The TT was canceled this evening but that doesn’t mean that nobody did the course earlier in the day. In fact, there were 5 of us that, for one reason or another, went out before the wind a-started a-howlin’ and the particulates from the Canadian fires a-started a-blowin’.
Perfect weather! Low 70’s, sunny, a mild wind from the south, dry roads.
I’m not sure if there was a favorable wind window to optimize times. I do know that Cindy tried to outsmart it around noon but don’t think she was successful.
My new strategy for all future hillclimbs is to show up at the start, complain how fat and slow I’ve become, how unlubricated my chain is, how I hadn’t shaved my legs in several years, how both of my tires were so low on air that they were rimming out and how I had to wear a kit 5 sizes too big because all I had access to were the clothes from Paul Bunyan’s closet. Oh, and then come in second.
I think the 5 pm folks (there were 14 of us) got a bum steer with the wind tonight. There was some assist but by the time I rode back to Sunderland at 5:45, it was all I could do to keep from getting blown down to Chicopee!
The advantage of having hail for the descent of today’s hillclimb was that it wasn’t as wet as rain. The disadvantage was that it hurt our faces.
We had some decent pavement after Deerfield’s Highway Department put in some effort last year to fix up the deep crevasses on River Road. I think maybe one too many search and rescue missions were sent to find lost cyclists and it just became cheaper to fix it.
So the downside of the 5 pm start time for the Tuesday night TT/HC series was in full cry this evening – rush hour traffic up the hill from Amherst and Leverett to Shutesbury and beyond was palpable.
