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

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!

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!

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) 

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.