Ride Report: Mass Bike Pike Tour - Day 2

07 Aug 2009.

After leaving with the "early" group, I soon found myself off the front with a rider named Howie. We were cruising at a pretty decent clip; or so I thought. Thought, that was, until we were passed by a couple pacelining by. Up for a little early morning play, I turned to Howie, "You want to catch them?" "Sure," was the reply and we were off. I jumped (somewhat aggressively) and closed quickly closed the gap.

When the lead rider realized we were in tow, he pulled off and a rotating paceline was started; each of us taking our turn at the front.

On the front of our little paceline, Howie is a force: on the flats - he buried himself; on the descents - he set a blistering pace. His one weakness was hills. Throughout the ride, more often than not, Howie was "rewarded" for his pace setting efforts by a hill that ultimately resulted in him being dropped from the line. Never giving up, more times than not, he realed us back in on the descents.

Day 2's morning was not one of those occasions. Pacing us down the straights, Howie ran headlong into the first major hill of the day. Our paceline quickly splintered. The climber jumped pass around Howie (with me in close pursuit). The lead rider hung with Howie for a bit, before moving up. The hills were long and gradual, but enough to put non-climbers (like Howie and the "lead rider") in moderate difficulty.

I caught up with the climber after this little sequence of hills (some 3 or 4 miles later), and we were soon joined by the lead rider (I unfortunately can't recall this couple's names. Nice folk, good humored and very competitive). We chatted for a bit, while recovering, before returning to our race to the first rest stop.

If our goal was to beat the SAG wagon, we were 100% successful.

After the rest stop was set up, I switched riding partners. I didn't want to stick around to long, so I left with the first group to leave. Which just happened to consist of people I knew: Steve (whom I met at last year's ride) and Lee (whom I had met the previous day, having parked next to him).

Lee and Steve were great riding partners. Riding fast and serious can be fun, but stopping to explore creates far more interesting memories. One particulrly memorable moment occured somewhat early on in the ride. I was halfway up a somewhat gnarly hill, when Steve said, "Oh, a beach. Hey Fred want to stop?" My first though, honestly, was, "Are you kidding me, I'm halfway up this hill, you want me to go down and climb it again later?"

Lee, Steve, and Me

As the picture above attests, I opted for the beach.

The water was perfect bathwater warm, a surprising temperature for a body of water in Massachusetts. Sitting and relaxing our legs, we called out to the passing riders - tempting them with the cool waters.



Far later (after our lunch stop at Calico & Creme in Hubbardston, more on this great place in Day 3's report), Lee noticed a sign for a Mass Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and another adventure was had.



Sitting on 1200 acres, the Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary features 12 miles of trails and a summit that offers excellent hawk viewing in the fall.

Shortly down the road, in the center of Princeton, MA, we were treated to this view:


And these great buildings:

Distance:  70 miles
Climbing:   5627 ft
Ave Speed: 14.1 mph
Max Speed: 40.7 mph

Comments

[mandisclark]

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