by Tim_Cary » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:55 am
Wow, I am surprised no one popped in here to write up a ride report! Maybe you all are still recovering…. (read on…)
At noon, the skies were clear which drew about 30 people (Including Mike S. and his wife on tandem!) of all abilities and ages out to meet at the Academy. Pretty close to a record turnout for our New Years Temperature Ride…perhaps close to 2012 when it was 45 degrees.
David Goodwin opted not to ride- smartly resting up an injury for Nationals next week. However, he still declared- with the absence of the Silverscape clock- the temperature to be 30°F. He also announced the route plan, which I swear included the north segment of River Road in Deerfield, specifically “Deerfield Time Trial”. I thought I’d have the day off from route planning, so I really did not think much about it and led everyone out and up the Wednesday night route out of town.
Once the group pulled out of the Big Y parking lot, I drifted to the back to socialize and say hello to everyone (by the way, really nice to see you folks I have not seen in like forever…do you guys only come out on Jan 1??). Once we turned off Rte 5 and went over 91, the group really took off with the assistance of a brisk 10-20 MPH tailwind and gradual descent. I noticed a couple riders were dropping off the back, so I slowed and and stayed with them. That was the last I saw of the main group the rest of the day.
Our small group enjoyed a nice tailwind out to Rte 116, and as I was pedaling along I kept looking at my odometer, knowing the north part of River Rd was coming, and thinking that if we took it, we’d be way over 30 miles by the time we got back to Northampton.
We headed over the Sunderland bridge instead and set into the brutal headwind all the way back Rte 47. That hurt enough and ended up being something like a 14 MPH pace, rather than the 19 MPH we came up in. I ended up back downtown with 26.8 miles. A bit short, but I could argue that I had seen that temperature earlier in the morning.
Meanwhile…..
Most, if not all of the rest of the group did indeed continue on across 116 in Deerfield, and traveled the Deerfield TT segment and beyond up to the bike path at the train depot, across the river, and then Greenfield Road, Turners Falls Road, and hooking back on the Wednesday Night return route. There’s lots of open space up there, even before crossing 116 and getting on 47, so major kudos to all of you who endured those harsh cold headwinds. It looks like the whole route averaged about 17 MPH, which is very respectable, if not, sort of champion. With this kind of performance, it is sure to be a strong year coming up for everyone. It looks like you all ended up with 46 miles.
There were plenty of fun names and comments about this ride on Strava (Strava Playback: http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#235424152) … I might call it “Wishful Temperature Ride”. But we had: “NCC new years ride.. bonked like you read about”, “NCC 2015 New Year’s Day Temperature Ride x 2”, “Temperature ride 2015. Battery died add 15 miles. More than expected.”, “Ncc New Years ride, toughy” “New Years Kabonk”, “Training plan shot to hell today, but it was fun”. Best of all was a comment in Jonathan O’s: “The ride home was a bonky death march into the freezing wind.” Well said, sir.
No photos this year- gee I wonder why.
Anyway- apologies to those expecting a shorter ride, but thank you for coming out and enduring the conditions and extended distance. Hopefully the beginning part of the ride was enjoyable and a great chance to catch up with each other. I look forward to seeing all of you out there on the road and the race course this season. Happy New Year!
Finally, as with last winter, check the calendar here for rides throughout the next few cold and snowy months. Myself or others may organize rides.
