Saturday Morning B Ride Report – 08/06/2011

by jonathanbrody » Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:02 pm
Eight of us (David G., Paul D., Andrew P., Peter Crow., Mike F., Morgan, visiting Chris from VA Beach and me. A group decision was made to try and create a new route and contrary to previous decisions to never travel south, we did. Heading down 5 to Holyoke over the 202 bridge we rode into South Hadley center, over to Granby and then onto Bachelor St (I think) to get to Gulf Road. In Pelham, we said goodbye to Peter and then went off-road for a one-mile stretch on Meetinghouse Road to get to the long climb up Buffam Rd. to Shutesbury. We flew down the S-Curves (probably the fastest descent I’ve been on this year) and then hung a right at the bottom (where we said goodbye to David and Andrew to weave our way back Bull Hill?, 63, 116 to get onto 47. At this point I started to cramp and wanted to the group to go ahead at their pace of 24/25 mph, but Paul made sure we stayed together – thanks, Paul! – at a cruising speed of about 22 on 47 where we picked up a Cyclonauts rider who was very friendly and volunteered a pull – thanks. After a near miss onto West St. that almost sent at least three of us to the hospital, we cruised down Cemetery and the bike path with Paul reporting 54 miles, around 3,000 feet of climbing at a whopping 18.5mph average. It was truly a great day — a great day!