strawberry cheesecake and coffee on a Saturday morning ride, especially at that place in Acton, although 10 miles afterwards you sometimes second guess your decision to go with the cheesecake, but the flaxseed muffins have the same effect on the digestive system so my philosophy is go for the good stuff.

There’d be no bakery stops this morning.

So back to the ride report, heading up Pleasant St I could smell trouble and it wasn’t from anyone’s poor personal hygiene in the peloton.
Some of the group decided to set a fairly brisk tempo heading up the hill, at least it seemed fast to me. As I was dying a slow death I was able to look up long enough see one of the culprits was Suzanne with her Litespeed and Optimum Performance kit contributing to the pace and stringing out the ride.
In fact she’d be a major trouble maker for the following 30 miles.
It was obvious she’d worked hard during the off season – the rumor floating around the peleton was that Ernie coached her through the Winter, as we rode I pictured Ernie standing next to her, stopwatch in hand blowing his whistle in her ear like Coach Troy from those Spinnerval dvds, shouting at her “Go Suzanne go! Only 15 more minutes left on this interval! COME ON, you can do it! turn it up to 140RPMs, I want to see smoke coming off of your trainer!!!!”
Ernie must be a really good coach!

It wasn’t until we got to the first stop at the intersection past Sholan Farms that it was obvious some serious damage had been done – it seemed like about 10 minutes before the last of the riders pulled up.
Thankfully we have Charlie with us to set things right. Like a good ride leader he laid down the law, with the exception of a couple of stops there’d be little waiting. At least he had the good sense to make sure people knew how to make it back to the shop before moving on.

The ride took a left onto whatever road it is that leads out to Rt 12, a right onto 12 where there was a close call as someone(s) decided to slow instead of keeping the pace around the right hand sweeping turn onto 12.

Once on 12 things got organized into a nice pace line and again a seriously fast pace.
Slowly but surely I found myself moving closer and closer to the front desperately trying to hold the wheel in front of me, watching riders taking their pulls and peeling off knowing my turn was coming up.
All I could think about was Gregg (or is it Greg or Gregory – the only guy in Massachusetts who rides a 14lb Blue with deep dish carbon HED wheels on a Saturday morning ride) and his yelling at me to make sure to hold the wheel in front of me - “if you don’t it opens up a gap, and then one gap turns into two gaps, and eventually the entire ride is screwed up and we might as well all go home because it never recovers” – nothing like pressure to perform.
I got into the drops and followed Paul Skerry until he peeled off and it was my turn to take a pull – it wasn’t much longer than ¼ mile, but I did what I could to contribute before pulling off and letting the group ride by me before jumping on the back.
Maybe because I was only at 70% but the ride seemed crazy fast once we got past Sterling Center and headed towards West Boylston.
For the most part though the ride pretty much held together all the way until we hit that climb leading into W. Boylston, and then of course things fell apart again as the fit people rode away while the rest of us hooked up our reserve oxygen cartridges and rode at our own pace until we regrouped at the convenience store at the intersection of 12 and 110.
Several minutes later we were on our way only to stop again at the Honey Farms about 3 miles further up the road.
At this point there was some frustration amongst the ranks about the frequent stops. Include me in those ranks – once we get started I like to keep going, the less stops the better.
We pulled out of the parking lot and made our way towards the intersection of 140 and 70.
It was somewhere along this stretch of road that Natalie was busy doing her job of pulling the group along and I was busy at the back making sure no one fell off when I saw it.
And he’ll deny it, but it really did happen.
The guy on the Blue with the deep dish carbon HED wheels let a gap open up between himself and the person in front of him.
Position is everything, how I wish I was on his wheel so he could’ve heard the expletives I was throwing his way about how he screwed up the entire ride by letting that gap open, but holding onto the back he couldn’t hear a word I said.
It didn’t matter, he closed the gap and then things got messed up at the lights, as we turned onto 70 some of the folks made the light, others like myself ignored the oncoming traffic, and then there were the others who wanted to live to ride another day and waited for traffic.
When we reached the top of that first climb it was noted that a good number of riders were missing, so again we had to wait, but for good reason this time.
Once we all regrouped and the ride got moving again there’d be no more stopping for a good stretch, the train went at a fast clip all the way through Boylston – things were really heating up.
And then we hit this spot about ½ mile before the Clinton line where it felt like going into the beer cooler at Kappys (or so I’ve heard) – Charlie asked me who turned on the A/C, but I was so deep in the hurt zone trying to hang on that I couldn’t respond.
As we got into Clinton I no longer cared about gaps, all I had to do was make it to the dam and all would be good – and once past the dam things were good as we headed down the hill and then pedaled up the hill where we regrouped at the park, chatted with some riders from Boston who were going to try and get up the backside of Wachusett, I wonder how they made out?
From there we made our way through Clinton coming out to the 10 corners, turned left, came out on 70 and made our way through Lancaster.
Everything was going well until the road opened up, literally – there was a crack in the road just wide enough to catch a 23cm tire, and it caught a couple, causing at least one person to flat.
As much as I was frustrated with all the stops along the way, this was the one point where I was happy to have a break. I was not looking forward to those 4 miles of Rt. 70 where all hell usually breaks loose.
Once we got rolling again there seemed to be a fierce headwind, I did what I could to hold onto the lead group which included most if not all the guys in the FCC jerseys, the guy on the Blue with the deep dish carbon HED wheels, the guy on the Cervelo RS (sorry I can never remember your name), the guy on the white Six13 (sorry I can never remember your name either), and maybe one or two others.
Slowly but surely the pace began picking up, I knew I was fried and I was going to be yelled at by Greg (with one or two g’s) so I sat on the back and watched the group slowly pull away.
And then I waited for the next group.
And then I helplessly watched as they slowly pulled away, hung out to dry all by myself I shamefully limped my way back to the shop.
Once back at the shop I realized the biggest mistake of the day was leaving the car at home.

There’d be no “Peleton Points” for me this Saturday morning.

Let me know if anyone knows how I go about contacting Ernie, I’m in desperate need of a coach to get me back into Tuesday night form.

First group ride 2010

Okay, the excitement of the first group ride was killing me last night so I used my wife’s birthday as an excuse to drink several glasses of wine (and a couple of beers) to help ease the excitement/ anxiety I was feeling. Unfortunately it seemed to help too much, I fell asleep at 9:30 while the rest of the family celebrated until god knows when.
This wasn’t a good thing, I woke up at 5:30 feeling like crap.
A tough decision needed to be made.
Get out of bed and start moving?
Stay in bed until noon?
Lying in bed I began cutting deals with myself.
If I don’t ride this morning it’s salads, chicken breast, egg whites and water for the rest of the week.
If I did the ride, when we were done I got have 2 of those Dunkin Donuts Waffle sandwiches, complete with the packaged maple syrup that oozes all over my hands and steering wheel as I try my best to eat and lick the syrup off my fingers and steering wheel without veering off into oncoming traffic –
Mission accomplish, the thought of the Wafflewiches got my motor running. I had my gear and bike packed in 15 minutes.

20 minutes later I’m at Melolas.
Where the heck is everyone?
Oh, it’s only 8:15, I guess I really was excited about this ride.
Slowly but surely people started arriving, the only problem was most of them were from the Tuesday night A ride.
Tom Orsini (what’s up with that 24” of exposed seat post, it hurt me just looking at the 24” drop from seat to bar), Thomas Connor on his single speed, that guy on the Blue Six13 who consistantly ripped my legs off last year, Dan Ouellete, Tom Stevens and his teammate (her name escapes me) on the White Stevens bike – all of whom consistently ripped my legs off last year. – Dawn on the Blue Trek who also ripped my legs off last season.
And then there was more reason to be afraid – new riders. Amy and her husband from Harvard, the new guy from the shop who rides the White Giant (nice choice of bike).
And of course Natalie and Daren were there to add to the fun…..
At least Luciano wasn't there! If he was the Wafflewiches whould've been out of the question.

The ride:
43 or some odd miles
Average MPH was somewhere around 16-18mph (unimportant)
Total time: about 3 hours
It was cold to start, but warmed up nicely.

The ride started towards Lancaster, roads I have no idea of the name of, but it was a leisurely pace with Tom and the Blue Six13 pulling us along for the first 30 minutes. We eventually ended up going down George Hill towards 70 where we’d cross over at the College and end up at the gas station at the 10 corners in Bolton.

As we began rolling out I quickly remembered something I tend to forget each year. Group riding is not the same as riding a bike.... or sex for that matter.
Once you (think) you have it perfected, you never forget – but it does take time to get into the feel of a group ride. I probably over think things (maybe it’s from being yelled at too many times by Chet, Daren and a couple others), but I was more than a little nervous, skittish/ squirrely trying my best to maintain a steady pace without running into the rider in front of me, or slowing too quickly that I cause a pile up behind me.

Anyways, for the first 20 or so miles I managed to hold my own without causing any damage, bodily or otherwise to other riders or their bikes. Hang back and enjoy the ride.

Once we got into Bolton the question was whether we’d take a left (towards Fruit Lands), or stay straight out to the flatter route that takes us through Bolton into Harvard.
Fortunately Tom stayed straight and took us to the flatter parts of the route.
We crossed 117 past Nashoba HS towards Harvard. We maintained a steady tempo through Havard towards Littleton.
This is where we hit our first hill of the ride, maybe on Old Littleton Road.
And it wasn’t even a real hill! it was more like a speed bump.
But this morning it felt much harder than Fruit Lands, Rt70 up to the Clinton Dam, Rt. 31 into Princeton Center, Mile Hill Road up to Mt. Wachusett, L’Alp Duez, or Mont Voutoux…..
The Winter interval training obviously didn’t make me as fit as I thought.
I soon learned I need to start training with Daren.
As we were going up the small hill Daren spun it to 120 rpm (I was counting), if he was wearing his cordaroy bibs I'm sure the friction would've started a small fire, he reminded me of Lance spinning up the Tourmoulet, he wasn't even breathing hard as reached the summit.
Lesson learned, ride a smaller gear, "spin to win".
I remarked to him how he seemed in mid-season form, but he dismissed it telling me his mid season form sucked…… Later on I learned he was being self depreciating.

Into Littleton we came out at the the train tracks where we took a right onto Harwood and then along more roads I don’t know which eventually took us into Boxboro.

Okay, somewhere (not sure if it was before or after the tracks) we had our first of the season accident.
We were all waiting up, I don’t remember why, maybe we were waiting up for someone to catch on, or taking a lunch break, who knows. Anyway some of us were noodling around in the road when rider A went to take a left across the road while the other FEMALE rider who usually rides a blue Trek didn’t anticipate the move and road straight into him, catching his elbow square under the eye (it truely was no one's fault, just one of those things that happen from time to time).
Damn!
Blue Trek is a teacher at a prestigious local college.
What are her students going to think when she shows up to class on Monday morning and her cherubs see with a shiner?
It could cause a scandal!
Fortunately the Spin Arts woman on the white Stevens bike was quick with a solution to explain the shiner and gain the student’s cred.
"Start with fuckin' a" -
Barroom fight! Boulder Café, one of her students were being harassed by local gang members and she had no choice but to step in and take matters into her own hands (fist). She sent the gang members out by ambulance, but unfortunately was grazed by a freak left hook meant for someone else.
Well done Dawn!!!!!!!
Fortunately there was no serious damage done by the mishap on the road.

PAY ATTENTION, THIS IS THE BEST PART OF THE ENTIRE RIDE (for me anyway):
Somewhere over the next couple of mile I was eavesdropping on a conversation going on behind me.
*warning – explicit language to follow.
Riding along it was then I had one of those “What the FUCK moments”.
Surely I didn’t hear what I thought I heard.
But even with all the wine from the night before there was no mistaking it.
It was Natalie with her freshly laundered helmet conversing with another rider beside her.
About a wedding.
Interesting.
I wondered if it was a friend, relative, someone from work, or someone from the shop who was getting married.
“Yeah, Daren and I are getting married in July” I heard her say.
OK, I don’t care if I caused a 10 bike pile up, I hit the brakes so they could ride up beside me.
“Daren?!!!!!” I asked
“Yeah, September” she said.

Of all the hundreds of miles we’d ridden together over the years, that was without doubt the best moment of them all.
Congratulations you two!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even though I cant imagine Daren in a tux, I’m sure we’d all agree Natalie will make a beautiful bride.
Well done!


We continued making our way towards Bolton.
At one point Thomas broke away practicing his time trialing on his single speed. I thought it would be fun to try and bridge the gap and work together.
Which worked well for a while.
Until I realized time trialing doesn’t include help from others.
Damn!
Sorry dude!

From there we regrouped at the 10 corners and made our way through Bolton, back to Lancaster, 62 back towards our original starting point.

As we took the right onto the 62 “cutoff" I watched a couple riders began opening a gap.
Nothing serious, they really weren’t going fast so I decided to bridge up.
Mistake!
4 of us.
Tom Orsini, guy on White Six13, Daren, and myself (there might’ve been a 5th in the group but I can’t remember) – things started picking up, quickly! Into a strong headwind!
Rotating pace line I had to hold Daren’s wheel.
I started counting,
1 – 2 - Daren, damn!
1, 2, Daren, damn!
1, 2, Daren, damn!
1, 2, Daren, “I’m off the f'en back!!!!!” I yelled.
It was fun while it lasted.
I never realized how long that stretch of road was until trying to hold onto someone's wheel.

So my contention is Daren is a liar – he’s not in mid season form. He’s ready to race this year…..

We finished the ride at Meola’s.
The bakery there is the best, everyone should indulge in a couple pastries after the ride.
Unless you need to get into a wedding dress in July (sorry Nat!)

Anyways, it was a great ride, thanks to all for a memorable morning.

Sadly though I need to relinquish my duties as your weekly ride reporter. At least for a few weeks/ months.
I will be going in for surgery on the 16th and will probably be off the bike for 4-6 weeks. If all goes well I’m hoping to be back on the Tuesday night rides by June.
I don’t know what I’m going to miss more. The rides, or embellishing everything that happens along the way in the ride reports.

The Nun on the ride up to the Fruit Lands, and Dave Lystra’s remark about how she was kind of hot looking in a strange sort of way.
Chet yelling at me on my first Tuesday nighter, I had no clue what I was doing, but I think I learned quickly after that.
Natalie’s stinky helmet (it really didn’t smell, but it made for a funny story nonetheless).
Daren, I really wasn’t checking your ass out when I was admiring your SMP Evolution saddle last year.
Charlie - the shower I got riding behind you was always better than trying to take a 15 minute pull.
Big Dave – I’d gladly draft off you all day (or night).
But mostly just all the memories of the great people I’ve had the pleasure of riding the Tuesday night rides over the past several years, it’s been a blast and will continue to be so later this year.

In the meantime I’m deferring the ride reports back to where it all began.
Have fun Charlie!

See you on the bike soon!

Ken Lecomte - 15K mission accomplished, amazing!

The responses to my previous "off season training" post were so completely underwhelming, I'm glad to finally have something of substance to post here.

Although they didn't ride with us much this past summer because they were busy riding the flatlands of Florida including Zepher Hills and my all time favorite town name Howie In The Hills (I always wanted to know who Howie was), Ken and Lisa are veterans of the tuesday night ride and did jump on for this year's "COVAC training ride" as well as COVAC itself.

So that gives me about 180 some odd miles out of 15,000 that I got to try and hang onto Ken's wheel this past summer.

As a yard stick to measure Ken's accomplishment; in the five years I've been tracking every mile, foot, inch, hour, minute, second, whatever I've ridden, I'm about 2500 miles short of the miles Ken accumulated in 09.


For those who haven't already read this in Charlie's email, this is an amazing feat.
The bar is set for next year, 20,000 miles.....
Good luck Ken!

The deed is done! I'm sure glad I got it done today because rain is moving in tomorrow. Lisa and I went up to The Villages this morning to ride with some good friends. We had about 15 people along for a nice sociable ride. There was one nervous moment right at the beginning when Lisa touched a wheel in front of her but managed to stay upright. Whew!!!

We had a celebration party at Panera's complete with bagels, danish and champagne. Lisa made this cool sign, we took a few pictures and had a great time.

While cranking out all those miles, I've realized I'm the luckiest man alive. God has blessed me with good health, a great wife (who also rides) and financial independence. All three of these were absolutely necessary for me to accomplish this mileage milestone. Living down here in the land of the elderly makes me particularly aware of my good fortune. When I see what inactive seniors look like I don't need any more motivation to keep riding. I'm going to keep trying for 12K as long as I can, anything more is just gravy. I may try to get some more balance in my life with another activity, probably kayaking, something I've enjoyed in the past.

Thanks Guys for all your encouragement, it's meant a lot to me