Ride Reports and News

Monday, June 15 ride.  Justine (me) had a last minute family emergency, so Sima and Sarah bravely rode  where many have gone before: Old Deerfield! Other than Sarah having a flat tire, all reportedly went well. 

I'll try to be back in the saddle for this coming Monday!

Earlier in the day Andy texted me that we might need to cancel tonight's race due to "too much sunshine." After a spring filled with quite a bit of wind and rain and some chilly temps, I was more than happy to risk exposure to an excessive load of photons.

Mother Nature obliged, providing us with perfect temps in the upper 60s, abundant sunshine, and a welcome mostly north-ish breeze. Despite the perfect conditions, we had a rather paltry turnout of just four riders at the official start time (several others had ridden earlier).

The four of us (Joe, Shawn, Andy and I) were very well-matched, with all of us finishing within a 50-second window. Shawn took the top spot for his first-ever Short TT win -- congratulations!

Next week we'll be climbing Chesterfield Rd on the Northampton Hillclimb. Hopefully David will be back for that, so we can hear more about his European adventures, and all the various haboobs and siroccos he encountered. Come out and join us!

For the second week in a row, we fielded a group of eleven riders for our Monday Night Intro Ride. Newcomers Alex, Rick, and Jen joined Jerome, Mark, Tony, Sheri, Shelby, Justin, Ari and me on our Easthampton loop on a lovely (but windy) late-spring evening.

A long opening stretch on the bike path took us to through Easthampton and out to Route 5/10. We enjoyed some fast descents on fresh pavement on Pomeroy Meadow Rd before turning on Oliver St toward the Park Hill Rd climb. I told Shelby (who has been hauling in boatloads of PRs this year) that I was expecting a PR from her on the climb, and she obliged by riding past our stopping point at the Big Red Frame to ride through the end of the Strava segment at the top of the hill, before turning around to come down and rejoin us. To commemorate this effort, I created a brand-new segment  that ends at our actual stopping point, so we can get real data on this climb.

After our photo-op at the Frame, we were treated to a flyover by a couple of C-130s from Westover, along with a murmuration of starlings flying alongside as we started our descent. We rolled through downtown Northampton and arrived back at Sheldon Field around 7:15 PM, with 18.5 miles at 12.0 mph.

Next week we'll be back in the flatlands on our Hadley loop on Monday 6/22 at 5:30 PM -- come out and join us!

NCC is excited to announce a partnership with Justin Eichenlaub of Humanistic Coaching in offering an Introduction to Structured Training and Interval series.

This "Introduction to Structured Training/Intervals" series is geared toward a wide range of cyclists. It's for those who want to learn how to do a variety of more intense workouts (and where/how to do them outside and/or indoors) whether their goal is to improve their heart health, increase their fitness for group riding or racing, or simply learn to push themselves and take on a new challenge. In this workshop series the basics of riding and training at varying intensities will be introduced with a strong focus on the why and the how. Two virtual meetings will provide a chance to learn background information and ask questions, while the three group rides will focus on learning how to pace the various intervals, with rides taking place at a range of local spots suited to those particular workouts — for instance, we may ride in Hatfield or at Whiting Reservoir for a steady, flat threshold workout, and meet at the climb on Line Road in Easthampton to practice VO2 workouts and pacing. NCC Members get 10% off! Register here

On a lovely spring evening, we had nine riders gather at Hadley for our Skinner hillclimb. This is the last of the six hillclimbs in the first half of our summer season. It took us almost three months to get to this point in the schedule, but Ryan and Garret apparently didn't want to wait that long, and completed an epic century on Saturday (along with Carson) covering all six of the hillclimbs in one ride. I got tired just looking at this ride on Strava.

Garret has apparently been having a tough week mechanically. He had a torn sidewall during the six-hillclimb ride on Saturday, and then today when I arrived at Skinner, Ryan was performing some type of complicated surgical intervention on Garret's brake pads. He apparently got it working, but then Garret promptly dropped his chain at the top of the first pitch, and had to stop to fix it. That didn't slow him down much, and he soon came charging past all the riders that had passed him to retake his spot up near the front of the field.

Ryan was the first to the top, with a blazing-fast 9:40 time. Despite his mechanical troubles, Garret took third, finishing neck-and-neck with Sam. Shawn also turned in a strong performance, scoring the only PR of the evening.

Next week we'll start the second half of our season with the Short TT in Hatfield -- come out and join us!

A big crowd for tonight's Monday Night Intro Ride on a lovely spring evening. Martin and Charles joined us for the first time, welcome! They joined a bunch of Monday regulars, including Adam, Carl & Clarissa on their tandem, Jeanne, Jerome, Shelby, and Tony, along with Ari and me.

We rode our Hatfield loop, which is the flattest of our four Intro Ride routes. The group apparently enjoyed the flat terrain, because we were flying along at quite a brisk pace. The riders on Strava all recorded a bunch of segment PRs, congratulations on that!

We didn't stop for our traditional photo-op, which Shelby appreciated, but I did manage to sneak in a stealth action shot with my favorite barn mural in the background.

Next week we compensate for tonight's flat route with our hilliest loop through Easthampton. Join us if you dare!

Full disclosure:  I did not plan or lead this ride.  Instead, I am popping into the website to write about it since I was a participant.

Earlier in the week Christian posted a C+  56 Mile ride up to Millers Falls and back for Saturday.  I had not the time to post a B ride for the weekend, so I was pleased to see it and planned to attend that ride.

On Friday, Joe L posted to the group that he would like to lead a ride on the COVAC century route.  Right, 100 miles!

On Saturday morning we had a group of about 15 riders meet, and talked about the options.  We settled on all riding Christian's route of 56 miles with about 2562' of climbing, rather than the century proposed by Joe.

Despite the mix of B and C riders, everyone kept together most of the ride.

We weaved our way fairly rapidly though Hatfield and Whatley to avoid the boring River Rd, and at Sunderland we took a quick rest stop at the intersection of 116 and 47.

With some pretty efficient pace-line work we landed in the Montague plains, a well maintained dirt road.

The honeymoon was over!  It was time to do the biggest climb of the day - up Wendell Rd to the Wendell State Forrest.  I have not taken this road often.  Usually I do Mormon Hollow and Farley. But, I was reminded how beautiful this climb is.

Michael Bello took the group photo when we stopped at the State Forrest HQ:

We were treated to a fun decent (and great pavement) into the Lake Wyola area.  But the fun did end, having to climb up to Shutesbury.

The descent down the S-curves was well enjoyed by all, and we had pretty patient auto drivers behind us, allowing for a safe descent.

Our refuel stop at Cushman Market was overdue, as many of us were dry.  Surprisingly, I had never, ever been inside Chushman market (!), and I was surprised and pleased with the selection of beverages and snacks!  It was a very busy place!

After a bit long rest, we headed out toward Hadley to get home. But to my surprise, the route took us off of Rte 47, up Mt Warner Rd (read: UP).  Perhaps something I might do to get some more elevation... but... geez, I just wanted to get home.  Not a complaint- all good fun!

The group continued to move rapidly back toward the bike path bridge in a great pace line.  Once on the bridge we all settled down and folks started peeling off toward Damon Rd and Florence.

This was one of the larger SMR's in a while and it went so well!  We did not drop anyone other than Don F, who turned around in Montague.  The "worst" confusion was Mt. Warner Rd, where several riders continued on down River Rd instead.  Not a big deal.

Many thanks to Christian for posting this ride, and to Joe for his ambition.  It all worked out great!

Next week, please join your fellow NCC riders at Hatfield Lions Annual Bike Tour!

Hi, All

I would like to lead an SMR this weekend.  I was thinking we could do the COVAC Century loop, but now I see that there's a chance of rain in the afternoon.  As an alternative, maybe the ride to Wendell and Shutesbury would be a better choice.  Let's say 9 AM at Pulaski.  I'll make a definitive choice tomorrow afternoon.  

Dang- I just saw that Christian (I think) posted the same ride-as a C+ event.  Now I'm not sure what to do?  Any thoughts?  Do his ride-possibly in one group, or split into two? Or, do the COVAC despite the forecast- it is supposed to be warm.

On a lovely spring evening, eight riders gathered in South Deerfield to prepare for the Deerfield Time Trial, and to gawk at the robot lawnmower methodically working its way around the fields of the UMass Turf Research Center. The wind felt pretty calm at the start line, but this was just an illusion, and once we were out on the course, it was blowing pretty steadily from the north. This made for a rough outbound leg, but the return trip felt very good.

Sam lapped the field with a winning time of 31:52, and Shawn was not far behind with a strong 32:34. Both of those times were PRs. Andy rounded out the podium a few seconds back at 32:50.

Full season series results available here.

Next week we'll wrap up the first half of our season (already!) with the Skinner Hillclimb on 6/9 at 5:30 PM. Come out and join us!

After all the wind and rain this weekend, we were happy to have a decent night for our second Monday intro ride of the season, with temperatures perhaps a bit on the chilly side, but not too bad. We had five riders, including newcomer Bowen, fresh off a big ride-every-road adventure in Shutesbury yesterday, and Shelby, fresh off her second triathlon of the season yesterday.

Our route took us on a loop around Northampton, a loop that I've done many times, but still struggled to correctly navigate. Fortunately, Jerome and Shelby have done it almost as many times as I have, and were ready to jump in to pick up the slack when I fumbled the route directions.

On our way back into town, we pulled off the bike path for a photo-op at the Florence history mural, where we had to rearrange a few recycling bins in order to get a clear shot. 

We wrapped up around 6:50 PM with 16.1 miles at a fairly brisk pace of 13.3 mph. Jerome and Shelby both notched a bunch of PRs, so I think we were moving pretty well.

Next week we'll be doing our Hatfield loop from Sheldon Field at 5:30 pm -- come and join us!