The day was looking pretty grim this morning, with temperatures below freezing, but things warmed up a bit as the day went on, and by the time we went out at 5:30 PM, we had fairly tolerable conditions, with some sunshine and temperatures in the upper 40s. A slightly pared-down crew of five showed up in Deerfield for the race, with Madeline arriving a few minutes late and riding solo. We had a moderate breeze from the southwest, enough to notice, but I don't think it had too much of an effect in either direction.

Tim and Shawn treated us to a somewhat preposterous story at the start regarding cows on the UMass South Deerfield farm with plexiglass observation ports to observe their internals. I'm still not sure whether or not they were making this up; I couldn't find any evidence online to substantiate this, but I did slow down a bit as I rode by to peer at the cows a little more closely.

Shawn went out right in front of me, and we were locked in a back-and-forth battle the whole way -- I would close down the gap on the ascents, and he would open it back up on the flats. I emptied the tank on the final stretch to sneak in a couple of seconds in front of him. Andy rode at dawn this morning and turned in a good time despite the freezing cold, chapeau!


Full season series results available here.

Next week we'll be riding the Chesterfield Hillclimb up Route 143 from Williamsburg center, come out and join us!