by Jonathan O’Keeffe » Sun May 20, 2012 7:58 pm
Oops, forgot to post a report yesterday, so here’s a quick summary, better late than never.
We started with a group of 15 or so, including several new faces, on a warm and sunny morning. We’ve mostly been riding west of the river lately, so I plotted a course to take us east for a change. We crossed the bridge and headed south on Route 47, turning right on Ferry Street to take us by some nice views of the Connecticut River. We crossed over Route 116 and headed west to Route 202 in Granby, stopping for a mechanical and a pit stop. North to Batchelor Street and Stebbins Street, and then up to Route 9.
This took us to Gulf Road, a great climb through a ravine in the thick woods that is perfect for a hot day. Andrew and Zak jumped off the front immediately, and the rest of us slogged up the hill at a more sedate pace. At the top we headed over to Route 202 for a bit more climbing into Pelham, and then a rolling descent into Shutesbury, where we climbed the steep, mile-long Prescott Road up the back side of the Shutesbury hill into the town center.
A fast descent down the S-curves brought us into North Amherst, where I thought we could relax for the homestretch back to Northampton. Instead, the fast wheels at the front kicked it up a notch on the crossover to Route 47, and then another notch on 47 southbound. I was hanging on for dear life and was very happy to get to Rocky Hill Road, where Roberto and I split off to head home while the rest of the group continued on back to NoHo.
At the point I split off, I had 52.4 miles @ 19.0 mph, with 3,600 feet of climbing.
