For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday November 20 at 6:15PM Eastern, with one lap of the "Green to Screen" course in New York. This is an 18-mile loop that hits most of the newly-released roads in New York, starting in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and including some small climbs over the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/UCsrMU5MWlFvWE8rSTZtNnd1YVRad0VYTlp6RGtxeXd3V3diUnF0Sm5hVT0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight's team time trial took us to Watopia for four laps of the Two Bridges Loop, about 18 miles total, with a short sharp climb on each lap. We were hoping to field four riders, but Michael has been plagued by internet outages for the last couple of days and couldn't make it, so it was just Melissa, Shawn, and me at the starting line.

Our plan was to target 3.7 w/kg for our pulls, and we started out very close to that pace, turning in our fastest lap of the day on our first lap at 10:44. It turned out this wasn't quite sustainable, though, so we backed off at the end of the first lap, looking for something more like 3.5 w/kg. We settled into that pace quite nicely, turning out very consistent times of 11:00, 11:06, and 11:02 on our subsequent laps.

With only three riders on our team, we had to bring everyone to the finish line together, and we worked well at the end with a strong push over the last kilometer, finishing in a group within 0.1 sec of each other, with a final time of 44:25. We were all pretty spent at the end, so I think that counts as a good effort. The final results confirmed that, with a finishing place of 58th out of 175 teams in our division, putting us in the top third, and behind only two other three-person teams.

We'll be racing again next Thursday, and we're always looking for new team members, so come out and join us!

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday November 13 at 7:00PM Eastern, with four laps on the Two Bridges Loop course in Watopia. This is a short loop with a pretty legit little climb in each lap. The four laps will total about 18 miles. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/L3pZcVorTjA2akRtR05CUWpvclgvRm10aklSaGhXU0VSUThma1BGeWsvVT0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

The third week of our winter Zwift Team Time Trial series had us taking on two laps of the Flatland Loop in the Makuri Islands. Despite the name, this loop is not exactly flat, featuring a long draggy climb each lap followed by a steepish, high-speed descent.

The NCC brought four riders to the start line -- Carson, Melissa, Shawn, and me. We were very evenly-matched -- the pre-ride w/kg chart showed all of us within a couple of percentage points of each other. But it's really hard to build a race plan that factors in the raw watts from the big guys like me on the flats, along with the climbing ability of the skinny folks like Melissa and Carson. And to keep track of all of this on the fly. We could really use some more pre-ride analysis (talking to you Shawn) and definitely a DS (Dusty? Zinj? Any of our bunch of Henries?)

We all rode hard on course. It felt like everyone had a moment or two of "Am I the one who is holding the team back?"  Which is really the essence of what makes the the TTT experience so great. The teamwork element makes everyone push harder.

As of this writing, we are sitting at 33rd in our category out of a total of 182 teams, which is by far our best result of the year, so huge props to everyone who participated. We'll be doing this event throughout the winter, so please keep an eye on our calendar; the more riders we can get, the better!

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday November 6 at 6:00PM Eastern, with two laps on the Flatland Loop course in Yumezi. This is a mostly-flat course with a long gentle climb each lap. The two laps will total about 16 miles. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/aUdYdjRsSHdQcjJSQ09TVmFrNVFJbEltVm1uUEV6WFkzck5uVk1jcHJOaz0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

We had five riders for tonight's NCC Team Time Trial -- Melissa, Carson, Shawn, Bill and I tackled the Watopia's Waistband route, a flat 16-mile loop around the outer perimeter of Watopia.

Bill had some technological challenges at the start -- he got on our team Discord chat, but his mic didn't work, so he could hear us but we couldn't hear him. We managed to work through that though, and our pulls went smoothly in the early going despite the communications challenges. The tech gremlins struck again though about six miles in, when Bill's power suddenly went to zero. Not sure whether this was a network outage or a trainer issue (since we couldn't hear him), but we decided to forge ahead without him.

With five starters, the fourth person over the line is the time that counts, so once we lost Bill, we couldn't spare anyone else. Melissa started to creep into the red zone about two-thirds of the way through, so she sat in the rest of the way while Carson, Shawn and I traded pulls. Everyone put in big efforts on their final pulls, and Melissa managed to hang on, and we finished together with a time of 40:25. Results are still trickling in from the west coast as I write this, but currently we are placed 68th of 180 in our category, which I think is pretty respectable given that we did most of the race with only four riders.

We'll be racing again next Thursday night, I'll post the sign-up link once it becomes available during the day on Friday.

This time of year I get burnt out doing the same(ish) routes to the hill towns or up and down the river valley.  As I did last year about this time, I posted a meetup in Belchertown to ride around the Quabbin.  This would be my 14th traverse of the Quabbin.

I also thought it is cool to traverse reservoirs back to back weekends!

Seven riders (including me) met at Stop and Shop around 10 AM. In my opinion it was "cool" but not "cold". (50F) Other riders may beg to differ.  A summer bib, summer jersey, full leg and arm warmers, plus a vest nailed it for me all day.  I was comfortable at all times.

There is not much avoiding climbing or traffic on this route. Once we got out to Rte 202, I may have set a brisk pace to warm up! We had a pair of three of very strong riders in the group (OK, they deserve recognition)- Frank, Madeline, and Brent-- whom quickly surged ahead.

We regrouped at the Salem Store for some hydration and a quick break.

After a bit more busy traffic on Rte 202, the turn onto Rte 122 was welcome.  It was a bit quieter, but does have more climbing. I had to take a moment to reel in the strong riders so we could continue as a group.

The turn to Rte 32A has some pretty views going down for a while, but climbing into Hardwick lives up to the town's name.

We stopped at Mimi's at the town common for another refreshment.

Greenwich Rd is mostly a pleasure. Curvy descents with a view and little traffic.  Mostly, as there was a PITA climb in there too, reminding us we are not done.

The "home stretch" in Ware, on Rte 9 reminded me that this ride is hard.  The climb up out of Ware is always a kick.

We turned into Quabbin park, but took a detour over the  Goodnough Dike, thanks to Michael B's suggestion. I had never been over this. It is a nice quiet loop that adds only 1.5 miles and 142' of climbing. I really enjoyed the views here and it will be added to my future Quabbbin routes!

Group photo at Goodnough Dike, PC: Michael Bello

Beautiful perspective, PC: Michael Bello

Our detour put us back out to the "main" road, leading to the "roundabout" and then the punishing climb to the tower.  The views were epic, as usual!

We made our way back to Belchertown via the Windsor Dam (pretty cool to ride over both dams/dikes that hold back the Quabbin, in one ride??).

Our strong riders took the brunt (thanks!) of the head winds that decided to pick up, on Rte 9 back to Stop and Shop.

I had 64.34 miles, 4980' climbing , 15.8 MPH average, and 4:04 moving time when we entered the parking lot just shy of 3 PM.  Great ride, great crew.  Everyone worked hard on this ride but a shout-out to Brent for his first traverse of the Quabbin, and to Michael B, this being his second traverse of the Quabbin in a matter of three weeks.

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are trying a new format, and participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL. Once your account is set up, there will be a sign-up link posted each week, which you will click in order to register for that week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://ishttps://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Y3JKL2FWSGtmZmJTb0lOYzdtaHN0aXZoZVczSTJZU1lDbEFsc3ZkMFBrdz0=.gd/nccdiscord).

This week's race will be on Thursday October 30 at 6:10PM Eastern, on the Watopia's Waistband course in Watopia. This is a mostly-flat 17-mile course around the outer rim of Watopia. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Y3JKL2FWSGtmZmJTb0lOYzdtaHN0aXZoZVczSTJZU1lDbEFsc3ZkMFBrdz0=)

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight was our first NCC entry in the WTRL Thursday night Team Time Trial racing series. This is one of the biggest, oldest racing events on Zwift, and it was great to finally get an NCC team into the mix.

I was joined by Carson, Michael, Shawn, and Lauren, racing on the "Greater London 8" route in London, which features a flat loop through Knightsbridge followed by the big climb up Box Hill and a fast descent to the finish. Our team got organized quickly at the start into a nice tight line formation, behind big initial pulls by Carson and Shawn.

Everyone did their share of work at the front of the group as we rolled through the initial flat section. Once we got to the Box Hill climb, Lauren fell back (perhaps feeling the effects of the 50-mile gravel ride with 6,000' of climbing that she did earlier in the day). With five riders on the team, the team time is taken as the fourth rider to cross the line, so Michael was in the hot seat for the climb once Lauren dropped back. He put in a huge effort, getting to the top in a little under nine minutes, with Carson, Shawn, and me trying to sit in front of him and give him a bit of draft.

Once we got over the top, Carson and Shawn took over to lead us down the hill, and we powered through to finish in just under 40 minutes, with the four of us finishing within one second of one another. It was hard work and a satisfying effort, with all members of the team contributing to the result.

Results are still rolling in from some of the last few west coast time slots, but as of this writing we are sitting in 68th place out of 185 teams in our division, which I think is pretty respectable for our first effort in this competition (especially since most of the fast teams are rolling with the maximum complement of eight riders).

We will be running this event on Thursday nights through the winter season. Signups open each Friday for the following week's event; we will post an event on the NCC calendar each week with the registration link to sign up. Teams are a minimum of three and a maximum of eight riders; if we get enough participants we will split up into multiple teams.

The near perfect fall weather conditions continue for our Saturdays.   I hadn’t ridden south of the Northampton area in a while, and I know there are beautiful routes just over the state line, south of Granville, MA. One of my favorites is a loop around the Barkhamsted Reservoir.  I decided to post a ride start from Westfield to make it more reasonable for time and climbing instead of starting from Northampton.

I modified the route late on Friday based on Tim P’s knowledge of some roads I have never been to down there. This modified route would take us through the little center of Riverton, CT and keep us off main roads for quite some time, and offer up a rather challenging climb.

I had four other riders meet me at the start (Madeline, Conan, Brent and Eric C.) under mostly clear skies and about 50 degrees F. I was pleased to have this many riders, as this weekend was pretty busy in the valley with homecoming/family weekends and, many of the usual NCC riders were racing TreeHouse CX.

I led the group out of downtown to Granville Rd. This was the first major climb of the day. I have ridden this many times. It climbs up past the Springfield water supply facilities.

The group was quite stronger than I, and so I dropped for the first time of the day, although somehow I earned Strava medals. There was a “top” just over the town line and they waited for me. I was able to hang on for the next segment, taking us by the Granville Resevior and eventually to the center of Granville, MA.

From the center, to keep us off the main roads, there is a beautiful side road- Water St- which I have ridden several times. But, wait for it….

This confirms my rides always have some sort of a bridge out theme!

(Unfortunately this website no longer has all the previous ride reports over the last 14 years I wrote, so I can't link you to "bridge out rides".)

Anyway, luckily, it was not any huge pit or tracks we had to navigate. It was an easy over some blocks. Honestly, this time I was like “WTF”? In any case, the benefit of a bridge closed is zero traffic and perhaps an even more enjoyable landscape.

Eventually, we arrived in East Hartland, CT, which I call the “five corners”, as well as the beginning of the reservoir loop.

We began the fast descent into Barkhamsted on the very busy Rte 79- probably my least favorite part of the ride. So much traffic buzzing past. But the reward was the beautiful Saville Dam, which had plenty of tourists, and one that offered to take our group photo (finally not a Tim selfie!).

From here on was new territory (mostly) for me until the end of the loop back in East Hartland. Usually I ride up Beach Rock Rd just after the dam and pop out on to Rte 181. Instead, we continued on up northwest a bit and hung a right on East River Road. This road parallels the Farmington River on the west side, and Peoples State Forrest on the east side. This was my favorite section of the route. The road had little traffic, was quiet and I felt like I was on a secluded access road.

Eric provided me with the details of what to expect in Riverton, (and how to not miss the left turn off E. River Rd), which was very helpful. We arrived in the tiny center of Riverton for refreshments and a break. The place was hoppin’.

The resting was needed. From looking at the map, I was dreading the next section- the Hogback Rd climb. This looked to be the steepest (but not longest) climb of the day. Strava has the segment as a cat 3 climb, 550 feet over 1.5 miles, averaging 6.7% grade, with a maximum grade of 15%. Not surprisingly, I dropped and enjoyed the scenery.  Halfway up this climb there are gates and a beautiful view of the West Branch Reservoir at the Goodwin Dam.

At the top of Hogback, there was a bit of confusion, as my Garmin said go right, but others had left. This was an important decision because left was a steep descent that I would not feel like climbing back up! Left was “right” and down we went, but not for long- there was a sharp climb lingering behind a corner that none of us were ready for. Never a dull moment.

The Old Forge Rd and West St trend upward, but do roll a bit, so not horrible at all. I don’t think we had a single car pass.

West St dropped us back down to Rte 20. Eric mentioned he had never ridden this cut-through, so thanks to another Tim, we all discovered something new. The view here to the east is Barkhamsted watershed. At this point on Rte 20, I was back in familiar territory, with West Hartland center to the right.

Rte 20 rolls up and down as it heads north toward the Tunxis State Forest. On one of the short kickers I couldn’t hang on to the group, so I dropped and never saw much of them again until we returned back to the Hartland five corners. This was just fine with me. The scenery is better taken in at a slower pace.

The west side of the Barkhamsted features a long, screaming, curving descent, but as with this whole ride, I was trying to pay attention to the scenery. Off to the east, the reservoir is viewable as you lean into the curves.

What goes down, must also come up? Of course- as the northern most tip of the reservoir is reached, it is about a three mile unrelenting climb back up to the Hartland five corners. I scored my worst Strava time on this one, although, consider that many of the other times on this segment were in a race. It was nice to relax.

Our final feature of the day was a really fast, scenic and fun descent down Mountain Rd. What I love about this is about 3/4 the way down, looking to the left (north) is a huge clearing with all the fall colors, seeing for miles over conservation lands and then the buildings of Granby, CT in the distance.

The way home was straight north on Loomis St, crossing into Massachusetts in Southwick. My legs seemed to wake up at this point so not only did I keep up with the fast paced group, I even was on the front a bit pushing it, resulting in some Strava PR’s! Loomis Rd dumped us back near the start on Granville Rd. It now was just a short ride back through town to get to the start location. Conan and Eric hit the gas on the final stretch, so I chased. Turns out Conan had an average of 17.0 MPH for the ride and did not want that to drop. Well, pokey me had 16.0 MPH, and same situation, so that worked out well- and I even got 0.1 MPH above!

A great group of riders on a great day. Many thanks to the riders that come out to join me on these rides.

These rides that take us out to places we rarely see are always my favorite and most memorable. There is so much to see on the bike, for me it is about the experience and not a race. As Madeline described it “I love grinding up the hills”. I tend to agree with the addition of, the more you grind, the more you see and enjoy.

I ended around 2:30 PM with 57.49 miles, 4913′ elevation at 16.1 Mph average.