17 Aug 2008.
The last day. I woke up extraordinarily early (~4am) and by 5:30am nearly the whole camp was awake and back starting to pack up.
So, on the fourth and final start of the tour our group was the first to leave camp, and continuing our tradition of increasing our numbers we were joined by two new riders, Michelle and Karin. Karin and Michelle had opted for the 50 mile routes each day, after Karin had a fall on the first day (bruising her knee pretty badly).
In short order, Michelle established herself as an extraordinarily strong rider, dominating every climb. At the start of one of the longer climbs she had shifted to her smallest gear, early and was starting to power the bike (out of the pedals and forcing it up). In contrast, I still had 4 gears to go before I was in the same position. When she started powering up the hill, we were together but as the climb continued and I started to downshift she just maintained the same pace until the top. Impressive.
Like Day 3, the views and paths on Day 4 were beautiful. Farms, mountains, vistas. Massachusetts at its best.
Somewhere, early on, we hit the first serious climb. A nasty steep (and somewhat long) hill, Arnie and Michelle went off the front, with me barely keeping them in range (read 4 or so bike lengths). After a few false summits we finally arrived at the top, next to a little babbling brook. On an aside, riding in groups is fun. Everyone talks and jokes, that is until a serious climb is had. Then everything goes quiet as the riders become introspective, trying to will the energy to complete the climb. At the top, of course, the chatter returns.
The real climb came a few miles later. A smaller grade, but far far longer, this hill put me in a spot of bother. Steep climbs are my specialty, that's what most of my training is on. Long sustained low grade (~8+%) are not. Either way, we all managed. No doubt helped by the fact we all knew there were only two serious hills on the day and everything else would be cake.
We turn off the road and begin a series of descents. We all knew the cue sheet warned us a five mile descent was soon, so we assumed the street we were on was that descent. The descent was fast, and a little more rolling than we would have liked. When we reached the end, Michelle commented she was disappointed in the "5 mile descent," she figured it would be less rolling. That is when I re-read the cue sheet. We were about the START the five mile descent. The previous road's descents were just an appetizer.
The cue sheet was right to warn us about the descent. It was fast, long, and winding. There's not much to say about it, the road was in good shape so we could fly with little fear. On the other side of the road were cyclists climbing this monster as we screamed down. Kudos to them and thank the route planners for not having us climb it.
Soon after the descent we came upon the rest stop. Because we had left early, we passed before the first stop was setup (this being the second). At the stop was the "A-team," hanging out and enjoying the food and shade.
In a stroke of genus the route planners placed the water stop next to Cushman Market in North Amherst. Great place, I recommend the Lox.
Replenished we carried on. At one point, pacelining our way through the flatter North Amherst roads. One anecdote. When traveling in packs, lead cyclists call out things for everyone else to watch out for (Cars ahead, hole, dirt, glass, etc.), these warnings are then carried down the line to make sure everyone is aware of the danger. As we pacelined through the North Amherst farms, the lead rider (Karin) called out "Cows Left," to which everyone Moo-ed!
As we closed in on the lunch meeting place, we happened to notice a fellow tour rider on the side of the road. We stopped to render assistance, but it turned out she had stopped to enjoy the view:
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| The Connecticut River, Hadley, MA |
We arrived at the lunch stop and were served our choice of delicious sandwiches (I wish I knew from where). The names were whimsical and local in flavor, and the flavor combinations were divine.
The ride nearly over, there was only one thing left to do. Ride as a group down the Bike Path, into Northampton, down Main St, onto another bike path and end at Look Park.
Some of us were nervous about this portion of the ride. 82 riders of various speeds and abilities could mean accidents. Obviously everyone was thinking, get to the front to be ahead of the accident. We started rather abruptly, and the group, 82 riders strong, quickly overwhelmed the bike path. We restricted ourselves to on half of the lanes, but that meant if we passed someone they were engulfed for what must have seemed like an eternity.
What was "worse," as far as we were concerned, was everyone was wearing their tour t-shirt. Meaning, jerseys couldn't be use to differentiate riders. It took time to figure out who was ahead/behind you.
We arrived at the last rally point (before the Main st ride) and took over a parking lot. I positioned myself in the shade, close to the road, figuring this would easily put me near the front. The rest of our riding group (Team AZ) joined up here as well. The plan was to head out in mass, take one of the lanes, lead riders would stop for red lights, but once the pack started moving we would not stop (i.e. if the light goes yellow/red in the middle of the peloton we would not stop). Lead riders would pull off the front and perform rudimentary traffic control.
These instructions were relayed to everyone before we started the mass ride; however a modification needed to be relayed: We would pull over for Emergency Vehicles. The ride leader related that information to us and turned to confirm everyone heard him. However riders were chatting amongst themselves, seemingly ignorant of the message. I hollered, "Did everyone catch that?" Snap, everyone's head turns in my direction and some people say, "Hear what?" or "No!" I related, verbatim, what the leader had said then paused, waiting for some confirmation from the group. No confirmation received, I said something like "Go it" and gave everyone a thumbs up, to which the whole group responded in kind, "Yup!"
Message relayed, we headed out. The mass ride went as one would expect, save the local rider who was to lead us flatted within 200ft of the parking lot. The city of Northampton did not seem to surprised, or bothered by our presence. Taking is in stride. In no time we arrived at the end of our ride, Look park. For us 65 milers, 230 miles from our start.
We congratulated each other, exchanged email and business cards with those not returning to Sudbury. Then loaded our bikes and boarded the buses home.
Distance: 42.18 miles
Climbing: ~2700 ft
Ave Speed: 12.2 mph
Max Speed: 37.0 mph
Time: 3 hours 26 minutes 55 seconds