NVP Fall Century
Nashoba Valley Pedalers Fall Century.
Appx 22 miles to the start and back home adds 44 for a total of 121.11 miles.
There are no good east-west roads to Wayland from here. There is US 20 orSR 30, both are very busy with no shoulder. But 20 is busier, so I opted for 30. It’s about a five mile stretch on that road.
I was planning to leave the house at around 6:00 to be there before 8:00, but it turned out to be still dark at 6:00, so I didn’t leave until about 6:25. I’d planned to do either the 75 mile or 100 mile loop, but by the time I got there, it was clear I would choose the 75. But then, I missed a turn and ended up back at the starting line at 10:00 having only completed the 25 mile loop. There’s no way I was going to head back home at 10:00, so I set out again to do the 50 mile loop.
While the 50-mile loop is a nice ride, the main reason for doing the ride is the view of the Nashoba Valley which is quite spectacular and probably would have been even more spectacular since it was such a nice day with no haze. But that route isn’t on the 50-mile ride. Boo. On the plus side, only the first eight and the last five miles are same on the two rides, so it’s not like I did the whole thing twice.
About three miles from the end, one of the links in my chain froze. Bad news. I dismounted and fiddled with it a bit which didn’t really help, but most of the last three miles is downhill, so I coasted as much as possible to the end. Someone there told me to push the rivet around with the chain tool and that would probably free it up. So I did that and it seemed to work, so I set out for the 22-mile ride home. The link froze up again just outside Watertown Square. So the question then is to continue on to home (8 miles) or turn around and go back to Harris Cyclery in Newton. I decided to fiddle with the chain a bit and press on. That got me home, but I ‘ve still got a frozen link. Must get that fixed before next weekend.
Anyway, beautiful day, sun shining, warm, and dead calm. Couldn’t have been nicer.
