by Jonathan O’Keeffe » Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:40 pm
“Cold, soggy, and almost July.” Thanks, Jonathan – that really sums up the weather over the last couple of weeks.
Despite the less-than-promising conditions at the start (around 55° and a very light misty drizzle), nine or so riders showed up, including Jonathan B, myself, Andrew, Clayton, David, Don, Kevin, Patrick, Peter, and Roberto. I got things off to an entertaining start by crashing on the sidewalk right in front of the Academy bus stop as my front wheel got turned by a seam in the sidewalk. Fortunately, nothing was damaged, apart from my ego.
David sketched out a route that would keep us relatively close to home in the early stages, in case the weather turned sour. We took Spring St. and Audubon Rd. to Williamsburg, then turned right and took the roller coaster of Nash Hill, O’Neill, and Adams over to Mountain St. Don kept falling off the back and telling us to go on ahead, but then kept turning up again at the next intersection, like a bad penny.
We headed up Mountain Street, and then improvised a bit to avoid the bridge construction on Haydenville Road. We had a fast dirt descent on the well-groomed Conway Road, and then a nice little climb that I’ve never seen before, on Masterson & Dickinson Hill Roads. That took us into Whately, where we saw Martha yelling some encouraging words out the window on her way home from the Whately Police Triathlon (the NCC Tri Team cleaned up at this race – reports from Kate and Dena here).
From Whately we headed north across Rt. 116, past a flock of ducks in Old Deerfield, and then up Routes 5 and 10 to River Road. The pace picked up on River Road and the group split up a bit, but we reconvened at the Sunderland Bridge, then crossed over, and ended the ride with a brisk pace with a bit of a tailwind southbound along Route 47.
We never did get wet, and the sun even made a bit of an appearance towards the end of the ride, but a few hours later at 6pm, it’s pouring again – not a great start to the summer weather conditions.
47 miles, 19.0 mph, 2,800 ft of climbing.
