Ride Reports and News

We've fallen into a bit of a pattern with the weather over the past few weeks -- chilly (or freezing) conditions for the time trials, and pretty decent nights for the hillclimbs. Tonight's Chesterfield climb definitely fell into the "pretty decent" category, with temps in the lower 60s and a little bit of sun here and there, along with maybe a bit of a tailwind out of the south and east.

The favorable conditions brought out a dozen or so riders to the start, including a couple of new recruits. Andy and I encountered Martin on our ride over to the start, and convinced him to give the race a try (despite the fact that he was heading home at the end of his own ride). Meanwhile, Charles brought along co-worker Brian, sporting an awesome-looking vintage street bike, with flat bars and flat pedals. Andy also had an equipment handicap -- with his road bike in the shop, he dusted off his gravel bike, rubbing brakes and all, and still turned in a pretty decent time.

Ryan rode away from the field at the start en-route to an easy win (and a PR). Sam and Shawn also turned in PRs, as did Patrick (who rode earlier in the day).

Full results for the season are available here. 

Next week we'll be racing the short time trial in Hatfield -- hopefully we will break the weather pattern and get a decent night. Hope to see you there!

We kicked off our first beginner mountain bike skills clinic this weekend at Nonotuck Park. We had a strong group of eight riders ranging in experience from brand new to many years of riding looking to hone their fundamentals.

Coach Justin Eichenlaub generously volunteered his time to lead the session. The group started by working through a quick warmup before moving into some drills in the open field to gain comfort getting on and off the bike, riding in the “ready” position, and cornering with proper hip movement and bike-body separation.

From there, we moved over to some steeper terrain to practice climbing and descending position, along with braking control on loose, downhill sections. It was great to see everyone progressing and getting more comfortable as the session went on.

We wrapped things up with a relaxed group trail ride before heading out for the day.

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make it a fun and welcoming session. And a big thank you again to Justin for leading the clinic. Entry fees from the event will go toward supporting racing committee programs and team tent space this season. Don’t worry if you missed out this time! Justin is considering hosting additional skills clinics in the near future. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are interested!

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!

I'll be out of town for this coming Monday Morning C ride from Keyes street, so will not post anything. 

If anyone is interested in leading it, 'post it, and they will come'.

Better late than never. 

The first Monday Morning C ride of 2026 left from Keyes street in Florence on Monday, April 13. The weather was beautiful, mid 60s -70 before it got  hot later in the week! 

We started with 5 ( Bill L, Tim, Kent, Pamela and myself) and went to 6 when we were joined by Kathy N on Mountain Road in Haydenville on route to  the Montague Book Mill. 

We enjoyed a very fast pace headed north helped by a brisk tail wind.  After a break at the Book Mill, we 'faced the music' of that same - (now) head wind, and much slower pace heading back to Florence.  Using Amherst street, Silver street, then North and South plain roads, we were able to cut the worse of rt 47 S down to ~5 miles. Tim pulling helped out alot!

Good time had by all. 

The weather gods dealt us a perfect hand tonight, with temperatures feeling more like July than April, the storms holding off until just a bit later in the evening, and even perhaps a bit of a tailwind.

David is off gallivanting across Europe, so the scorekeeping duties fell to me. There were ten of us at the start, including newcomer Owen, who lives right at the top of the hill. Ryan took off at the gun and built a 20m lead before we even turned the corner onto Shutesbury Rd, and I never saw him again after that. Andy and I hung together for a while before he dropped me, and for me it was a solo slog the rest of the way, brightened by Owen's family, who were gathered in his driveway with cheers and cowbells, providing some much-appreciated support.

Ryan took the win easily with a blistering time of 14:55, maintaining his lead in the hillclimb series, and moving into striking distance of the overall lead. Madeline finished a few seconds ahead of Melissa to maintain her series lead on the women's side.

Next week we'll head back across the river for the Deerfield TT, hope to see you there!

Full series results here.

Conditions tonight for the long time trial were such that I was looking for any reason to cancel it. A few snow flurries - no. Temperatures hovering around the upper 30's - no. Swarms of locust - never materialized. Possibility of a haboob (is this a new word for you Melissa?) - almost. A nuclear holocaust - maybe soon. What astonished me, however, is how many people showed up - 10!!

I had a few bike issues at the start so ended up going out last. By the time that my 70 year old rapidly aging body finished up, half the participants had taken off to get home before hypothermia kicked in. No blame here!

No PRs (anyone surprised?) but Andy said that he clocked a PW! Charles M spanked us all and his average power was 300 watts. I can only dream of hitting a number like that!

Here are today's results:

1. Charles Mathers; Time: 46:40; 23.66 mph; 10 points

2. Shawn Lakota; Time: 48:15; 22.88 mph; 9 points

3. Frank Sleegers; Time: 48:51; 22.6 mph; 8 points

4. Sam Veggeberg; Time: 49:45; 22.19 mph; 7 points

5. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 50:16; 21.96 mph; 6 points

6. Andy MacDonald; Time: 52:00; 21.23 mph; 5 points

7. Madeline Nagy; Time: 54:24; 20.29 mph; 4 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 55:51; 19.77 mph; 3 points

9. Tim Pitkin; Time: 56:50; 19.43 mph; 2 points

10. Charles Bohl; Time: 58:39; 18.82 mph; 1 points

I'm away for the next 2 months on a cycling, eating, drinking, swimming and cavorting vacation with Suzanne. I will leave the time keeping and reporting in the capable hands of Mr. O'Keeffe. Send your times to him because if you send them to me, I may only be speaking French and Italian so may not understand what you say.

Next week is the Shutesbury hillclimb. Have fun and I'll be thinking of you all.

Maybe it's just me but this is one really hard hillclimb. We had a great turnout today of 15 riders. I think the mostly dry (and seriously potholed) road and temps hovering around 70 brought a lot of folks out.

This is a first in all of my years doing this - we had a mom and toddler come out from a nearby house and the kid cheered us on as we started the race. Very nice (said in a Borat voice)!

Ryan scorched us all and his teammate Garret was about 30 seconds behind for second. Ryan set a PR by 16 seconds and Shawn by 7 seconds. The results don't show this but Nick's time was artificially high as he was encouraging and supporting his teammate Jake. That's how I beat Nick so don't read too much into this.

It was great to have Dan participate after many years of absense, especially on his stunning new Cervelo. Very nice (again, think Borat)!

Melissa was MIA as she's nursing a sore knee. I'm sure we can all relate to that! Get better soon, you beast!

Here are today's results (Frank, Tim and Donna did their climbs earlier and Charles finished a few minutes behind as he just missed the start):

1. Ryan Davis; Time: 23:44; 16.94 mph; 15 points

2. Garret Theberg; Time: 24:15; 16.58 mph; 14 points

3. Patrick Sullivan; Time: 24:50; 16.19 mph; 13 points

4. Dan Coady; Time: 28:50; 13.94 mph; 12 points

5. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 29:32; 13.61 mph; 11 points

6. Madeline Nagy; Time: 30:33; 13.16 mph; 10 points

7. Shawn Lakota; Time: 30:38; 13.12 mph; 9 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 31:20; 12.83 mph; 8 points

9. Jake Poirier; Time: 32:16; 12.46 mph; 7 points

10. Nick Davis; Time: 32:17; 12.45 mph; 6 points

11. Charles Bohl; Time: 33:21; 12.05 mph; 5 points

12. Frank Sleegers; Time: 34:00; 11.82 mph; 4 points

13. Joe Lellman; Time: 35:25; 11.35 mph; 3 points

14. Tim Pitkin; Time: 35:46; 11.24 mph; 2 points

15. Donna Wilson; Time: 38:42; 10.39 mph; 1 points

Next week is the dreaded (at least to me) long time trial.

Welcome to the 2026 outdoor time trial and hillclimb season. Two weeks ago, with all the snow and frigid weather, it seemed hard to imagine that we'd actually be doing this today. Au contraire, mon ami (getting ready for our trip to France and Italy soon).

Five riders showed up for the 5:30 start (Andy, JOK, Madeline, Melissa and Tim) while 4 of us did it earlier (maybe later too?); me, Dusty, Frank and 1st timer Charles. I did drive over to greet the starters, cheer them on at the halfway point (Tim waved, Melissa blew me a kiss and the rest just ignored me while I was out there jumping up and down, cheering and making a fool out of myself which defied my doctor's orders, in fact doing the time trial defied my doctor's orders too) and get their times at the finish line.

There was some sort of Madeline's dog-on-the-course incident. I can't really shed any light on it but Madeline rode off after finishing, almost as fast as her TT speed, to go find her dog. Maybe an explanation will be forthcoming.

Okay, enough of this fluff. Here are today's results:

1. Jonathan O'Keeffe; Time: 24:26; 22.59 mph; 9 points

2. Frank Sleegers; Time: 24:41; 22.36 mph; 8 points

3. Dusty King; Time: 24:46; 22.29 mph; 7 points (birthday boy!)

4. Andy MacDonald; Time: 25:44; 21.45 mph; 6 points

5. Melissa Warwick; Time: 26:12; 21.07 mph; 5 points

6. Tim Pitkin; Time: 26:24; 20.91 mph; 4 points

7. Madeline Nagy; Time: 27:04; 20.39 mph; 3 points

8. David Goodwin; Time: 29:07; 18.96 mph; 2 points

9. Charles Bohl; Time: 30:48; 17.92 mph; 1 points

Next week is the first hillclimb - Leeds to Chesterfield. Hope to see you there.

We wrapped up our winter TTT season tonight in Watopia with one lap of the Waisted 8 route for a total of 18 miles. The core team of Carson, Melissa, Dusty, Shawn and I welcomed newcomer Tim Watkins on his first-ever TTT effort.

We lined up at 6:20 PM and started out at our usual 3.6 W/kg pace. Tim knew that this pace would be challenging for him, but he was eager to give it his best shot. We assigned him 30-second pulls, while the rest of us went with our typical one minute pulls to start. The course is quite flat, with the only noteworthy climb being an ascent of the Jarvis KOM early in the ride. We stayed together and maintained a tight formation through the initial flat section, and then attacked the climb. Tim made it up and over the top with the rest of the group, but he was gassed at that point, and asked the rest of us to go on without him.

The remaining group of five pushed on through the remaining flat sections, which was quite nice after the hilly courses we've had over the past few weeks. Nobody sang tonight, having learned their lessons last week. Nevertheless, I ramped up the pace to 3.8 at the halfway point, and then again to 4.0 with 5K to go. There seemed to be some grumbling about that, but everyone answered the bell, and even ramped it up further on the final run-in to the finish. We ended up finishing in a tight group of five with a time of 45:18, which put us near the bottom of our division (105th of 116 teams), but I think we had more fun than any of the other teams, which is what it's all about.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this winter's time trial series. It was a great experience riding with all of you -- riding in a group to support a team really made me push myself a lot harder than I would have in my solo efforts. Hope to see you all back out on the road soon!