By Jonathan O’Keeffe » Sat Feb 25, 2012 7:01 pm
This ride was posted at the last minute (Friday morning), but we still managed to attract a group of seven hardy souls — Joe, Chris D, Chris O, Clayton, Frank, Mike F, and myself. We braved a pretty heavy snow squall right before the start, and it continued to snow throughout most of the ride — mostly pretty lightly, but with a couple heavier bursts mixed in, despite the bright sunshine and temperatures around 37°. The biggest obstacle was the brisk wind out of the west, blowing steadily at 10-20mph and gusting up to 40+mph.
Mike impressed the crowd at the start with his new Cannondale EVO, picked up just minutes earlier from the fine folks at Northampton Bicycle. It’s light as a feather (14 lb 7 oz, apparently 🙂 and looks like a million bucks, and Mike was fast (as usual) on the hills.
We headed up the Thursday night route toward Ashfield, with Mike puncturing right after we got out of Williamsburg. We stayed straight on Williamsburg Road rather than taking the Main Poland turnoff. There was a fair amount of snow and slush on the road at the higher elevations, but not enough to really make things difficult. At Rt. 116 we turned right and descended all the way down through Conway into Deerfield, with the wind (mostly) at our backs, particularly on the flatter sections approaching Deerfield.
Chris D split off to head home over the Sunderland Bridge, while the rest of us headed south on River Road, hoping for more tailwinds, but getting instead mostly stiff crosswinds from the right, giving us the opportunity to practice our echelon formation. The big right-hand bend at the bottom of River Road took us right into the teeth of the wind, and we slowed to around 14mph for the final portions of the TT course approaching the highway overpass.
I split off at Damon Road to head home, and ended up at that point with 41.7 miles @ 18.2 mph, 2,700′ of climbing.
Post by Chris deHahn » Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:07 pm
Another great winter of 2012 ride with NCC. Really, we have been so lucky this year to have been able to ride almost every weekend.
The wind was tough. Even when it was not in your face, it always found a way to cross. I can’t remember any point on this ride where I felt like it was totally at my back. The snow showers seemed endless. The snow and icy slush made things a bit dicey at times, but everyone rode smart. I didn’t hit my power targets exactly, but that didn’t matter as I spent a lot of time at threshold and higher. I ended up with just under 70 miles, and a 230 TSS, which for four hours, is a pretty hard ride. My first race is next Sunday. I’m ready to go.
Gorgeous bike, Mike.
Post by Frank Sleegers » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:45 pm
Hey guys,
this was a great ride. We went pretty fast right from the beginning. I had no time to realize the snow but the wind was quite forceful and the piece after Poland road continued on and on.
The TT course finish seemed to be endless and I had be brought back 1-2 times.
Chris, I have no measures to find out about my TTS(Training Stress Score) – I had to look this word up, but I feel today that is was just the right portion to get ready for the season.
Hope the weather continues to be supportive.
Andrew – I had the espresso afterwards…
Post by apazmany » Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:41 pm
Frank – you deserved the an espresso after a ride in a weather like yesterday, but I meant:
http://www.expresso.net/UserPortal/welcome.do
Post by Frank Sleegers » Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:10 pm
Andrew,
Thank you.I am such an old fashioned guy….
I still prefer the real one…
Was actually not that bad of a weather on Saturday…
Yes I took it at the Fiorentina in Noho…
Classic…
Hope the weather will be good next week.
Frank
