The Saturday B Ride started from a different location to change things up this holiday weekend. It was shortened to 45 miles but offered beautiful scenery along the 3,500 ft of climb. There was only one short break at Lk Wyola. We rolled from The S. Amherst Common on S. East road. It offers plenty of shaded and FREE parking. We headed to the Gulf Rd climb along the falls and winded North on Buffam Rd into Shutesbury.
After our short break we took off on the long and twisting Leverett Rd descent, and into the Cave Hill climb which runs along the east side of Mt. Toby State Forest and along the Cave Hill Conservation Area. Then onto Montague Rd into Cushman Brook Conservation area. In between we added a scenic and challenging 20 minute climb in N Leverett called the Chestnut Loop and that was an excellent decision as the roads were empty and beautiful.
The return stretch from Cushman’s in N. Amherst offers a straight flat with a few curves paceline into our start/finish point in the S Common. We had 2 strong riders that pulled the Paceline at 24 mph on the 7+ mile stretch home. It was a very fun ride with lots of PRs for the 5 guys on the ride.
A suggestion was made to extend the ride into Northfield, so next time we’ll add this 20ish miles to the route.
