Northampton Cycling Club News

Week 3: Long Time Trial

David Goodwin — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 01:23:45 GMT

Conditions tonight for the long time trial were such that I was looking for any reason to cancel it. A few snow flurries - no. Temperatures hovering around the upper 30's - no. Swarms of locust - never materialized. Possibility of a haboob (is this a new word for you Melissa?) - almost. A nuclear holocaust - maybe soon. What astonished me, however, is how many people showed up - 10!!

I had a few bike issues at the start so ended up going out last. By the time that my 70 year old rapidly aging body finished up, half the participants had taken off to get home before hypothermia kicked in. No blame here!

No PRs (anyone surprised?) but Andy said that he clocked a PW! Charles M spanked us all and his average power was 300 watts. I can only dream of hitting a number like that!

Here are today's results:

1. Charles Mathers; Time: 46:40; 23.66 mph; 10 points

2. Shawn Lakota; Time: 48:15; 22.88 mph; 9 points

3. Frank Sleegers; Time: 48:51; 22.6 mph; 8 points

4. Sam Veggeberg; Time: 49:45; 22.19 mph; 7 points

5. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 50:16; 21.96 mph; 6 points

6. Andy MacDonald; Time: 52:00; 21.23 mph; 5 points

7. Madeline Nagy; Time: 54:24; 20.29 mph; 4 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 55:51; 19.77 mph; 3 points

9. Tim Pitkin; Time: 56:50; 19.43 mph; 2 points

10. Charles Bohl; Time: 58:39; 18.82 mph; 1 points

I'm away for the next 2 months on a cycling, eating, drinking, swimming and cavorting vacation with Suzanne. I will leave the time keeping and reporting in the capable hands of Mr. O'Keeffe. Send your times to him because if you send them to me, I may only be speaking French and Italian so may not understand what you say.

Next week is the Shutesbury hillclimb. Have fun and I'll be thinking of you all.

Week 2: Leeds to Chesterfield Hillclimb

David Goodwin — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 01:15:40 GMT

Maybe it's just me but this is one really hard hillclimb. We had a great turnout today of 15 riders. I think the mostly dry (and seriously potholed) road and temps hovering around 70 brought a lot of folks out.

This is a first in all of my years doing this - we had a mom and toddler come out from a nearby house and the kid cheered us on as we started the race. Very nice (said in a Borat voice)!

Ryan scorched us all and his teammate Garret was about 30 seconds behind for second. Ryan set a PR by 16 seconds and Shawn by 7 seconds. The results don't show this but Nick's time was artificially high as he was encouraging and supporting his teammate Jake. That's how I beat Nick so don't read too much into this.

It was great to have Dan participate after many years of absense, especially on his stunning new Cervelo. Very nice (again, think Borat)!

Melissa was MIA as she's nursing a sore knee. I'm sure we can all relate to that! Get better soon, you beast!

Here are today's results (Frank, Tim and Donna did their climbs earlier and Charles finished a few minutes behind as he just missed the start):

1. Ryan Davis; Time: 23:44; 16.94 mph; 15 points

2. Garret Theberg; Time: 24:15; 16.58 mph; 14 points

3. Patrick Sullivan; Time: 24:50; 16.19 mph; 13 points

4. Dan Coady; Time: 28:50; 13.94 mph; 12 points

5. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 29:32; 13.61 mph; 11 points

6. Madeline Nagy; Time: 30:33; 13.16 mph; 10 points

7. Shawn Lakota; Time: 30:38; 13.12 mph; 9 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 31:20; 12.83 mph; 8 points

9. Jake Poirier; Time: 32:16; 12.46 mph; 7 points

10. Nick Davis; Time: 32:17; 12.45 mph; 6 points

11. Charles Bohl; Time: 33:21; 12.05 mph; 5 points

12. Frank Sleegers; Time: 34:00; 11.82 mph; 4 points

13. Joe Lellman; Time: 35:25; 11.35 mph; 3 points

14. Tim Pitkin; Time: 35:46; 11.24 mph; 2 points

15. Donna Wilson; Time: 38:42; 10.39 mph; 1 points

Next week is the dreaded (at least to me) long time trial.

Week 1: Short Time Trial Results

David Goodwin — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:29:05 GMT

Welcome to the 2026 outdoor time trial and hillclimb season. Two weeks ago, with all the snow and frigid weather, it seemed hard to imagine that we'd actually be doing this today. Au contraire, mon ami (getting ready for our trip to France and Italy soon).

Five riders showed up for the 5:30 start (Andy, JOK, Madeline, Melissa and Tim) while 4 of us did it earlier (maybe later too?); me, Dusty, Frank and 1st timer Charles. I did drive over to greet the starters, cheer them on at the halfway point (Tim waved, Melissa blew me a kiss and the rest just ignored me while I was out there jumping up and down, cheering and making a fool out of myself which defied my doctor's orders, in fact doing the time trial defied my doctor's orders too) and get their times at the finish line.

There was some sort of Madeline's dog-on-the-course incident. I can't really shed any light on it but Madeline rode off after finishing, almost as fast as her TT speed, to go find her dog. Maybe an explanation will be forthcoming.

Okay, enough of this fluff. Here are today's results:

1. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 24:26; 22.59 mph; 9 points

2. Frank Sleegers; Time: 24:41; 22.36 mph; 8 points

3. Dusty King; Time: 24:46; 22.29 mph; 7 points (birthday boy!)

4. Andy MacDonald; Time: 25:44; 21.45 mph; 6 points

5. Melissa Warwick; Time: 26:12; 21.07 mph; 5 points

6. Tim Pitkin; Time: 26:24; 20.91 mph; 4 points

7. Madeline Nagy; Time: 27:04; 20.39 mph; 3 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 29:07; 18.96 mph; 2 points

9. Charles Bohl; Time: 30:48; 17.92 mph; 1 points

Next week is the first hillclimb - Leeds to Chesterfield. Hope to see you there.

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 3/5/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 02:10:38 GMT

We wrapped up our winter TTT season tonight in Watopia with one lap of the Waisted 8 route for a total of 18 miles. The core team of Carson, Melissa, Dusty, Shawn and I welcomed newcomer Tim Watkins on his first-ever TTT effort.

We lined up at 6:20 PM and started out at our usual 3.6 W/kg pace. Tim knew that this pace would be challenging for him, but he was eager to give it his best shot. We assigned him 30-second pulls, while the rest of us went with our typical one minute pulls to start. The course is quite flat, with the only noteworthy climb being an ascent of the Jarvis KOM early in the ride. We stayed together and maintained a tight formation through the initial flat section, and then attacked the climb. Tim made it up and over the top with the rest of the group, but he was gassed at that point, and asked the rest of us to go on without him.

The remaining group of five pushed on through the remaining flat sections, which was quite nice after the hilly courses we've had over the past few weeks. Nobody sang tonight, having learned their lessons last week. Nevertheless, I ramped up the pace to 3.8 at the halfway point, and then again to 4.0 with 5K to go. There seemed to be some grumbling about that, but everyone answered the bell, and even ramped it up further on the final run-in to the finish. We ended up finishing in a tight group of five with a time of 45:18, which put us near the bottom of our division (105th of 116 teams), but I think we had more fun than any of the other teams, which is what it's all about.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this winter's time trial series. It was a great experience riding with all of you -- riding in a group to support a team really made me push myself a lot harder than I would have in my solo efforts. Hope to see you all back out on the road soon!

Zwift Team Time Trial 3/5/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:26:54 GMT

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 March 5 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is one lap of the Waisted 8 course in Watopia, for about 19 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/MSsvV0t6eXpGTXZUNlpnd2g4cUNKWG1JMTY4eWRDNjQyR3pMN2xFT0lKQT0=)

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.

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/26/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 02:35:34 GMT

Tonight's team time trial took us to Yorkshire. Carson, Melissa, Dusty, Shawn and I lined up at 6:20 PM for two laps of the 2019 Worlds Harrogate Circuit, a very demanding course that features constant ups and downs and hardly a bit of flat ground.

I spent a few minutes before the start trying to work on our organizational strategies, after realizing that I had been giving some conflicting advice previously regarding positioning within the group. It's tricky to hold a proper paceline formation in Zwift, and particularly to maintain the selected pull rotation order, so that the next rider is consistently in the #2 slot when the front rider pulls off. Tonight we decided to emphasize proper sequencing a bit more than we have been doing, while still prioritizing holding a line formation as the number one goal. I think we were quite successful in this, particularly early in the ride before fatigue started setting in. We spent a lot of time lined up perfectly in the correct rotation order, setting up some nice pull handoffs.

As usual, we started out at 3.6 W/kg. The group was chattier than usual, and by the end of the first lap Melissa was breaking out in song again, trotting out some Mon Rovia tunes. To me this is always a sign that we're not going hard enough, so I treated the group to my rendition of "Let's Go to Three Point Eight" by the Chainstompers. This was not well-received by the crowd. Carson retaliated a couple of minutes later with a few bars of "Let's Go to Three Point Nine", by the classic Icelandic folk-metal duo High-Powered Heart/High-Hearted Power. This was enough to put a stop to the serenades from Shutesbury.

Nearing the end of the second lap, motivation was starting to flag a bit, so I broke out the big guns in the form of "Let's Go to Four Point Oh" by the Powerheads (from their seminal 1978 album Pukebucket). Carson was very on-board with this, and soon opened up a bit of a gap. Fortunately Dusty and Melissa were able to close it down, and we crossed the line in a tight group, with just 0.7 seconds between our first- and fourth-place riders. We finished in 72nd place out of 105 teams in our division, which is by far our best result since we upgraded earlier in the winter, and a negative split of 20+ seconds on our two laps. Great work everyone!

We are going to do one more week of these TTT events next Thursday night, before our thoughts turn to hopes of spring and melting snow and outdoor rides. Come and join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/26/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:14:47 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday February 26 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the 2019 Worlds Harrogate Circuit course in Yorkshire, for about 17 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/NTg2eHNrWnJ6M2hkcFN1MmpqZUd1UFhLUnVkeVNCOHRWUVhuMzBCMTlpOD0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/19/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 01:52:01 GMT

For tonight's race, we fielded our largest team of the season thus far, as Dusty rejoined our crew after missing several weeks with an injury, and Austin joined for the first time. They joined our regular crew of Carson, Melissa, Shawn, and me, as we took on two laps of the Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop course in Watopia. This course features a significant climb and descent each lap, and at 24 miles total, is the longest TTT we've done so far, clocking in at almost an hour.

Having six riders felt like a luxury compared to our usual team of four. We started out with 60-second pulls at 3.6 W/kg, and having five minutes to recover in each rotation is great. In retrospect, we probably could have gone a little harder with such a big group, as there was quite a bit of chatter during the first lap, with Melissa even serenading us at one point.

After the first lap, I bumped the pace up to 3.8 W/kg, and the chatter died down a bit after that. Carson unfortunately had to leave us at around the 40-minute mark, so I assigned him a longer "death pull" right before he had to step out, which he handled admirably, pulling at over 4 W/kg for his final three minutes, taking us almost into the base of the climb of the second lap. Shawn fell back on the climb, and Austin, Dusty, Melissa and I forged ahead to the finish, arriving in a tight group at 58:35, and posting a negative split on the second lap of almost 30 seconds. Our effort was good for 89th place in the Frappe division out of 107 teams, most of which are stacked with strong A and B riders.

Next week we'll race on the hilly World's circuit in Yorkshire -- come out and join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/19/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:55:32 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday February 19 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop course in Watopia, for about 24 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Z2NzQXdkOC9mWTFZYm9NR09vd1Eza1l2WXc4L2FOYkRjMG0rby9GamJFbz0=)

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

Member Profile: Jonathan O'Keeffe

Charlotte Lellman — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:47:46 GMT

Jonathan O'Keeffe

Pronouns: he/him

Age: 56

Town: Amherst, MA

NCC Member Since: 2008

Jonathan: The History

Where are you from?

I grew up on Cape Cod, and I've been living in Amherst since 1996.

How did you first get into cycling?

I've been riding bikes since I was a teenager (I still have the bike I used to ride to high school), but I really started to get more into cycling when I started doing group rides in Amherst and Northampton around 2007.

Why did you join NCC?

Doing group rides with NCC really changed the way I rode, and made it a much more fun and rewarding experience. I had been doing mostly solo rides before that, which always felt like a bit of a grind, but riding with other people turned it into a much more social experience (and made me push myself a lot harder, too!)

What type of riding do you do?

Most of my riding is on the road -- a little bit of racing, a lot of group riding, and a bit of solo riding. I do some local cyclocross racing in the fall, filling in the back half of the fields, and a little bit of mountain biking (I'm always meaning to get out more on the MTB, but it doesn't happen often enough). Once it gets cold in the winter, you can mostly find me on my trainer in Zwift.

You organize the NCC’s intro ride series. Tell us about that!

I started assisting Leila [Everett, former NCC co-president] eight or nine years ago when she used to run the intro rides, and found this to be fun and rewarding. There's a steady stream of new faces every week, along with a lot of regulars, and it's super-satisfying to watch newer riders develop over the course of the summer into stronger and more confident cyclists. These new riders are the first stage of the pipeline into becoming more involved in the club and our rides, and I love seeing our intro riders "graduate" into more advanced rides and other leadership positions in the club.

You’ve gone on some incredible cycling trips in the US and around the world! Tell us about some of your most memorable cycling vacations.

I'm not fast, but I can chug away for a long time, so a couple that stand out the most for me are long-distance endurance races in Michigan and Iceland. In 2013 I traveled with some family and friends to the National 24-Hour Challenge in Middletown, Michigan. This is kind of like a 120-mile road race followed by an 18-hour individual time trial. We got interrupted for a couple of hours by some huge thunderstorms in the middle of the night, but I finished with 350+ miles for a first-place age-group finish.

In 2018 I teamed up with NCC members Roger Stawasz and Carson Poe, along with some friends, to take on the WOW Cyclothon in Iceland. We packed four riders, four bikes, and two drivers into a rented camper for a 48-hour, rainy, windswept tour of the 850-mile ring road around Iceland's perimeter. We each rode eight legs of about 1.5 hours each through incredible terrain, passing glaciers, icebergs, hot springs, and tons of waterfalls. We weren't anywhere close to winning the race, but I'm pretty sure we had more fun than anyone else.

Jonathan’s Favorites

What’s your favorite place to ride?

Do I have to pick just one? I'm going to go with:

1) The Falls Road loop up to the Bookmill in Montague, beautiful countryside, and scene of lots of Wednesday night hijinks over the years

2) The Patten District in Greenfield/Shelburne, gorgeous scenery that always makes me think of the Scottish Highlands

3) Mount Holyoke (Skinner), the iconic Valley climb, with outstanding views from the summit

Favorite ride snack?

I could ride all day on Fig Newtons. Throw in a couple of plastic-wrapped sandwiches from a gas station and I'm in heaven.

What is your favorite NCC group ride or event?

Probably a tie between the Tuesday night race series and the Wednesday night A/B ride.

Jonathan Off the Bike
What do you do outside of cycling?

I work out of my home in Amherst for a small software company in New Jersey, doing web application programming in international supply chain management. In my spare time, I like tinkering with web stuff relating to bikes and maps and data, and I've built a couple of Strava-linked websites for visualizing your activity data on maps and reports. Since COVID I've gotten really into birdwatching, so when I'm not riding or working, I'm probably in the woods or at a lake looking for weird ducks.

You also maintain the database with every single NCC hill climb and time trial performance going back to 2007. Give us some numbers!

The Tuesday night race series were some of the first rides I did with the club back in 2008. David Goodwin has been doing an outstanding job of organizing this series since back then through to the present day. I was intimidated by the concept of racing at first, but the crowd was super-supportive and encouraging, even to a slow newbie like me (in my first race I was over nine minutes behind the leader). I caught the bug, and have been doing them regularly ever since. I wanted to give back to the club a little bit by developing an easier way to post race results and standings each week, and this evolved into a web-based application that has been used to track the results for almost 20 years now, with 391 races and almost 6,000 individual rider performances.

What’s next for Jonathan?

A couple of years ago you did an Everest on Zwift. What can we expect from you this winter?

Definitely not another Everest! Eight and a half times up the Alpe de Zwift for 29,000' of climbing almost killed me, definitely one of the hardest rides I've ever done. The event I'm most psyched about this winter is leading the NCC team in the Zwift Thursday night Team Time Trial series. Each week a group of us gathers and competes in an organized TTT against hundreds of other teams from around the world. It's a lot of fun, and one of the best workouts you can imagine. Riding as part of a group effort with other team members makes you push yourself even harder than you would in an individual race effort. We'll be doing these events on Thursday nights through the winter, posting sign-up info on the website each week in the News section and on the calendar, so keep an eye out -- we'd love to have some new riders join us.

How can club members get involved with NCC on Zwift?

Watch for our events on the calendar on the NCC website. We do a race series every Tuesday night, the Team Time Trial on Thursday nights, and we'll probably be adding additional events as the outside temperatures continue to drop. All of our events are open to all club members. If you have any questions about our events or about Zwift setup, feel free to shoot me an email (contact info below).

What’s on your cycling bucket list?

Haleakalā. Cross-country ride. Watch a TdF stage. Learn to ride a unicycle. Figure out how to ride my cross bike or MTB over anything bigger than a broomstick.

What are your hopes for NCC?

The NCC has been putting a ton of effort into youth development, along with reaching out to new riders, women, and transgender/non-binary riders. All of these efforts have been paying off with lots of new participation in many events. I can't wait to see the local cycling community continue to grow as these riders get more involved in the club.

How can people connect with you?

Is there social media besides Strava? You can find me there at https://www.strava.com/athletes/jokeeffe. Or drop me an email at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Member Profile: Beth Johnson

Charlotte Lellman — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:29:14 GMT

Beth Johnson

Name: Beth Johnson

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 58

Town: Springfield, MA

NCC Member Since: 2025

Beth: The History

Where are you from?

I grew up in Kittery, Maine, when it was a much smaller and quieter place than it is today. As an adult, I’ve moved around a lot and lived in Alabama, upstate New York, western South Dakota, and the far southwest corner of Oklahoma (“it’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from here”). We moved back to New England in 1998.

How did you first get into cycling? When did you start joining the NCC’s intro rides, and what was that like for you?

I’ve been riding since I was little, starting with my old banana-seat bike and graduating to a 10-speed in my tweens. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was over 18, so I rode my Peugeot 10-speed everywhere. There wasn’t much to do when we lived in Oklahoma, so I rode a bunch there and did some road races, rides up to 75 miles, and even a criterium. After a break from cycling, I started up again in earnest last year. Since I’m not much of a road rider anymore, and not very fast, I started going to the Monday Intro D rides, led by Jonathan O’Keeffe. It was a good shakeout ride for me, chill enough to be social, and I could drag my husband along since he hadn’t been riding much.

Why did you join NCC?

I’ve been really impressed with how friendly the NCC members are and how invested the club is in community outreach. I love the route library, even though it’s focused a little out of my area. And there’s a good variety of ride types.

What type of riding do you do?

I had always been a roadie but off-road curious. My road bike was stolen just before the pandemic, and I replaced it with a gravel bike. Then I saw the Women’s beginner MTB clinic advertised last spring, given by Lisa Abrams and Amy Stephens. I registered and borrowed a bike, and was hooked. I spent most of the summer riding MTB and gravel, then did the Valley Cat Hustle cross clinics and started racing cross in the River Valley XC series. My sister has raced cyclocross for a number of years and I’ve spectated and wanted to join in. I had a blast!

What is your most meaningful cycling accomplishment?

I had both my hips replaced in 2024, after years of pain and disability that made mounting and dismounting a bike a bit of an ordeal (and riding more dangerous). It took about a year to get my strength built back up, which meant that I was ready in spring of ‘25 to get back to having fun on the bike. I started the season with Raid Rockingham and Bikes Fight Cancer, and the Women’s/Gender Expansive MTB clinic. I learned off-road riding skills that stood me in good stead when I started racing cross. I had no idea there were two cross races practically in my back yard. I ended up going to all the River Valley XC races, and though I finished last or almost last in each, because I simply showed up and finished, I ended up third in the series! And to close out the season, I was able to fulfill a wish and race at The Ice Weasels Cometh.

Beth’s Favorites

What’s your favorite place to ride?

I love the trails in West Springfield: Bear Hole Reservoir and Robinson State Park. I wish my local towns would invest more in bike trail infrastructure to make it possible to ride safely around and out of Springfield to adjacent towns. I have to drive for most of my rides, which is ridiculous.

Favorite ride snack?

Fruit snacks and peanut M&Ms

Favorite piece of cycling gear?

My sparkly purple Cannondale Habit MTB. It’s not just how it looks (it’s gorgeous!) or how I’ve accessorized (leaned hard into the purple), but the freedom and progress that it represents.

What is your favorite NCC group ride or event?

I’ve only been a member for less than a year, so I have to say my favorite thing was Hydra Cross. I had no idea there was a cross race jammed into that tiny park in Holyoke! It was awesome to race.

What’s your favorite book or TV show?

So many favorite books, but one of my recent favorites is the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. AppleTV picked it up and it’s as enjoyable (but different) in that medium.

Who is your favorite professional cyclist?

I try not to have a favorite professional cyclist anymore, since I’ve been burned by the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. However, it’s Sepp Kuss. And Kasia Niewiadoma. Because I love climbing.

Beth Off the Bike

What do you do when not on your bike?

Professionally, I work in IT at one of the local colleges, and before that I was a post-partum doula.

What do you do for fun?

I have a young Pembroke Welsh Corgi that I’m taking agility classes with. I’m a ceramic artist and gardener. And I teach an old and obscure Japanese weapon art (don’t bother to ask the name, you have never heard of it).

What is your favorite spot in the River Valley?

Before my hips made it difficult, I used to trail run the M&M up Mount Holyoke. I loved looking out across the Valley from the summit.

What’s next for Beth? What does “winter training” mean to you?

Winter training means continuing my weight training (essential for everyone!), riding the indoor trainer (no Zwift, alas), running around an agility course with my dog, and swinging a 7 1/2 foot long pole arm.

What cycling goals do you have for the upcoming year?

I’ve already registered for Raid Rockingham, D2R2, The Mix Tape, and Ice Weasels, as well as Elevate and Everwild. I just registered interest in officially taking part in the race team, so . . . I’d like to increase my base capacity and get a solid fueling habit down for longer events. I used to be really good at climbing, and I’d like to try to get some of that back. I’m also interested in starting a regular chill MTB ride for women/gender expansive with a focus on skill building by repetition.

What’s on your cycling bucket list?

I would love to cycle the Shimanami kaido at some point.

What are your hopes for the cycling community in the River Valley?

I hope we continue to make gains on bike-enabling infrastructure in the Valley, especially to connect the more urban areas and spread the love and awareness.

What would you recommend to club members who are new to group rides?

Start with the Monday Intro ride. You’ll learn about group riding at a chill pace with a small time commitment and friendly people.

How can people connect with you?

On Strava I’m the only Beth Johnson in the NCC club. I’m on the Women and Gender Expansive MTB email list. I hope to try some of the gravel rides this year, and maybe JAM Fundo and a XC race or two? I’m signed up for Elevate and Everwild MTB clinics. If you see me, I might not recognize you, so a reminder is helpful. I’m not much for small talk, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to connect.

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/12/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 02:43:58 GMT

Tonight we made a trip to Scotland for our Zwift team time trial, for three (and a half) laps of the Rolling Highlands course.

Carson, Melissa, Shawn, and I lined up at 6:20 PM. The excuses were already flowing before we even started -- Shawn was tired from Tuesday's race, Melissa is still battling a cold, etc. That didn't stop anyone from putting in strong performances though. The course is fun, living up to its name with constant little ups and downs, and precious little flat ground. We started out with Melissa out of the rotation due to her sickness, just hanging on to help with the draft for the rest of us. Carson, Shawn, and I traded 60-second pulls, starting out at 3.6 W/kg for the first lap.

Melissa was cracking jokes and bantering during the first lap, and seemed to be doing OK, so I turned up the heat on the second lap and bumped us up to 3.8 W/kg. That definitely increased the effort level a bit, but she was still going on about some kind of broccoli cookie recipe during the second lap, so we continued to ramp it up. By the third lap Shawn was telling some kind of story about a mule, my oxygen-deprived brain couldn't really follow the details.

The mule story must have taken a lot out of Shawn, as he was starting to drop back halfway through the final lap. Eventually he pulled the plug, and Carson helped pick up the slack with some long pulls as we approached the finish. Despite her sickness, Melissa hung through to the end and unleashed a nice sprint up the final climb, posting a couple of PRs along the way. We hit the finish line with a time of 46:12, good for 97th place in our division. Carson got into the excuse game during the post-ride cooldown, offering up a trio of somewhat-dubious excuses for his third-place finish in Tuesday's race, including a long day at work and something about a disrupted playlist.

Next Thursday we'll be back in Watopia for two laps of the Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop. If you've got some good excuses prepared for your performance, we'd love to hear them -- come and join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/12/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:37:38 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday February 12 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is three laps of the Rolling Highlands course in Scotland, for about 20 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/UnN6RjJzVHVOaHZERlYzK25HNVhLb2hvUEJsdURRaGJsc2Yvc1dKVFFMRT0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/5/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 01:51:53 GMT

Tonight's Zwift team time trial took us to Watopia for one lap of the Downtown Titans loop, which (unsurprisingly) starts downtown, and then climbs the Titan's Grove KOM, before returning to the downtown area for a final ascent of the Hilly KOM. The usual suspects of Carson, Melissa, Shawn, and myself took the starting line at 6:20 PM.

The hilly courses that we have been doing the past few weeks have played havoc with our usual rotation strategy, and tonight was no exception. After just one pull apiece, we were into the rollers of Titan's Grove, and then the main climb. Melissa and Shawn took the lead up the hill, and then I took over to pull through the descent. We resumed our normal rotation during the flatter middle section, and then powered up the short (two minute) Hilly KOM climb. Carson took a big pull through the flat section at the top, and I took over again on the descent. The rest of the course is flat, except for one sharp leading into the Esses, where Melissa dropped back a bit, leaving three of us to power through to the finish line, where Carson unleashed an impressive sprint in the final meters.

We came in with our top three within 0.9 seconds, with a finishing time of 36:52, putting us near the bottom of our division (91 out of 118), where we've been accustomed to landing since we were upgraded a few weeks ago. Next week we'll race the Rolling Highlands route in Scotland -- come and join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/5/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:14:21 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday February 5 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is one lap of the Downtown Titans course in Watopia, for about 16 miles total. The course is mostly flat, apart from two moderate climbs up the Titan's Grove and Hilly KOMs. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/aXU0Z0REUzRRSWxZTUw3ZndVUDBKSlZlUE5ET1VtOW9TRVdxVXdrR2pGaz0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/29/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 01:33:51 GMT

Tonight's TTT took us to Richmond for two laps of the 2015 UCI Worlds course, a strange combination of a flat first half and three punchy hills on the back half of each lap. Our core team of Carson, Melissa, Shawn, and I lined up at the start line. The plan we sketched out was basically to take equal sixty-second pulls at 3.6 w/kg on the flat portion, and then just kind of wing it on the hills, trying to keep the group together as best we could.

We more or less stuck to this plan through the first lap, staying together pretty well. On the second lap the hills started to take their toll, and Carson came through with some long pulls to give us a bit of relief. I let my attention wander for a minute at one point and came dangerously close to getting gapped off the back, needing to burn a couple matches to get back to the group. By the time we got to the final climb up to the finish line, Shawn was dangling a few seconds off the back, but Carson, Melissa, and I crossed the line together with a time of 50:34, putting us in our accustomed position near the bottom of the Frappe division at 85/107. This was actually a slightly better placement than last week, though, so I guess we're moving up in the world.

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/22/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:13:50 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday January 22 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the UCI Worlds course in Richmond, for about 20 miles total. The course has three significant climbs per lap, so there is a lot of up-and-down. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/U2lPcWU2UmdDTWJUdUI2M1JDY1N5Zmo4Q1BBQ0s5TUUrUGRVM0RDb24rQT0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/22/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 01:52:34 GMT

Tonight's Zwift team time trial took us to Watopia for three laps of the Hilly KOM route. Medical issues knocked out some of our core team this week, so we were left with a skeleton crew of Carson, Melissa, Shawn and me going up against some big strong teams in the Frappe division.

The course features three climbs (and descents) of the old-school classic KOM, making it hard to get a good team rhythm going. I was sort of improvising the pull schedule on the fly, to try to keep us together on the climbs, and protect the lightweights on the descents. My instructions got a little jumbled by the second lap when oxygen deprivation started to set in, but the team figured it out and made it work. Melissa and Shawn stepped up with some long pulls in the second and third laps, and Carson was always ready to do whatever was asked of him.

Our finishing time of 41:39 was solid, but now that we've been upgraded to a higher division, competing against teams composed of A and B riders, our position in the rankings is not quite as lofty as it had been in previous weeks (88th out of 108 teams as of this writing). Everyone seemed pretty knackered by the end, though, so I feel good about our effort -- nice work, folks! Come and join us next week to get in on the fun!

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/22/26 6:20 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:57:46 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday January 22 at 6:20 PM Eastern. The race is three laps of the Hilly Route course in Watopia, for about 17 miles total. This is three laps of the original Watopia "Hilly Route", with a short but significant climb each lap. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/ZmxTdldPaUdlU3VZNFNhUmNxSlBYaVhwZTRVR1hoQVdLREJ5WS93WnAvVT0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/15/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:21:16 GMT

Tonight's Zwift team time trial took us to the Makuri Islands for two laps of the Suki's Playground route. This course is mostly flat, except for where it isn't -- two non-trivial climbs each lap, one of which has a steep extra kicker at the top of it.

We brought a large-ish team of six riders to the line tonight -- Carson, Dusty, Lauren, Melissa, Shawn, and me. It felt great to have the extra riders in the group, with plenty of time to recover between pulls. However, we weren't quite firing on all cylinders, as Dusty was hampered by back problems, and Shawn was fighting off a cold. The team worked well together, though, and we were able to hold a tight formation and keep the group together all the way through to the beginning of the final climb. We started off at 3.6 W/kg and pretty much stayed there the whole ride. Shawn started to fall off at one point, but then rallied to close down a four-second gap, and hung on the rest of the way to the finish.

We rolled into the finish with a very respectable time of 55:40. We would have finished around the top 20% of our usual category, but unfortunately our competitive landscape has been scrambled by the fact that Carson's big power numbers have finally earned him the "Category A" designation that he probably should have had all along. This forced an upgrade from our usual "Latte" category to the much-more-competitive "Frappe" division, where everyone is super-fast, and teams can have up to three Category A riders. Little fish in a big pond, as Melissa put it. We ended up near the bottom of this division, in 108th place out of 115 teams, but that's fine -- we still rode a strong race and had a blast. And now that we're in a higher category, we can recruit more A riders, so if you're a strong Zwift rider (or even if you're not), come and join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/15/26 6:25 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:40:57 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday January 15 at 6:25 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the Suki's Playground course in Makuri Islands, for about 23 miles total. This is a long, flattish course, with four moderate climbs. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Y1REVzRvUGtTTWFmcUhXRUEwZmpmQjAzMklPdmZ1WmF5S3hZNmVOSTVvZz0=)

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.

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/8/26

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 02:48:01 GMT

After taking a couple weeks off over the holidays, the NCC team was back in action tonight for the first Thursday night Team Time Trial of the new year. Carson, Dusty, Melissa, Shawn and I lined up to tackle the Triple Flat Loops course in Watopia, which delivered what it said on the tin -- three loops that were very flat. It was also pretty long, at 22+ miles, the longest course we've done so far.

Knowing we'd be out there for close to an hour, I chose to start off fairly conservatively, with pulls at 3.6 W/kg spaced evenly across the group at one-minute intervals. Everyone seemed to be holding up fairly well in the early going, with some joking and chit-chat on the Discord channel, which I took as an invitation to ramp up the pace a little bit. At the halfway point we bumped it up to 3.8, and then notched it up further throughout the second half, until we were doing 4.2 on the last set of pulls before the final sprint to the line. I think everyone was hurting a bit by the end, although I don't think I achieved my goal of getting Dusty to regurgitate his dinner. Maybe next week.

We crossed the line with the whole team intact, in a time of 52:02, which currently has us in 28th place out of 160 teams in our division. Not our absolute best result, but pretty close, and I'm happy with the time and how well organized we were throughout the ride.

We'll be riding these TTT events through the winter on Thursday nights, and we're always looking for new team members, so keep an eye on the club calendar if you'd like to join us.

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/8/26 6:25 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:41:32 GMT

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 January 8 at 6:25 PM Eastern. The race is one lap of the Triple Flat Loops course in Watopia, for about 23 miles total. This is a long, very flat course, with just a few gentle climbs and descents along the way. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/YlJpSy9aVnYrcUUzWHhEWmgxcEpnbXAyVENPeWhSSHg4a3djTUJxN0cxbz0=)

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.

New Year's Day Ride - Zwift Edition

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 01:57:42 GMT

The traditional New Year's Day Temperature Ride has been scrapped this year due to the weather, so let's ride on Zwift instead! Join us at noon for a Zwift version of the Temperature Ride -- we'll check the temperature in Northampton at noon, and that's how many miles we'll ride. All riders welcome, social pace, no hammering.

Zwift event link: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/5320375

RWGPS event page: https://ridewithgps.com/events/438758-ncc-new-year-s-day-zwift-ride

Discord for voice/video chat: https://is.gd/nccdiscord

Happy New Year to all, and hope to see you tomorrow on Zwift!

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/18/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 03:06:27 GMT

Tonight marked the eighth and final night of our fall season riding in the WTRL Team Time Trial series. We marked the occasion with the largest team we've fielded all season -- Carson, Dusty, Jamie, Melissa, Michael, Shawn, and me.

The big team should have made for an easier workload, but the course tonight was very challenging -- two laps of the Tour of Tewit Well, which is basically all of the hillier parts of the Yorkshire course without any of the flatter downtown sections. The course has four significant climbs each lap, so we were always either going up or going down, which makes it super-hard to coordinate everyone's efforts.

With seven starters, the fourth rider across the line determines the finishing time, but my goal was to get the whole group of seven through at least one lap together. We just about made it, as everyone hung tough through all four of the climbs on the first lap, before Michael fell off just as we were cresting the last hill. Carson did a lot of work on the second lap, patrolling the back of the group and helping anyone who started to falter. Jamie finally slid off about halfway through the second lap, leaving a group of five to power through to the finish.

We finished all together with a time of 36:42, which currently has us in 16th place in our division out of 166 total teams, in the 10th percentile, which is by far our best finishing position of the season. Thanks to everyone for their hard work, tonight and throughout the season!

We're going to take the next couple of weeks off over the holidays, and then resume both the Tuesday night TT/HC series and this Thursday night TTT series the first week of January. Hope everyone has a great finish to their riding season, and we'll see you in the new year!

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/18/25 6:25 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:46:20 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday December 18 at 6:25 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the Tour of Tewit Well course in Yorkshire, for about 14 miles total. This is a challenging course, featuring one big climb per lap, along with continuous rolling hills the rest of the way. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/eWRac3lST3pFZC9VN3ZaOFh4RzR4ZTY1Wk9vUDJPUmhRUzIxUllNNDBTTT0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/11/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 02:12:23 GMT

Tonight's TTT took Melissa, Shawn, Dusty, and me to Watopia for the Coast to Coast route, starting in the southern coast and finishing with a quick climb and then a descent on Jarvis Island. The excuses started flying while we were still in the starting pen -- a volleyball game yesterday for Melissa, a six-mile run for Dusty. Don't these people know how to prep for a race by sitting on a couch and eating donuts??

Despite all the excuses, we set a fast pace out of the starting gate, trying to hold off a hard-charging Brazilian team behind us that was nipping at our heels for the whole race. Melissa was hurting by the halfway point, and pulled out of the rotation, but still put in a huge effort and managed to stay with us the rest of the way. Her effort turned out to be a lifesaver, because Dusty started sliding off the back on the lower slopes of the Jarvis climb. With a four-person team, the third rider over the line determines the finishing time, so we were very fortunate to still have Melissa with us at that point. Shawn put in a big pull over the top of the climb, I took over on the descent, and then we sprinted for the finish line.

We ended up finishing in 38:55, about one second ahead of the team behind us, and one second behind the team in front of us (which is why every second counts in a race like this). We're currently sitting in 29th place out of 183 teams with a few west coast teams still wrapping up, and the fastest overall of the 24 four-person teams in our category -- one of our best results of the year. Great work everyone!

We will race again next Thursday night (keep an eye on the website for the sign-up link), and then take a couple of weeks off during the holidays before resuming in January.

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/11/25 6:28 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:20:07 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday December 11 at 6:28 PM Eastern. The race is one lap of the Coast to Coast course in Watopia, for about 17 miles total. This is a long flat course through the southern coast, finishing with a moderate climb and descent on Jarvis Island. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/RHIrUTV5UWdlRm9NUmlnNUxsbTBiZ2UvYTFmd1NkMjZnU2ZsOFNSMHppZz0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/4/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 02:24:21 GMT

Tonight's race took us to Innsbruck for three laps of the Innsbruckring loop through the downtown area. The loop is mostly flat, but the sharp ascent up the "Legsnapper" hill, and the fast descent afterward, makes it challenging to keep a group together.

We had our biggest group of the season so far, with seven riders signed up. Steve had some registration issues and couldn't get into the race, so we started with our usual suspects of myself, Carson, Melissa, and Shawn, joined by Dusty and Jamie, both riding their first TTT of the season.

Having a team of six made for longer breaks between pulls compared to some of the races we've done in previous weeks with just three riders, but it still was a lot of work. The longer breaks are nice, but that means that everyone pulls a little harder, so you're working harder at the front during your pulls, and getting a little less recovery during the breaks.

I must have gone into oxygen debt right from the start, because by the time we got to the first hill, I totally scrambled the pull order, leaving everyone looking around wondering whose pull it was. Sorry about that, guys. We got it straightened out on the descent, and resumed a nice organized formation for the rest of the first lap.

The Legsnapper claimed its first victim on the second lap, as Jamie took a final big pull going into the hill, and then slid off the back, telling us to go on without him. We carried on with five after that, and decided to raise the pace slightly for the final lap. Melissa hung on up and over the final climb and then dropped back after the descent with about 2K to go. She did a great job with a strong solo TT effort the rest of the way as a backup for the four of us left on the front (the finishing time comes from the fourth rider over the line, so it's nice to have a Plan B when you're down to four, in case someone has mechanical or network problems). Carson, Shawn and me carried on with shorter pulls on the final run-in to the finish, pushing hard to try for a negative split on the final lap, which we got easily (12:35 on the final lap, compared to 13:06 and 13:07 on the first two).

We ended up with a finishing time of 39:28, which currently has us sitting in 40th place out of 171 teams in our division, which I'm very happy with. It was great to see some new riders -- looking forward to even more next week. Come join us!

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/4/25 6:28 PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 02:08:05 GMT

This week's race will be on Thursday December 4 at 6:28 PM Eastern. The race is 3 laps of the Innsbruckring course in Innsbruck, for about 17 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Z0VmSWgweC9ReWFwOHZ0QmN1ZGJhaktuM1FUYkNOeTVhc1d6ZTZNNitlUT0=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/20/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 03:19:52 GMT

Quick update on tonight's Zwift team time trial effort. Shawn, Melissa and I travelled to New York to take on the new Green to Screen route from Brooklyn to Times Square and back, through subway tunnels and back and forth across the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The subways were a particular challenge, with the escalators at the exits shooting Melissa up rapidly while Shawn and I struggled to keep up. But we made it work, and despite having only three riders, turned in a solid time of 42:15, good for a 55th place finish in our division out of a total of 193 teams, and finished with the fastest time of any of the three-person teams.

Next week is Thanksgiving, so we'll take that Thursday night off from racing, and resume on December 4. Please come and join us if you're looking for some Thursday night racing action!

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/20/25 6:15PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 22:36:59 GMT

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=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/13/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 02:16:53 GMT

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!

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/13/25 7:00PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 13:03:17 GMT

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=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/6/5

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:43:07 GMT

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!

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/6/25 6:00PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 03:07:03 GMT

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=)

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

Zwift Thursday TTT Ride Report - 10/30/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:41:55 GMT

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.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/25/2025 - Quabbin Loop

Tim Cary — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:48:12 GMT

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.

Zwift Thursday TTT - 10/30/25 6:10PM

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:53:15 GMT

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.

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.

Zwift Thursday TTT Ride Report - 10/23/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 02:10:04 GMT

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.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/18/2025 - Barkhamsted Riverton (CT) Loop Clockwise

Tim Cary — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 00:47:33 GMT

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.

Zwift Winter Thursday Nights - Team Time Trial

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:35:54 GMT

Our first week's race will be on Thursday October 23 at 7PM Eastern, on the Greater London 8 course in London. This is a challenging 15-mile course, featuring a downtown loop, a climb up Box Hill, a descent, and a finish back on the flat roads downtown. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Yk1lckh1Z2RZSFpkRWROdVZqSEZaeWNtVFkxTElCWVF6UmJWR012dE50ST0=)

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

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/11/2025 - East of the River

Tim Cary — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 16:34:45 GMT

(As told by Joe Lellman via e-mail)

We had five congenial, committed, consummate cyclists for today's SMR. I apologize for the lateness of my organizing of this event, and I'm sorry that Jaime, Frank, and Madeline (finally spelled it correctly!) weren't able to participate, for various reasons. We met at Pulaski Park at 10, and found Mayor Sciarra and a group of volunteers there, picking up trash. We had Tim Pitkin, Brent A., Shawn L., Wendy K., and me. We rolled out from the Park at 10:08, and headed through town to pick up the rail trail and cross over the river. We picked up Bay Rd and took it to Hulst Rd. Ultimately, we made the biggest climb of the day on Gulf Rd. Very scenic, with minimal traffic. Then, down to Rte 202, where we headed north and paused at the Pelham overlook (see enclosed photo). Traffic on 202 wasn't great with fast moving cars and a lot of drivers who hadn't gotten the memo about the Vulnerable Road Users Law. From there, we continued north and turned left on Prescott Rd, which was the second hill of the day. Gradients up to 12.5%, and quite a bit of 9 and 10 %. Then, down to Lake Wyola and down North Leverett Rd to Cave Hill Rd, which was our third hill. The pace was pretty steady throughout and the group worked well together. We made a quick pit stop at Cushman Market, then came home on Pine St, Knightly, and Rte 47. It was a really solid ride, and everyone seemed to like the route. I had 56.5 miles and just shy of 3,000 feet of elevation, and a little less than 3 and a half hours, from my home in Florence.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/4/2025 - Rowe - Jacksonville

Tim Cary — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 23:53:52 GMT

I really wanted to ride up to Greylock this Saturday. It has been sort of a tradition each fall to enjoy(?) an epic ride to, up and back down the highest elevation in Massachusetts. I had been “promoting” it for weeks and had many riders “very interested”. Well, when it came down to this past week trying to get some commitments, there were just not enough. Normally I just plan and post rides, and enjoy it no mater the number of riders that show up. But, with an epic route like Greylock- you really do need more than just two riders.

On Friday I decided to trash my route idea and attempt to rally riders into a very scenic, half the climbing and mileage, route up to Vermont. That worked.

I kept it a remote start from Shelburne Falls but moved up the start time to 9 AM since, well, it is warmer then, and we were not riding 100 miles.

On my way up to Shelburne Falls, I got a call from Madeline. Her car was dead. I was in the perfect place on I-91 to detour over to Hatfield center to pick her and her bike up. I am so glad this worked out so easily- I know that if I was not able to make it to a ride it sure would turn into a sad Saturday for me!

We arrived in Shelburne Falls a tad bit late, needing warm warmers for a little but for would turn to be clear skies and up to 80’s(F). It turns out that we were not the latest to arrive. When we got to McCusker’s, Wendy and Elissa were there….and Wendy had thought she was late! I had been expecting two others so we waited a bit, and at about 9:15 Frank drove up, he had missed the turn. So we waited for him, and it was well after 9:30 before we rolled out. Luckily, nobody had time constraints. A great group of five.

I made a decision to change the route slightly based on the bad *** riders that showed up. From our adventures riding this route counter-clockwise in July, I knew that there was a bridge replacement in Charlemont. My original route had us avoiding that by going 12 miles on Rte 2 to our turn up Zoar. I decided that I did not want to have all that traffic on Rte 2, and to have us hike around the bridge instead. Of course, it added the “Buckland Bumps” into the mix, which certainly woke up our climbing legs right away.

This was a good choice. Much quieter. We crossed Rte 2, bringing us to Zoar, and the start of the long climb into Rowe. This segment is nothing to sneeze at. It is a 7.44 mile, 1461′ gain to the Vermont border.There is not a lot to say here… it is quiet, beautiful (runs by Pelham Brook)- just amazing.

From there it was a slog up to the State Line- but certainly not hard on the eyes. I don’t think I had a single car pass me. The views to the east, west, and even north were incredible. The state line did not have a marker, except for perhaps a granite stone. I only knew we were in Vermont because my bike computer said so. This is my kind of riding.

It was not all down hill from the state line. There were some awesome descents, but some work do to on climbs. Again, the scenery did not hurt! The route purposely took us by Sadawaga Lake. But, Wendy, Frank & Madeline did not make the turn (ahem- two of the three had the route in their bike computers..). Well, Elissa and I enjoyed the lake view and huffed it up Town Hill Rd to the”top”… the rest of the crew eventually did pop out at the same place, via Poverty Row. At the top we took the usual group photo.

We enjoyed the fast (and again, beautiful) descent to VT 100 and the Jacksonville Country Store.

The County Store was way less stocked up than in July. Very little to choose from- but the baked goods were popular and sandwiches to order. We filled our bottles and bellies- by this time is was HOT. Like July all over again.

Downhill all the way home now? Um no- not on my rides. It was a very enjoyable pedal for a bit over a mile on a seemingly downward Rte 112. But wait- a ride I design is not done without some final pain. We turned up Rte 8A. Did I say UP? Yeah. At this point we were discussing that the mileage is low for a Saturday ride and that some don’t understand the effort in all the climbs. So– more miles or more elevation? What is your preference?

And then all that was left is the fast and fun descent down 8A to Adamsville Rd. I knew I had not done this in a long time, if at all. Turns out I did ride down this way back in 2013 on a much longer ride. Today, Frank was on the front a lot, and despite the head wind, he kept us moving and I really enjoyed sailing down this stretch of road. There was one small gravel section where the road was under construction, I was a bit concerned how fast Frank flew over it with his dry-rotted (!) front tire… but all was well.

Wendy turned off for home at Rte 112, and the remaining four of us pedaled back into Shelburne Falls. But that was not enough miles or climbing for me.

I proposed a loop up to Conway center to grab a metric century for the day. Frank and Elissa had enough of my crazy ideas, but Madeline was in, and so we headed up to Conway. Although I was feeling good- I did say ‘up’… that was fine. But, a section of the road was all gravel heading into the center of Conway. Amazingly in this section of horrible tar smell and gravel, we passed at least four other cyclists. One, with a flat. I almost called and audible and turned around… I really did not want a flat tire at this stage. I guess the amazingly part here is we did not get a flat. As we approached the center, there was a “detour”, which turned out to be an antique car show….it was pretty cool. We looped back to endure the hill again, and the awful road. The reward was a mostly “down” back to Shelburne Falls.

I ended the day with 65.8 miles and 4974′ of elevation. Great group, fun riding and best of the season scenery.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/27/2025 Peru

Tim Cary — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 19:39:26 GMT

Over the many years I have been leading NCC Saturday rides, a trip to Peru, MA has been sort of a tradition. I first led the NCC up to Peru ten years ago, and maybe even before that. There are many ways to get there and I have ridden many different routes to the center of Peru. This year, my fitness is pretty low, (aka, I am lazy/busy with other things) but I decided to lead the ride anyway, as several members asked if I’d be doing the Peru loop.

The weather has continued to be good to us- a beautiful Saturday morning in the upper 50’s (F), that was humid and warmed up to near 80 at the end with humidity like it is August. I admit that I did have my arm warmers on during my ride to Northampton.

Four other riders met me at the start- Madeline, Mike Y, Tim P, and Christian. A bit less than I had expected considering all the interest I had previous weeks. But this time of year is so busy filled with fall events, and that cyclo-cross thing!

My route choice this time was fairly simple, but hard to avoid those “numbered roads”. Previous trips to Peru have included dirt sections and some beautiful side roads.

Out of downtown Northampton it was all Rte 66— up, up, up more. We all stayed together for a little while, but as the grade increased, we spaced out, and regrouped at Outlook Farm. From there, there is a bit of a descent, but, not a lot of relief- up and up and up. We regrouped again at Allen Coit Rd- which is “the top”. From here, we enjoyed a fun and curvy descent down to Rte 112 in Huntington, where Christian left us to head back to Northampton. Now were four.

In Huntington, we stopped at the local variety store to top off liquids since the next opportunity would be well over two hours away.

And, just like that, it was time to climb the Skyline Trail. It starts off very hard. And really does not have any easy parts. I am not able to find any official history on how it got the name, but it is certainly an appropriate name because on both sides of the road in many places, you can see, well, the skyline!

The Skyline Trail has many Strava Segments. This one is mostly the whole thing, up to where we turn off for Peru (skipping Hinsdale). That is 15.31 miles, 2191 feet of ascent over an hour or so! My excuse for worst personal time is that the group stopped a couple of times to wait up (and thanks for that you strong riders!) for me. Usually we are all together or just regroup at the turn to Peru.

Our turn off of the Skyline Trail onto South St looped us around Peru State Forrest and up a final, very punishing climb into the center of Peru. Fun fact that I always mention: Peru is the highest incorporated town center in all of Massachusetts. From Wikipedia: Peru has the highest mean altitude in Massachusetts and, along with neighboring Windsor, is one of only two municipalities in the state with a mean elevation above 2,000 feet.

As aways, we took the obligatory Peru group photo.

To think is is all down hill from Peru to Northampton is silly. At least it feels good for a while. Heading east on Rte 143 was beautiful. Nice, smooth, fast. Until it wasn’t. I was a bad ride leader and did not check for construction.

Apparently, Rte 143 is undergoing a $16M improvement project- widening the road and improving drainage from the Peru line to Cold St in Worthington. The dirt section was wet and took out more watts from me than I expected. But, it could have been worse.

We stopped at the Four Corners Grocery in Worthington to top off bottles. And from there it was a lovely, fast descent east to West Chesterfield, where the fun abruptly ended, having to climb the wall after crossing the Westfield River. It was sunny and hot, and not too pleasant.

The rest of the crew waited patiently at the center of Chesterfield for me. Then we were off to our final climb of the day – up East St. Just before this starts to descend into Westhampton, we regrouped one last time, we said our goodbyes, as we all were going to scatter different routes at the bottom.

When I got home I had chalked up 75 miles and nearly 6000′ over five hours of moving time. Another awesome trip to Peru in the books.

A ride to Greylock is still on my mind for next weekend, starting in Shelburne Falls. However, I have not had too many solid “takers” on it. If you are more than a 50% please do comment below, or contact me directly so I get an idea of how many might come along to suffer.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/20/2025 Cosby Loop

Tim Cary — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 23:46:11 GMT

(As told by Joe Lellman via e-mail)

I sent an email about leading an SMR at the last minute, and Tim posted the ride to RWGPS. We met at 9:30 at JFK, with 6 total riders including me, Elissa F, Eric W, Mike Y, Mike H, and Noah, who is the boyfriend of Mike H's daughter Emma. I had a little time constraint, so planned a simple Cosby loop. The weather was perfect, as it has been the past few weeks.

Noah had some mechanical issues with Mike H's old bike which required a couple of unscheduled stops, but we made it into Shelburne Falls in pretty good time. At that point, several small factions formed: one that wanted to go longer by riding into Ashfield (Mike Y and Eric W), a faction that wanted to look at the flowers on the Bridge of Flowers (Mike H. and Noah), and Elissa and me, who wanted to get home lickety-split. Therefore, I can't report on the other riders from then on, but I can report on Elissa's and my ride home from Shelburne Falls.

Because Elissa knew that I needed to get home ASAP (to drive to Putney to watch Charlotte race the West Hill Cross), she went right to the front and DRILLED IT!! The only time she sat up was to take a gel, and as soon as she finished it she went right back to the front and towed me all the way home with an impressive turn of speed the entire time. I had a little difficulty holding her wheel, and Strava said that I PR'd one of the segments there. It was impressive. I ended up with 47.7 miles, 3 hours, and 3,110 feet of elevation. It was a very enjoyable morning.

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/13/2025- Northfield Gulf

Tim Cary — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 11:30:00 GMT

I decided on a route to pile on the miles, but keep the climbing at bay. A route to a “fun” climb in Northfield, which I discovered way back in 2013.

Seven other riders meet me at Pulaski Park in Northampton for a 9 AM start. The sky was cloudy and the temperature in the low 50’s.

The route out of town was quite standard, like an NCC Wednesday Night Ride- however, Hatfield is in the process of milling Main St- thanks to Madeline’s intel– we sped passed the usual Elm St overpass turn, and continued on Rte 5 to Chestnut St- which dumped us back onto River Rd past the construction.

We had a strong group of riders- including Mike Y and Frank S who both took long pulls. I was appreciative even though the wind had not yet kicked up.

Once we crossed Rte 116 to the north leg of River Rd, porta-potties were more plentiful than I have ever seen on a ride! Like, about every 3 miles.

From there, it was a relaxed, social pace along the Turners Falls canal.

Relaxation was short lived. We popped out at the bridge crossing the river, and headed up the climb to Gill Center. Gill has a cute center, but the scenery is epic. Northfield Mt. Hermon school is on the left, but on the right is the South Mountain Ridge (and others) just over the Connecticut River. Unfortunately, Elissa turned back here due to time constraints.

After Gill center Main road eventually hits Rte 10, where we navigated by the single lane construction of the bridge over the CT. River into Northfield Center. Here, we stopped at Mims’s store to refuel. Joe noted that we had as many bike brands as riders.

Now that we added weight, the “feature” of the day was just across the street. That would be the climb up Gulf. This one is hard. We were saying it is easier than Greylock. Not sure if my legs agree. Depending on where you want to put the segment… 2 miles and 7.5% average grade. I saw 18% on my computer. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic on this road, it appears it was a detour route for parts of Rte 2 or Rte 10/63. This thing just keeps going and going up. A very healthy climb.

We regrouped at the parking lot for the Brush Mountain trails and I was able to get a group photo.

There are rewards for the pain. From here, there was a wonderful descent into Irving center. On previous rides this area, we had stopped at the store at the bottom- the intersection with Rte 2. But, I noted it had changed hands into a restaurant, so that is why we fueled up in Northfield center.

A couple miles on the very busy Rte 2, we took a left over the Millers Falls River- with a kind of questionable bridge.

After a safe crossing, there is a little climb… this is Farley Rd. I love this area because there are few cars and it is parallel to the Millers River for a while. I don’t love that it is quite an ascent to Wendell.

In the center of Wendell I routed us down Montague Rd and then West St for a change. West St was freshly paved and proved to be a very fun and fast roll.

We passed Lake Wyola and continued down, down, and down N. Leverett Rd. Frank took the head on this stretch for a long time. I had forgotten how nice, and long, of a descent this was. We held a petty good clip down this, despite my Garmin telling me I was doing 10 MPH (tree cover, I guess).

Crossing Rte 63, and 47, I put us on lovely Montague back roads to hook us back onto the familiar Falls Rd and eventually Rte 47 in Sunderland.

I was cooked at this point and dreading the ride back on Rte 47. The wind had changed to “unfavorable for us suckers”, but wow. Mike Y and Frank S took some massive, long pulls to drag my tired butt back to Hadley. I put in all I could to hang on to their wheels. Once we turned onto Cemetery Rd I gave up and sat up.

We all split off to our various homeward trails along the bike path. I arrived in Northampton about 2:15. 17.3 MPH for the route- impressive and amazing group!

And about homeward trails... the sky had looked a bit threatening as we were rolling into Northampton. I got completely soaked on my ride back home to Easthampton in what amounted to a "very isolated 15 minute downpour".

End-of-Season Pizza Party - Wed, Sept 17

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 12:46:50 GMT

Join us for pizza and drinks to celebrate another fabulous group ride season. While this may mark the end of some outdoor club rides, keep an eye on the calendar for rides that will continue through the fall!

When: Wednesday, September 17th from 7:15-9pm

Where: Northampton Bicycle (319 Pleasant St)

Hopefully many members will hop on a club ride prior to gathering, but it's certainly not required. Come as you are, whether that's spandex, business casual, socks and sandals, or perhaps a tux.

RSVP here for pizza and drinks!

Week 25: Short Time Trial, 9/9/25

David Goodwin — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 01:40:41 GMT

We wrapped up the 2025 time trial and hillclimb series tonight and it was quite a finale! After having to yell at a stupid driver at the start who felt that getting around 9 riders waiting to start the time trial with almost 2 car widths to maneuver by us might have been a gross inconvenience, we all settled into a nice peddling rhythm against a mildish headwind.

No PRs tonight but here are the results:

1. Sam Veggeberg; Time: 21:54; 25.21 mph; 10 points

2. Frank Sleegers; Time: 22:49; 24.19 mph; 9 points

3. Andy MacDonald; Time: 23:32; 23.46 mph; 8 points

4. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 23:41; 23.31 mph; 7 points

5. Joe Lellman; Time: 24:01; 22.98 mph; 6 points

6. Melissa Warwick; Time: 24:40; 22.38 mph; 5 points

7. Tim Pitkin; Time: 25:10; 21.93 mph; 4 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 25:37; 21.55 mph; 3 points

9. Madeline Nagy; Time: 25:43; 21.46 mph; 2 points

10. Shawn Lakota; Time: 30:00; 18.4 mph; 1 points

Shawn flatted about a mile from the finish and asked that I give him a DNF but I instead just gave him a slow time. Hope you'll be okay with this, Shawn!

So the TT men's final standings could not have been any closer. Frank, in spite of spending the summer in Germany, took 1st with 60 points. 2nd was Andy with 59 points and 3rd was Jonathan with 58. WOW!

The TT women's final standings were a little more spread out. 1st was Madeline with 45 points, 2nd was Melissa with 39 points and 3rd was Alicia with 9 points.

The Overall men's top three were Andy in 1st with 155, Sam in 2nd with 136 and Jonathan in 3rd with 135.

The Overall women's top three were Madeline in 1st with 104, Melissa in 2nd with 95 and Phoebe in 3rd with 37.

Congrats to everyone who participated in any event this year. A special thanks to Jonathan for all his awesome background data machinations and for filling in during the three weeks that I was away.

Week 24: Skinner Mountain Hillclimb, 9/2/25

David Goodwin — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 01:21:04 GMT

In the final hillclimb of our 2025 series, we had 11 riders tackle this beautiful climb on an absolutely beautiful evening. There were 9 riders for the 5:30 mass start and 2 riders at another time. Surprisingly, the fastest time of the night was from someone who has done a few of these this year, but never reported his time to me. Beau Guenther posted a Strava time of 8:42 which put him in first over our winner Ryan by almost a minute. YIKES!

Today's official results are as follows:

1. Ryan Davis; Time: 9:35; 11.83 mph; 12 points

2. Garret Theberg; Time: 10:27; 10.85 mph; 11 points

3. Sam Veggeberg; Time: 10:59; 10.32 mph; 10 points

4. Nick Davis; Time: 12:13; 9.28 mph; 9 points

5. Andy MacDonald; Time: 12:23; 9.16 mph; 8 points

6. David Goodwin; Time: 13:08; 8.63 mph; 7 points

7. Shawn Lakota; Time: 13:40; 8.3 mph; 6 points

8. Madeline Nagy; Time: 13:49; 8.21 mph; 5 points

9. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 14:05; 8.05 mph; 4 points

10. Tim Pitkin; Time: 14:17; 7.94 mph; 3 points

11. Frank Sleegers; Time: 15:38; 7.25 mph; 2 points

12. Joe Lellman; Time: 16:08; 7.03 mph; 1 points

There were two PRs tonight - Shawn by 1:05 and Garret by 0:31.

The final Hillclimb podium looks like this:

Men - Sam with 115 points, Ryan with 114 (!!!) and Andy with 96.

Women - Madeline with 59 points, Melissa with 56 and Phoebe with 37.

Thanks to all who participated this year.

Next week is the Short Time Trial and is the last race of the series.

Week 23: Deerfield Time Trial, 8/26/25

David Goodwin — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 01:27:11 GMT

Except for one (okay, maybe 2) outlier(s), times for the "Race of Truth" tonight were unusually tight, only 2 minutes separated 2nd from 10th. We had a pretty respectable tailwind heading north to the McClellan Farm Road turnaround point (and one fairly slow moving tractor that all of us needed to get around). The headwind on the way back was as expected.

However, Chas Mathers did the TT at some other time today and, as he has in the past, blew the time standard deviation out the window. Frank S, just back from basking in Germany all summer, returned to clock a great time for second. Madeline and I traded attacks on the return trip and passed each other more times than I can accurately remember.

No PRs tonight. However, the men's TT leaderboard sees a three way tie between Frank, Jonathan and Andy (51 points) and will be decided in two weeks at the short TT. The women's leaderboard is pretty much wrapped up with Madeline amassing 43 points to Melissa's 34.

In the Overall men's race, Andy has a decent lock on first with 139 points with Jonathan a distant 124. In the women's race, Madeline also is sitting pretty with 97 points to Melissa's 90.

Here are today's results:

1. Charles Mathers; Time: 30:03; 25.16 mph; 11 points

2. Frank Sleegers; Time: 33:10; 22.79 mph; 10 points

3. Andy MacDonald; Time: 33:22; 22.66 mph; 9 points

4. Shawn Lakota; Time: 33:59; 22.25 mph; 8 points

5. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 34:05; 22.18 mph; 7 points

6. Madeline Nagy; Time: 34:43; 21.78 mph; 6 points

7. Richard McWalter; Time: 34:45; 21.76 mph; 5 points

8. Melissa Warwick; Time: 34:57; 21.63 mph; 4 points

9. Joe Lellman; Time: 35:12; 21.48 mph; 3 points

10. David Goodwin; Time: 35:23; 21.37 mph; 2 points

11. Roberto Ludovico; Time: 38:42; 19.53 mph; 1 points

Next week is the last hillclimb of the series and is the short but sweet Skinner Mountain climb.

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/25/25 - Northampton Ice Cream Social Season Finale

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 01:41:15 GMT

Winter is coming, the dark is rising, the seasons are turning, and the 2025 Monday Night Intro Ride season comes to an end tonight. But not before we eat a bunch of ice cream!

I threw a wrench in our normally orderly progression of ride routes tonight by altering our Northampton loop to include a season-ending ice cream stop. This had a bunch of cascading consequences that I had not really anticipated:

On unfamiliar roads west of downtown NoHo, a sudden stop caught Tony by surprise and dropped him to the pavement. "Just a flesh wound", he literally cried, and rallied onward.
A couple of big hills westbound on Route 66 were too much for Beth, and she pulled the plug and decided to turn around and return on her own.
My slowing down to ride with Beth broke the group apart, and they disappeared up the road ahead of me. "Turn left on Old Wilson", I shouted, but it was far too late.
Old Wilson -- turn left or continue on? I think Shelby had the route in her computer, maybe she turned them left? Or maybe they all missed the turn and went straight?
I'm gonna go left on Old Wilson. And continue on to the ice cream place. Maybe they stopped there.
They didn't.
OK, retrace my steps. Maybe they're still circulating somewhere between here and Route 66. This seems increasingly unlikely, but it's all I've got at this point.
They're here! At the intersection of Old Wilson and Florence Rd. Angels sang!

Now we're back on track. We proceed onward to Sips & Scoops in Easthampton, which has the most patient ice cream server in New England, as we overwhelm her with nine simultaneous orders.

I go first, and order a "medium" cone. This is a mistake. I wish I had a picture, but it is simply not possible to extract my phone from my jersey pocket while balancing this ridiculous tower of ice cream in my other hand.

The others in our group take notice, and the rest of the orders are "small" and "kids" and "baby-size". Some struggle with those as well.

Suffice it to say that Sips & Scoops offers an outstanding value proposition, and their ice cream is excellent as well (I heartily recommend the chocolate chip cookie dough). I'd link to them, but it looks like they just opened this summer and don't have a website yet, so you can find them on Google here.

We spent kind of a long time at S&S, so I had to alter the plans for the rest of our ride to get us home before dark. Tony had another little crash on the Old Wilson floodplain, without any visible injuries. We continued on through downtown Northampton, where the group did an excellent job safely navigating through traffic lights and pedestrian crosswalks and parked cars, arriving back at Sheldon Field at around 7:15 PM.

Thanks to everyone for a super-fun intro ride season!

Week 22: Northampton to Huntington Route 66 Hillclimb, 8/19/25

David Goodwin — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:20:24 GMT

After some pretty nasty weather while I was away the last three Tuesdays, I was happy to see a very pleasant night for a hillclimb. This resulted in a good turnout of 14 riders.

Thanks so much to Jonathan OK for doing a spectacular job of running these events in my absence. I tried to talk him into taking over the reporting duties while we were at the starting line tonight but he wasn't buying it. I even tried extreme flattery.

There were a whopping 6 PRs tonight - Luke by 3:04, Garret by 1:06, Ryan by 0:56, Richard and Shawn by 0:27 and Mitch by 0:10. Up until yesterday, I liked to tell anyone that would indulge me that I don't like to use my age to make excuses. Since yesterday was my big 70 and since I came in last place and was off my PR by 4:50, that all changes from this point onward!

Sam stays atop the men's hillclimb leaderboard (with Ryan a mere 3 points behind) while Melissa maintains a slim 2 point edge over Madeline. In the Overall men's series, Andy holds a substantial 21 point lead over second place while the women's competition is flipped - Madeline with a 5 point lead over Melissa. There are only 2 time trials and 1 hillclimb left in the season so it's probably going to come down to the wire.

Here are tonight's results:

1. Beau Guenther; Time: 18:30; 18.78 mph; 14 points

2. Ryan Davis; Time: 18:52; 18.41 mph; 13 points

3. Nicolas Amato; Time: 18:54; 18.38 mph; 12 points

4. Luke Sedor-Protti; Time: 19:00; 18.28 mph; 11 points

5. Garret Theberg; Time: 20:46; 16.73 mph; 10 points

6. Mitch Graves; Time: 21:09; 16.43 mph; 9 points

7. Louis Cote; Time: 22:09; 15.68 mph; 8 points

8. Richard McWalter; Time: 22:40; 15.33 mph; 7 points

9. Andy MacDonald; Time: 23:06; 15.04 mph; 6 points

10. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 23:36; 14.72 mph; 5 points

11. Madeline Nagy; Time: 23:38; 14.7 mph; 4 points

12. Melissa Warwick; Time: 24:09; 14.39 mph; 3 points

13. Shawn Lakota; Time: 25:08; 13.82 mph; 2 points

14. David Goodwin; Time: 26:52; 12.93 mph; 1 points

Next Tuesday is the Deerfield time trial.

Member Profile: Justin Eichenlaub

Charlotte Lellman — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 23:53:29 GMT

Justin Eichenlaub

Pronouns: he/him

Age: 43

Town: Easthampton

NCC Member Since: 2018

Justin: The History

Where are you from?

Erie, PA

How did you first get into cycling?

Riding bikes from an early age in the City of Erie where I grew up thanks to my parents getting me started and teaching me how to ride. My house was on a gravel alleyway, which I loved, and the alley ran for several blocks. We ran alley races when I was young, stationing kids at each street crossing, so the racer wouldn’t have to stop and look for cars.

Why did you join NCC?

To be a part of the recreational and competitive cycling community here in the Valley. And to work with NCC on a new cyclocross event, NCC Hydra Cross, which we first launched in 2019.

What type of riding do you do?

All kinds–from around town utility cycling, to community, to training and racing bikes.

You’ve been putting on NCC’s Hydra Cross race in Holyoke for six years now. How did you get started with that?

There’s so much cyclocross in Western Mass now (check out @rivervalleycx) but six or seven years ago there wasn’t so much–there was demand for more local races. Hydra Cross started with the desire to create a new race closer to home for our friends and community. Mike Marques (my co-promoter) and I had got into racing cross together in Hartford years before and decided to put our own event together in Holyoke.

What do you want people to know about the event?

Hydra Cross is such a special, grassroots event. The vibe is positive and supportive and welcoming. People really love our race and are always surprised by how fun (and hilly!) the course is. The City of Holyoke and its Parks and Rec Department have always been so welcoming and supportive of this event. If you haven’t been before, come on out and see for yourself this year!

What cycling accomplishments mean the most to you?

Helping others get into the sport has meant the most to me. I’ve had the opportunity to do that through our race and intro clinic, by helping organize skills clinics through the club, and in coaching others at humanisticcoaching.com. I really love using what I’ve learned to help others pursue their goals on the bike.

Justin’s Favorites

What’s your favorite place to ride?

Easthampton’s mountain bike trails are in my backyard and are often hard to beat. I’ve grown to love Sawmill as well, and my favorite road loop is up to Conway and back.

Favorite ride snack?

1:1 glucose:fructose drink mix lol….no hmmm twizzlers

Favorite piece of cycling gear?

USWE hydration pack

What is your favorite NCC group ride or event?

Wednesday Night Ride

What do you want people to know about the event?

Mr. Inbetween

Who is your favorite professional cyclist?

Evie Richards

Justin Off the Bike

What do you do when not on your bike?

I teach English and research classes at a public high school in Springfield

What do you do for fun?

Spend time with my daughter and family

What is your favorite spot in the River Valley?

Mt. Tom

What’s next for Justin?

What cycling goals do you have for the upcoming year?

I’ve been focused on competing in the Race Day XC series this year, which has been fun.

What’s on your cycling bucket list?

Always more mountain biking, and a mountain bike stage race some day

What are your hopes for NCC/the cycling community in the River Valley?

To continue growing the sport among youth and adult riders

How can people connect with you?

Email: eichenlaub@gmail.com

Hydra Cross: bikereg.com/hydracross

Humanistic Coaching website

Humanistic Coaching Instagram

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/18/25 - Hadley

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 01:52:57 GMT

Six of our Monday-night "regulars" joined me tonight on a gorgeous late-summer evening, with just a hint of fall crispness in the air. Adam, Beth, James, Jerome, Shelby, and Tony have been around the block a few times, so we skipped over the usual pre-ride road instructions, and instead spent some time talking about nutrition and hydration, along with emphasizing the importance of signing up for rides on the RideWithGPS Events Page (it helps the ride leader plan on who is coming, and it helps with getting in touch with people if anything goes wrong during the ride).

With all of that out of the way, we hit the road, rolling over the bike path bridge into Hadley, where we soon encountered a powered paraglider soaring overhead, a cool sight.

Further up Route 47, after hearing that Beth and James were preparing for next weekend's D2R2, I decided to give them a taste of dirt by taking a brief detour on Shattuck Road through Russelville. This featured some great farm scenery and a couple of nice tobacco barns, but I don't think Shelby approved of the dirt.

After rolling south on Maple Street, we tackled the short but steep climb on Breckinridge Road, where several PRs were set, including Shelby beating her best time on the climb by 15 seconds -- great work! We enjoyed the descent down to Rocky Hill Road, and then headed back to the start on the bike path, stopping for a quick photo op on the bridge.

We finished up back at Sheldon Field at about 7:05 PM with 17 miles, averaging about 12.5 mph.

Next week will be our last Monday night ride of the summer -- hope to see you there!

Monday morning C ride

justine McCarthy — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 17:59:04 GMT

5 riders today, Justine, Jaime Davila, Jim B, Jonathan Wallender and Kent Johnson. We rode 40 miles and 1,000 feet of climbing from Keyes street in Florence to Old Deerfield, (where Jim had never been), and back. We took a break at the Deerfield convenience store:(really nice proprietor) and discussed the pros and cons of various protein bars ( scintillating!)

Jim B lives in Alexandria VA and is visiting his parents in West Springfield. He googled local riding clubs and found NCC!! He is also skilled at taking pictures from a moving bicycle ( I dont recommend this - but he got some good ones!). the weather was amazing, fresh, sunny, 70 degrees, and though there was a head wind going out, we had a light tailwind the whole way home. Fast pace for this C ride, averaging 15.1 mph with lots of teamwork!

belated 8/11 monday morning C ride report

justine McCarthy — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:59:50 GMT

Just Tim and I rode Monday morning, a fun, relatively fast ride, 35 miles of 'Meandering Monday', averaging 14.8 mph with ~2,000 ft of climbing. Tim pulled essentially the whole way--he's stronger, and had fresher legs-- so I 'let' him.!

We had a quick stop at Outlook Farm at 20 miles, having completed most of our climbing and were back home before 11 am, beating the heat of the day. ( Tim rode further having come from home to the Keyes street meeting spot)

Long Time Trial Results - 8/12/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:32:09 GMT

Maybe it was the hot weather, maybe it was busy August schedules, or maybe nobody just likes doing the long TT, but we had very light turnout for tonight's race in Hatfield/Whately. Melissa, Shawn, and I were the only ones at the start. We rolled north with the benefit of a light tailwind, which felt like a bit of a stronger headwind after the turnaround. Melissa had to contend with a couple of strange vehicle interactions, and everyone reported feeling sapped on the return leg.

Despite the heat, Shawn managed to beat his previous best time by 13 seconds, and edged me out by a couple of seconds to take the win. Madeline and Tim rode earlier in the day, when it was even hotter, and Tim managed to turn in an impressive PR, taking 1:20 off his best time.

Despite being out of town and not racing tonight, Andy retains the men's lead in the overall series, and Madeline maintains a slight edge over Melissa on the women's side. I have somehow managed to sneak into the lead in the TT series, a situation that won't last long once Andy and Frank get back, and Madeline also leads Melissa in the women's TT standings.

Next week is the Route 66 hillclimb, going up to the Huntington town line. Hope to see you there!

Full series results are available here.

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/11/25 - Easthampton

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 01:32:15 GMT

We had four riders turn up tonight, with Beth & James, another Beth, and Stephanie joining Ari and me for our Easthampton loop on a lovely evening. We rolled through the bike path to Easthampton, appreciating the brush-clearing effort that has beaten back most of the vegetation that has been threatening to engulf the path for the last few weeks.

After a quick climb on Glendale Rd, we also enjoyed the nice fresh pavement and gradual descent on Pomeroy Meadow Rd, before turning onto Park Hill Rd for the climb up to the orchard. Beth was struggling with the heat by that point, and we had to take a bit of a break. The folks at Park Hill were super-friendly, with water and offers to assist. Mike, one of the artists from Art in the Orchard, was also on hand with a pickup truck, offering a ride. Eventually we decided to take him up on his offer, so we loaded up Beth's and my bikes into the truck for the ride back down to NoHo, while Ari continued with the rest of the group.

We all arrived back at Sheldon Field at around the same time, with Beth feeling better by that point. We didn't manage to take a group photo, so I'll leave you with a lovely shot of Mike Perusse's installation at the 2023 Art in the Orchard, called "Bird Show". He has an installation at this year's show as well, so be sure to check it out -- the 2025 Art in the Orchard opens this weekend, and runs through Thanksgiving (more info here). Thanks for your help, Mike!

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 08-09-2025

Tim Cary — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:04:06 GMT

Joe Lellman designed and led this week's SMR B ride. This new NCC website is a bit of a challenge to navigate, so I am posting Joe's report he sent out via email below, and I am adding a couple of photos I took along the way. (I loved the route and especially enjoyed the new climb up Bush Rd.)

We had glorious weather for this demanding Hilltown SMR loop. We began the ride at JFK, which worked out very well in general, and for me in particular, as I live just about 1 mile from there. Since we were heading west, we avoided downtown roads and traffic.

We had nine riders at the start, including: Wendy K., Tim C, Madelyn N., Michael B, John and Robert Whalen (in their flashy Sleepy Hollow kit), yours truly, Shawn L., and a guy named Luca, who left the group during the climb on 143 to Chesterfield.

We took South St to Burgy, then the 143 climb to Chesterfield. We continued down to the bottom of the Gorge, and up 143 to Worthington. We stopped at the General Store there to refuel, and where Shawn changed a flat tire. Then, continued north on 143 to Rte 9. Left in Cummington and eventually Bush Rd and West Rd, which was a nice, rolling climb with minimal car traffic and lots of shade. None of us had ever been on this road before, so I suggested re-naming it Lellman Lane. From there, we climbed up 116 to Plainfield, then down 116 to 112. The two Whalen triplets continued on 116 from there, and we took Steady Lane and Creamery in Ashfield, then Ashfield Rd back to Burgy. Home on South St and Audubon. I had 58.5 miles, and 4,648 feet of elevation, and a ride time of 3:52:14. It was good.

Pelham Hillclimb Results - 8/5/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 01:03:42 GMT

On a smoky, hazy night, ten of us gathered in the center of Pelham to tackle tonight's hillclimb. Ryan likened the atmosphere to a smoker's lounge, and with all the haze from the Canadian wildfires, it almost felt that way.

Given the poor air quality, we made a consensus decision to just ride easy up the hill, and then have a sprint finish at the top.

Just kidding. Instead, Shawn decided to launch an attack right off the starting line, and opened up a big gap on the group. Which suprised me, because normally Ryan would chase down an attack like that, but he had a lot of trouble clipping in, and was still pedaling with one leg about thirty seconds into the race. Which surprised me, because normally Andy is the one who has trouble clipping in, but he seemed to do OK with it tonight.

Anyway, Ryan eventually managed to get his pedals straightened out (I guess -- or maybe he just rode the whole thing with one leg), and disappeared up the road ahead of me. Most of the rest of the group managed to catch Shawn on the early part of the climb, only to have him go rocketing by again on the flatter middle section. There were some close finishes up near the front of the group, but I didn't see any of it, as I was trying to cling to Melissa's wheel and failing to come around past her at the finish.

We crossed paths with Andy R near the bottom of the hill, he must have just missed the start, and rode up solo, which is always challenging. Tim also did a solo run earlier in the day, hopefully the air quality was better for him.

Garret had the night's only PR, by eight seconds. Sam remains in the lead in the men's hillclimb series, while Melissa clings to a narrow lead over Madeline on the women's side. In the overall series, Andy remains on top of the men's standings, and it's Madeline who is just slightly ahead of Melissa for the women.

Tonight's results:

Full series results are available here.

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/4/25 - Hatfield

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:55:18 GMT

We had a great group of ten tonight for our Hatfield loop -- Susan, Sheri, Clarisa, Carl, Adam and Steve joined newcomers Stephanie and Beth, along with me and Ari. Steve had a bit of trouble with his seatpost at the north end of Industrial Drive, but Carl and Clarisa once again came to the rescue with the tools he needed. After that it was smooth sailing through the backroads of Hatfield, although the smoky haze from the Canadian wildfires obscured the views a bit. We rolled back into Sheldon Field around 7:15 PM with 17 miles at an average pace of around 12 mph.

Our Monday Night Intro Ride series will continue for three more weeks, through the end of August. Next week we'll do the Easthampton loop -- hope you'll join us!

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 08-02-2025

Tim Cary — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:15:49 GMT

For a third week in a row, I volunteered to lead the SMR B as Austin has been recovering from an injury.

I was thrilled to see that Saturday’s weather was finally going to be a break from the 100 degree temperatures and saturating humidity. I chose a route heading north up to Bernardston and Lyden, with the main event climbing the Eden Trail, which I have ridden and lead rides up there several times.

At home, as I was kitting up, it was 51 degrees (F) at 7:30 AM. It felt cold! I tried not to complain, given the aforementioned 100 degrees. I was fussing over putting on arm warmers or a windbreaker. I settled with a windbreaker- which I think was the right choice for the ride into Northampton. Once I arrived at Pulaski Park, the air had warmed, and so had I. It was a bit of a pain to carry the windbreaker with me all day. Sort of wished I had toughed it out from home.

Nine riders gathered to take on my route. It was sunny, clear, and definitely a top 10 weather day for the cycling season. About half the group were regulars this season, but the other half, I have not seen in quite some time, so it was great to have this mix in the group.

We had a good steady paceline on River Rd until we crossed over in Sunderland, where it broke up a bit with the risers and drops.

The Deerfield end of the bikepath led us by the Turners Falls canal and up to the Connecticut river. A short climb into Gill found us on some nice side roads, including Hoe Shop Rd- which has a short dirt section- very well maintained.

Once in Bernardston, we turned onto the main feature of the day, the Eden Trail Climb. This is about 3.5 miles over 750 feet in elevation. Takes you by beautiful farms and views into Lyden. When we thought we were done, nope, a left turn took us up one more sharp climb- Frizzle Hill, with a beautiful view at the top.

The descent down Frizzle, was a bit "frizzling" for me, at least. Cross winds and deep dish aero wheels are not a great combo. At the bottom we met up with Eric W, who intended to ride with us, but did the route in the other direction. We debated which direction was better and parted ways. (my vote gets Eden Up, Frizze down!)

From there it was mostly downhill- we turned off to cross the covered bridge over the Green river and paused for a photo op.

From here, it was off to a quick stop at Harper's store to refuel, and then "the home stretch". Except, the road was closed on my planned return leg in Greenfield. So I used my brain (no electronics) to get us back on track- no choice but having to weave in rotary traffic, and ended up taking Upper Rd instead of Lower Rd.

As you may know, I don't take the easy way home! Instead of heading through Deerfield and the "flats"- we went home via Whatley and the climbs into Haydenville, complete with the final climb up N. Farms Road to make it an honest day on the bike.

We rolled into Florence a bit later than I planned (1 PM), with 67 miles, 3383' and 16.3 MPH average for the route.

Short TT Results - 7/29/25

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 01:47:11 GMT

With the temperature hovering at around a million degrees, we had six hardy souls who showed up for the start of the Short TT this evening. While we huddled in the shade of the one tree on Sugarloaf St at the start, we got to hear about Madeline's exploits this past weekend, whereby she set a *16 minute* PR in the grueling Sea to Summit Triathlon. She swam 1.6 miles on the Maine coast, rode her bike 95 miles to Mount Washington (with 6,000' of climbing along the way), and then hiked/ran another five miles to the summit (gaining another 4,300'). "It was OK", she said, with her characteristic modesty, not mentioning the fact that she finished second in her age group and seventh female overall. (Another shout-out to fellow NCC triathlete Alicia Wendowloski, who also scored a top-ten AG finish).

(Also, after racing across Maine and New Hampshire and climbing the highest mountain in New England, Madeline sprained her ankle this morning while walking her dog, and still managed to show up for tonight's race. How was your ankle, she was asked after the race. "It was OK".)

In the "managing adversity" category, Shawn also gets a shout-out. He started 30 seconds behind me, and I kept wondering why he hadn't passed me yet. Turns out he flatted in downtown Hatfield, his second TT incident in the past few weeks, after crashing in Deerfield in June. He patched it up and managed to finish though, big kudos.

The biggest kudos of the night, though, go to Tim, who rode the TT earlier at probably the hottest point of the day. "I was feeling a bit dizzy" afterward, he said, due to the heat, and so he decided to show up at the group ride finish with a cooler full of ice-cold drinks. The cold water and ice packs felt like manna from heaven on this steamy night. Thanks Tim, you win this year's Nobel Refreshment Prize!

Tonight's results:

Place	Name	Time	Points
1	Charles Mathers	20:20	8
2	Patrick Sullivan	21:08	7
3	Jonathan O'Keeffe	22:30	6
4	Andy MacDonald	22:36	5
5	Madeline Nagy	23:52	4
6	Joe Lellman	25:22	3
7	Tim Pitkin	25:45	2
8	Shawn Lakota	26:45	1

Full season results are here: https://www.nohobikeclub.org/Time-Trial/Hill-Climb-Series

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 7/28/25 - Northampton

JONATHAN O'Keeffe — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 01:59:18 GMT

We scored another beautiful night tonight for the second week in a row, perhaps the first time this season that we've managed to string together two weeks of good weather. Adam, Beth, Sheri, Susan, and Carl & Clarisa joined Ari and me for our Northampton loop. This route is 16.5 miles, featuring a decent-sized initial climb on Burt's Pit Rd, followed by some rollers on Sylvester Rd, and then a long gradual descent on the bike path to the finish. Susan was celebrating her birthday, and Mark & Sheri brought a dozen fabulous cupcakes to share with the group at the finish -- a great way to wrap up the ride!

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 07-26-2025

Tim Cary — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 03:01:27 GMT

I stepped up to lead another Northampton Cycling Club Saturday B ride this weekend. The usual leader is recovering from an injury and I was in town, so why not! A benefit of being a ride leader is choosing a course to fit your own wishes. I chose a route with less climbing and mileage than typical for SMR B’s- but one with plenty of short climbs and scenery.

We were lucky enough to have another Saturday free from rain, and a break from the oppressive humidity. Ten riders met me as the usual spot in downtown Northampton under hazy skies due to new Canadian wildfires.

We rolled out eastbound on Main St and across the Coolidge Bridge, hanging a right on to Bay Rd. And it was all Bay Rd for quite some time. As many locals know, Bay Rd varies between flat, a punchy climb, and a section of horrible pavement to welcome you to Amherst. The group stayed mostly together. Some gaps on the small risers, but quick regroups.

I did a quick hydration check with everyone before the turn off Bay Rd- as the next stop would be at mile 38- quite a bit longer. All good, so we turned up Allen Rd- which is a sharp climb and really not pleasant! The road crosses Rte 9 and then Rte 202, at that point much quieter.

Now we enter the core = the best part of the ride!

I’ve ridden this route before, but most often the other way. I intentionally routed us “backwards” this time. It is so much fun to experience a route the other way around. I don’t get over to this part of Western Mass very often- being it “on the other side of the river”. These roads were quiet and stunningly beautiful. Farms, fields, epic views.

After a quick jaunt on Rte 9, past Windsor Dam of the Quabbin, we turned on to River Rd. Yet another beautiful country road.

I guess I enjoyed these roads so much, I keep saying how nice they are.

A bunch of turns eventually got us to the “main event”, which is the climb up Rockrimmon. I’ve ridden both sides of this. Today’s ascent (this side) is much easier (IMO!) than the other side. It is a gentler climb. But that did not mean I wasn’t getting dropped by the strong riders!

The reward for this fun (?) climb was the epic/fun/screaming descent back down. Clean pavement, clear sight lines, soft corners… perfect. It was enjoyed by all.

We stopped at Cumberland in Granby for fuel and hydration. It was nice to go in the Air Conditioning for a bit.

The way home was through the Mt. Holyoke College campus, South Hadley. My original route had us going down Pearl St (another great road!)- but, big thanks to Johnathan O’ giving me a heads up that the bridge is out on that road. I considered having us do a hike-a-bike across (I have a reputation for bridge out routes)- but given last week we had one- I decided to route us through South Hadley center and Rte 47 back home.

Rte 47 is not all downhill home. There is a climb up out of Bachelor Brook, and again at the town line. We had some breaks in the paceline, but it was pretty rapid once we got past the Skinner State Park entrance road. We did regroup and headed across Rte 9 and scattered our separate ways at the bike path.

For the route, I logged 52 miles, 16.7 MPH as I arrived in Northampton about 11:30.

Week 18: Williamsburg to Chesterfield Route 143 Hillclimb, 7/22/25

David Goodwin — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 01:31:12 GMT

It was a much deserved perfect weather night for a change. We had 13 riders at the 5:30 start and 2 others that had done the hillclimb earlier in the day.

There were 3 newcomers (Nicolas, Owen and Jeremy) and one sort-of newcomer (Ellen) who came out to race this evening. Perhaps it was the lure of food and beverages that awaited us at the top courtesy of the Chesterfield General Store (thanks folks - this is a first!).

The only PR tonight was Sam by 13 seconds. He remains atop the hillclimb men's leaderboard while Melissa stands on the women's top step. Overall men's leader is Andy while Melissa is also the women's overall leader.

Here are today's results:

1. Nicolas Amato; Time: 20:01; 17.69 mph; 15 points

2. Sam Veggeberg; Time: 21:19; 16.61 mph; 14 points

3. Owen Ryerson; Time: 21:45; 16.28 mph; 13 points

4. Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin; Time: 22:30; 15.73 mph; 12 points

5. Thom Barry; Time: 23:27; 15.1 mph; 11 points

6. Andy MacDonald; Time: 23:52; 14.83 mph; 10 points

7. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 24:40; 14.35 mph; 9 points

8. Melissa Warwick; Time: 24:58; 14.18 mph; 8 points

9. Madeline Nagy; Time: 25:19; 13.98 mph; 7 points

10. Shawn Lakota; Time: 25:29; 13.89 mph; 6 points

11. David Goodwin; Time: 26:13; 13.5 mph; 5 points

12. Tim Pitkin; Time: 27:55; 12.68 mph; 4 points

13. Joe Lellman; Time: 28:41; 12.34 mph; 3 points

14. Cindy White; Time: 28:58; 12.22 mph; 2 points

15. Ellen Noble; Time: 32:44; 10.81 mph; 1 points

Next week is the short time trial. I will miss the next 3 weeks so please report any times to Jonathan (if you send it to me, I will make sure that he gets it).

Week 17: Deerfield Time Trial, 7/15/25

David Goodwin — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 14:54:35 GMT

Another scorcher but we had 9 hearty individuals show up for this time trial. Charles (looking like a white, modern era Major Taylor) laid it down big time. Shawn exorcised his demons from the last time and took the second step of the podium. Andy, in his usual show of forced, came in third.

Shawn managed to improve his PR by 3:18 while Brent improved by 56 seconds.

Frank manages to hold on to the top spot on the men's TT leaderboard in spite of being away this summer. Impressive! The women's leaderboard is still supertight - Madeline leads Melissa by a mere point.

The overall men's lead remains Andy while Melissa has a narrow 2 point lead over Madeline.

Here are the results:

1. Charles Mathers; Time: 30:24; 24.87 mph; 9 points

2. Shawn Lakota; Time: 33:29; 22.58 mph; 8 points

3. Andy MacDonald; Time: 33:45; 22.4 mph; 7 points

4. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 34:01; 22.22 mph; 6 points

5. Melissa Warwick; Time: 35:03; 21.57 mph; 5 points

6. Madeline Nagy; Time: 35:07; 21.53 mph; 4 points

7. David Goodwin; Time: 35:59; 21.01 mph; 3 points

8. Brent Auerbach; Time: 37:14; 20.3 mph; 2 points

9. Tim Pitkin; Time: 39:06; 19.34 mph; 1 points

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 07-19-2025

Tim Cary — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 20:53:06 GMT

I stepped in as ride leader this week and chose a remote start from Shelburne Falls. Dusty provided a great route idea to take us up to Vermont and then return through beautiful Rowe.

We had 9 riders roll out and took the classic route up Adamsville Rd. It was high energy to start out- with a rapid pace in the 20's.

Then the climbs, of course. But well worth it, as eventually there is the fun descent on Rte 8a to Rte 112. At the bottom, instead of heading home, we took the left up to the Jacksonville store for water and refreshments.

Leaving the store was not pleasant because of the 17% grade climb! But I suppose it was worth it. Some new to me roads, quiet and beautiful.

Climbing up to the MA state line / Rowe was not awesome, but again, the quiet and scenery made it worth it.

Our way back home was down through Zoar and then Charlemont's S. River Road. And guess what? Tim's ride had a closed bridge again!

We did get past it (via the train tracks!) and then were punished with the two last climbs into Buckland.

I rolled into Shelburne Falls about 1 PM. 48 miles and 3693'.

Northampton Cycling Club News

Week 3: Long Time Trial

Week 2: Leeds to Chesterfield Hillclimb

Week 1: Short Time Trial Results

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 3/5/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 3/5/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/26/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/26/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/19/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/19/26 6:20 PM

Member Profile: Jonathan O'Keeffe

Jonathan O'Keeffe

Jonathan: The History

Jonathan’s Favorites

Jonathan Off the BikeWhat do you do outside of cycling?

What’s next for Jonathan?

Member Profile: Beth Johnson

Beth Johnson

Beth: The History

Beth’s Favorites

Beth Off the Bike

What’s next for Beth? What does “winter training” mean to you?

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/12/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/12/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 2/5/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 2/5/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/29/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/22/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/22/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/22/26 6:20 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/15/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/15/26 6:25 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 1/8/26

Zwift Team Time Trial 1/8/26 6:25 PM

New Year's Day Ride - Zwift Edition

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/18/25

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/18/25 6:25 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/11/25

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/11/25 6:28 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 12/4/25

Zwift Team Time Trial 12/4/25 6:28 PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/20/25

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/20/25 6:15PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/13/25

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/13/25 7:00PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Results - 11/6/5

Zwift Thursday TTT - 11/6/25 6:00PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Ride Report - 10/30/25

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/25/2025 - Quabbin Loop

Zwift Thursday TTT - 10/30/25 6:10PM

Zwift Thursday TTT Ride Report - 10/23/25

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/18/2025 - Barkhamsted Riverton (CT) Loop Clockwise

Zwift Winter Thursday Nights - Team Time Trial

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/11/2025 - East of the River

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 10/4/2025 - Rowe - Jacksonville

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/27/2025 Peru

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/20/2025 Cosby Loop

Ride Report - NCC SMR B 9/13/2025- Northfield Gulf

End-of-Season Pizza Party - Wed, Sept 17

Week 25: Short Time Trial, 9/9/25

Week 24: Skinner Mountain Hillclimb, 9/2/25

Week 23: Deerfield Time Trial, 8/26/25

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/25/25 - Northampton Ice Cream Social Season Finale

Week 22: Northampton to Huntington Route 66 Hillclimb, 8/19/25

Member Profile: Justin Eichenlaub

Justin Eichenlaub

Justin: The History

Where are you from?

Justin’s Favorites

Justin Off the Bike

What’s next for Justin?

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/18/25 - Hadley

Monday morning C ride

belated 8/11 monday morning C ride report

Long Time Trial Results - 8/12/25

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/11/25 - Easthampton

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 08-09-2025

Pelham Hillclimb Results - 8/5/25

Ride Report - Monday Night Intro Ride 8/4/25 - Hatfield

Ride Report: SMR B Ride 08-02-2025

Jonathan Off the Bike
What do you do outside of cycling?