cycling.finial.com

It’s been about a week since I sent out my thank-you letter to the donors of my ride. So it’s time to post it here for posterity.

Hello everybody.

It’s time for your letter.

First, thank you all for donating to the Tour de Cure New England Classic to benefit the American Diabetes Association. You donated $3550.00. Thank you! Thank you all very much!

But I’m sure you all want to know who won the Providence Bruins tickets. I drew the winning number as the Tour de France was ending, so crossing the line with Mark Cavendish was Scott Mabel of the South End. I’ve been in touch with Scott and he’s looking forward to the game. Scott, I’ll have the tickets for you as soon as the league finalizes the schedule and sends them to me.

So on to the ride. In a word, it was spectacular. It was the best weather we’ve ever had in the eight years I’ve been participating. It was sunny and warm to hot, not too humid and not too windy. In fact on two days we had that rarest of rare things, a tail wind. We were briefly rained on one day, as we were climbing Crawford Notch, but even that was somewhat of a relief.

You can see all of the particulars (maps, profiles) of the ride here:

http://ridewithgps.com/users/38524/routes

Two* overnight venues changed, much for the better both because they were much nicer places and because it lowered the overall cost of the ride. There’s an asterisk there because there were actually three changes though only two were planned. More about that later.

The organizer, Ryan, did a spectacular job, doubly so considering the curve ball thrown at him by the asterisk above. Ryan, you should be very proud of what you accomplished.

The down side is that the turnout this year was low. Very low. So low in fact, I worry about the ride’s continued existence. The ADA wanted to kill the ride last year, but the riders revolted and convinced them to have it one more year, promising to meet any goal they set. They set the bar pretty high, and, to date, we have not reached it. Last I heard (which was last week, I think) we’ve reached about 80% of our target. We should be over 100% by this point. That does not bode well for the future.

Before I get into the day by day, here are a few statistics. I bought a heart rate monitor for the gym earlier this year, so I’ve got lots more numbers for number geeks like me.

• Total miles ridden: 554. 53 miles
• Total time on the bike: 12:25:17
• Total kCalories used: 25,976
• Longest mileage day: 100.31 (Day 4)
• Shortest mileage day: 65.64 (Day 5)
• Longest day on the bike: 07:03:01 (Day 4)
• Fastest max speed: 51.91 mph
• Fastest average speed: 17.17 mpg (Day 1)
• Total Elevation gain: 24500 feet (all 7 days)
• Largest elevation gain: 5850 feet (Day 4)

There were two planned changes in stop overs this year. Gone was University of New Hampshire at Durham. No one was sorry about that. The cafeteria is fantastic but the dorms were really pathetic. It’s amazing they let students stay there, really. Old, beyond run down, dirty and not well maintained in the extreme. Instead, we stayed at the Best Western in Portsmouth, NH. Not only were the accommodations far superior, it was less expensive than UNH which had the added benefit of lowering the cost of fund-raising for the ride as a whole. Plus it’s across the street from a state liquor store.

The second change was the last day. So gone, too, was Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. We stayed instead at another Best Western in Keene which made Day 6 shorter by about 20 miles, but extended Day 7 by nearly as much. Franklin Pierce has a beautiful campus, overlooking Mt. Monadnock, but here, too, the dorms are terrible, and the place is always overcrowded and the staff untrained. We spent the first few hours every year tracking down bedding and towels so people could shower after a ride. They also put every seminar / camp / whatever into the too-small uncooled cafeteria at the same time so we were always competing against 12-year-old hockey campers. Not ideal. And again, the Best Western cost less than FPU. Winning!

The third change was unplanned and unwelcome. At the end of the longest, toughest day, we were supposed to stay at the Capitol Inn in Montpelier, VT. But when Ryan, the tour director, made the reservations over the phone, whoever transcribed it misread a “7” as a “2” and booked our reservations for the previous February rather than July. This error was not discovered until June and by then, all the rooms at the Capitol were booked. To their credit, the staff at the Capitol booked us at another place, but is was six miles away. Uphill. They did provide a shuttle bus, but it was, at best, inconvenient, doubly so considering that was the only day we were rained on and, being separated from our bikes, there was no opportunity to clean them. As a result, I had a flat the next morning.

I prepared pretty well for the actual riding. What I didn’t prepare well for was packing. The weather can be all over the map on this trip travelling, as we do, from zero feet elevation at the coast to over 2000 feet or so on some of the notches in the Whites and Greens. The night before the ride started, it rained. I had packed no rain gear or jackets to use on the bike. So, rather than just relaxing in the hotel, I had to make another train trip back home to pick up a couple more things I’d forgotten. Not tragic, but certainly not relaxing.

But as I said, the weather for this ride was the best it’s ever been, and even the little rain we had wasn’t much. It was, however, just enough to be sticky which led to my flat. When rain pours down, it washes all the crap off the roads, so, while you end up getting wetter, the only real tire danger is not seeing a pothole full of water. When it rains only to get the road wet, the water acts as a sort of glue, and every twig, rock, piece of glass, and accident debris sticks to the tire making it far more likely to flat.

I felt fantastic for the whole ride. All this gym work seems to be paying off. I was even at the top of Crawford’s Notch before I realized I was climbing it. I could have sworn there was a big “up” before a leveling then another big up. But no, it was just one up. Still, it’s a tough climb.

Conventional knowledge is that Crawford’s Notch is the toughest climb of the week. I disagree. There’s a climb between Groton and Orange, VT that, to me, is much harder. It’s 1600 feet over 13 miles. Not only harder, but cruel. Crawford’s Notch is very steep, but also very short at only about 1/3 mile. The climb from Groton to Orange is seven miles of up, some steep, some not so steep, but relentless. It’s also cruel, full of “false tops” where, you’re climbing, climbing, climbing to the top, you get there, then instead of going down, it turns the corner and continues to go up.

The nice part of this is that, once you do finally reach the top, it’s a screaming downhill into Barre, VT. However, right at the bottom of the hill is a big carved out section of road that drops to dirt then back to pavement in only about 10 feet and its approach comes with very little warning. It’s amazing, frankly, that everyone made it across, because when you’re screaming downhill at 40+ mph, it’s not easy to back off quickly.

But this year, because of the route change caused by the switch to Keene, NH from FPU, I think there’s an even harder climb. The first thing in the morning on the last day of the ride when it’s about 55 degrees, we tackled the climb out of Keene, and it’s a tough one. There is over 1600 feet of climbing in the first 18 miles and it even continues on from there. I need at least 10 miles in my legs to warm up and the climb started up right from the start and some of it was quite steep. Ouch. And to add insult to injury, the first rest stop after the 1600 feet of climbing was a Kimball Farms Ice Cream in Jaffrey, NH, but they weren’t open yet!!! Oh! the humanity. The third rest stop was at Kimball Farm in Carlisle, MA, so it’s all good. They really do have the best ice cream in the world, bar none.

With the change in the first and last overnights, we are now only staying in one college dorm, that of University of New England, in Biddeford, ME on the second night. It turned out that I only have five pairs of cycling shorts (yes, that means me in Spandex, try to get that picture out of your mind now). As this is a seven day trip, I had to do laundry at least once. I used to rinse things out in the sink and let it dry overnight, but with only moderate success. It would have worked this year because the humidity was so much lower, but normally it’s hit or miss.

At the risk of sounding like the old man I am, laundry technology has moved along since I was in school. The washers and dryers at UNE will text or e-mail you when your laundry is finished.

Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:22:57 GMT
Subject: CYCLE COMPLETED – PADUA HALL – WASHER 04
From: LaundryView <no-reply@laundryview.com>

You can check the status of all the machines at http://www.laundryview.com/.

Thank you for using LaundryView.

No, thank you LaundryView! It certainly beats hanging around for it to finish, or coming back and finding your stuff dumped out on the table somewhere. And I didn’t have to do laundry for the rest of the week! Plus, the washers are free and even though I didn’t remember to bring soap, a little body wash seemed to to the job just fine. Result!

And all of this brings me to the food. Looking at the numbers, you’ll see I spent about 26,000 kCalories on this trip. But they feed you so well, you have to be careful not to gain weight. And, by and large, the food is so, so good and it’s not just because you’re famished at the end of the day. Three meals were really outstanding. The meal at Attitash was incredible: roasted half chickens with rosemary, stuffed fish, gazpacho, snow peas & carrots, blueberry cheesecake, chocolate parfait, and more. This was doubly good as the next day is the 100 miler (at least that’s the rationale).

The owner of the Summit Lodge, atop Mt. Killington, where we stayed at the end of Day 5 is a cyclist and pulled out all the stops in laying out a barbecue feast. Steak, chicken, corn, marinated mushrooms, baby carrots, and on and on. Fantastic! Yes, cyclists are obsessed with food.

One of my goals for this trip was to break 50 miles per hour. The descent of Mt. Killington is a good place to try that. I didn’t make it. The morning was very brisk at that altitude and, while beautiful with pastoral views of the mountain, required a jacket to keep from freezing to death at speed. The jacket I wore was flappy and acted as a wind break so I didn’t reach my goal.

However, the next day on the way into Keene, NH, there’s a section of Route 9 with a sign that says “9% Next 1-1/10 miles”. Jackpot! The way you break 50 is to pedal your brains out at the top of the hill then settle in as low and narrow (particularly narrow) as you can. Once you reach about 40 or so, it’s pointless to pedal as your legs can’t really go around that fast (or at least mine can’t). It requires a steady hand, a good bike, and some good sunglasses. But, long story short: I made it. 51.91 mph, my fastest ever. Huzzah!

If I had known the route ahead of time, I would also have had another shot at it on the last day. Remember I was talking about the relentless uphill climb out of Keene at the start of the last day? Well, that climb also came down. And had I know it would come down primarily in one decent, I could have broken it again. But by time I realized it was happening, it was too late to try to accelerate any faster than I was already going. Still, without even trying, I reached 48.10 mph. Fun!

Before I wrap up, I have to share one anecdote. Mike* has been riding the NEC for many years. He’s a very fast rider. John* and Brad* are also fast riders who have been riding the NEC for many years. Among the fastest, there’s always some competition to see who is in first at the end of the day. It’s not a race, really, because everybody stops for breaks and there is no “winner” per se. The group is usually larger including a group from Connecticut, a kid from Indiana, and a few others. The turnout was so low this year that these were the only three.

Stimulus money is still at work in Vermont and there are lots of highway construction projects underway, each with a set of flagmen. On one particular day, John and Brad were out front for the day. Mike came up on one such flagman who had just switched his flag to “Stop”. There was no traffic ahead. There was no traffic behind. The other end of the site was visible and the road was clear. He sat there a few minutes and made some chit-chat with the flagman.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“How you doing?”

“Good.”

“Nice day.”

“Yeah.”

He waited a few minutes longer. No traffic ahead. No traffic behind. So, finally, Mike said, “Is there some reason we’re stopped here? I mean, I don’t see anything.” The flagman answered, “oh, you can go on ahead. Your pals just asked me to slow you down.”

Mike came in third that day.

* their real names.

So, again, I would like to thank you all so very much for your kind and generous contributions. Your money is already at work addressing this disease. Diabetes is becoming the #1 health concern all across the country and only research and outreach can do anything about it. Thank you for helping fund both. Assuming the ride is held again next year, I have every intention of riding and I hope I can count on your support then too. Even better, come and ride it with me! It’s hella fun!

Thank you again

Todd

Boston, Massachusetts

August, 2011

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 11:13 am and is filed under Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.