Week in Review Monday April 20 to Sunday April 26

Three rides; Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. A cold and blustery week. Tights, layers, gloves. The threat of snow showers. Bright sun and blue skies. Windy, sometimes harshly so. But all rewarding. The grit and gnaw and grind and spit, the dazzle and the shine. 

Tuesday 4:43 PM, April 21, 2015

Saturday, 12:05 PM, April 25, 2015

Bancroft Tower stalwart in all weather conditions, a rocky testimonial to loyalty and the Generous Spirit. A Beacon of Whack. And on top of a giant hill, let's not forget. The last time I visited it (the 25th), as I started descending the other side, the driver of a car coming up gave me the thumbs-up sign through the windshield as if to say "Nice job, dude, that's a fucking steep hill!"

The Tower is one constant and so are the Holden Reservoirs of the oft-titled "Reservoir Loop" on Strava. I zipped by them with the Niceness three times this week.

Reservoir Style. Tuesday, April 21, 2015

From the northernmost point
Sunday, April 26, 2015 

Saturday's bright sun dappled the pavement with branch shadow, an ever-changing spasm of cosmic dendrites patterning the road ahead.

Cosmic dendrites

Classics on William St
Saturday, April 25, 2015

Sunday was another story. The day dawned in full sun, a last-day-of-the-week promise of Brightness and Warmth. Illusion! By 10:00 AM huge gray-puff clouds in steely phalanxes crawled across the horizon in what seemed like an orchestrated assault on my little patch of the Cosmos, and though the thermometer suggested 54 degrees, the morning grew into nip and snarl.

The thing is, with these sorts of changing weather conditions, figuring out the proper riding attire is always a challenge. I chose well today, opting for the winter-heavy neoprene neon lime top over two layers of riding jerseys, one short sleeved and one long sleeved. And a brown paper shopping bag lining the front. Full tights. Full fingered liner gloves over biking gloves. Perfect! Not cold once, and never too hot either.

I had no time constraints so I decided to ride out of Woo City via Holden St alongside Indian Lake, up Bullard St to Malden St then down to Bailey Rd and into the reservoirs, the climb up South Rd to rt 31 and on to Paxton. Kettle Brook Reservoirs, rt. 56, Mulberry St along the back of the Worcester Regional Airport, then up through Worcester Airport proper, passed the state police vehicle parked in front of the terminal, and out the other side, down to Mill St. Then rush back toward the Woo, a turn onto June St and along to Pleasant, all the while pedaling furiously, and finally into the Elm Park area and back to Shad Rides HQ.

Out in the rough somewhere

Just past Kettle Brook

Approaching Worcester Airport

From Worcester Airport

Elm Park Edge, Woo City
Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunday was thirty miles when all was said and done, an honorable day if not remarkable. On the week? A little over 70 miles.

Birds seen: Turkey vultures, Canada geese, robins, house finches, crows, hawks, blue jays, starlings.

Week in Review

Thickly Settled en route to Bancroft Tower

Several rides this week. Before one of them, I forgot to activate Strava tracking so didn't log that particular venture. But this weekend, April 18th and 19th, two fine rides in the luggage. Woo City to the Reservoir on Saturday and a jaunt west on Sunday to hook up with a resurgent Team Shad: The Virginian, I Ward, Dubstoevsky, and an alternate, MB, he of the blue sno cone attire, a lanky rouleur who I've known since the Days of the Dead.

April 18, 2015
Bancroft Tower

The important ride of the weekend was Sunday, April 19 when Team Shad communed in Montague, Mass. Team Shad, assembled for the first time this year. Already we've missed the Rasputitsa, our spring/summer racing schedule is in turmoil, but we have achieved a focus. We have set our sights on the D2R2 in late August. It's a thin schedule to be sure but we're counting on a positive outcome.

MB, I Ward, The Virginian
Team Shad

Crossing the Connecticut River in Sunderland

Eschewing the hills, we opted for riding up and down the Connecticut River, throwing in a few forays into farm land (Hadley, Sunderland, Hatfield) and some minor climbs in Whately. The Connecticut River was a constant presence.

I Ward riding north on River Rd

Crop Circle

The Do Dah Man

In the end, we notched 44+ miles. Not exactly fast (15.4 mph) and with not much climbing, but that's what training camp is about. An exploration. A process of building form. Of honing rusty skills and finding a rhythm.

Summary: 44.5 miles, 15.4 mph, 2.45 hours, not a lot of wind,a little over 60 degrees.

First Road Bike Rode of the Year

A warm Sunday (April 12), the first real spring-like day this year, and though I donned tights and long sleeves, I skipped the booties and windbreaker and glove liners. All sun, sky totally blue. And I was on the Road Bike! First time this year.

Sycamore Style

Not only that but for a change of pace I drove north of Woo City and parked in Shirley with the idea of riding north from there on a route I used to ride up to Hollis, NH. It was a good plan except that one leg of it proved slightly problematic.

Pepperell, MA

The Nashua Rail Trail runs from a just below Nashua, New Hampshire south for 12.5 miles to Ayer, Massachusetts, and I'd planned to do exactly that, ride north-south to Ayer. What I didn't anticipate (though I probably should have given the extreme winter just past) was that big sections of the trail would still be covered in snow & ice. D'oh!

So when I got to the trail head in NH and set out, straight away I encountered a frozen slush patch and had to un-clip and step carefully through it. Other, fatter-tyred bikes had made their way through but I dared not risk it. I crossed two more such sections in less than a quarter mile before optimism gave way to reality. If I'd been on the Crux Elite I could have pressed on, but I wasn't, so I turned back and had to improvise a route.

C'est la vie! Rummaging around in the memory bank, I recalled a back road that went from Pepperell to Groton, and that to get to Pepperell you had to go down route 111, and 111 was just up the street. So instead of 12 miles of woodsy trail shared with all manner of recreating enthusiasts, it was 12 miles of busy road then less busy road shared with cars. But it was 65 degrees and sunny and three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and the Niceness was at hand.

Nashua River, southern NH

Summary: Sunny, warm, none of the chill, very mild wind. 32+ miles, 15.2 mph. Felt instantly good being back on the road bike.

Not the Rasputitsa

I raise a vintage bidon to the lads and lasses of today's 2nd annual Rasputitsa in Burke, VT where the weather is cloudy and cold, not even 40 degrees, and windy too. Huzza! I am glad I am not there, glad not to be cold, muddy and wet in the North Country, glad not to be cramped and suffering. Not after the absurdly challenging winter we've just endured. No rugged romance nor adventurous appeal in the icy slog, not this year.

Instead, here in Woo City, the sun has appeared for the first time in five days, the day a blue sky'd gem of windy clarity. Low 50s. Bancroft Tower blesses my first ride since last Saturday's ill-fated (flat tyre) escapades in the blustery 'hood.

Saturday, April 12, 2015

The cycling gods look after today's innocent meandering, 25+ miles on busy roads, on reservoir roads, up steep neighborhood roads, through city intersections, "but for the sky there are no fences facing," or, paraphrasing the Master, "but for the cars there are no threats I'm facing." Just me and the Specialized Crux Elite with a new rear tire and the desire to spin.

Spin spin spin, the great meditation. The circle. The spoke'd wheel of ramble. Mind centered, eyes gulping in as much as possible while still minding the road, spirit humming along life's tenuous line of Forward.

Harvard St, Woo City

Remarkable to find myself alive in this moment, to have the good fortune of spending a few hours on a bicycle pedaling through old New England landscapes, along Kerouacian red-brick city streets. Gulp in the Niceness! Live amazed. Wonder has a way of stimulating the metabolism.

Morgan Park on Indian Lake

No regrets for the missed Rasputitsa. The road goes ever on and on, as a hobbit says. It's only going to get warmer and nicer as spring blooms and summer approaches. Though sunny and clear today, there was still a nip in the air, a nipple tweak of chill, especially with the occasional windy salvo whipping up sand and leaf debris. But the snow is almost gone in the forests now and that surely indicates the onset of warmer days ahead.

Dubstoevsky and the Fountain of Youth

Still ice on the reservoir

New England style

Summary: Saturday, April 12, 2015. Two hour ride, 25+ miles, 1900'+ elevation. Sunny and windy.

The Big Three

Growing up in the Bay State in the '80s, any reference to "the Big Three" meant only one thing: the Celtics' front court of Robert Parish ("the Chief"), Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird. I don't know if they were the original "Big Three" in sports journalism parlance but regardless, in New England we all knew what the phrase meant.

Since then the phrase has entered the cultural zeitgeist and is used widely wherever three of anything seem to go together. Not to be left out, I offer my own Big Three, a take off on the three great pro cycling stage races (the Tour de France, Giro D'Italia, and Vuelta de Espana) - except in this case we're talking about amateur gravel road classics: the Rasputitsa (April), the Tour de Heifer (June), and the D2R2 (August).

Last year, 2014, having one of my finest riding seasons ever, I participated in all three events. I'd planned to do the same this year but those plans have been derailed. Thanks to a savage winter I was unable to train from, basically, January 22 to now, and so am woefully behind in conditioning from where I was at this time last year. Consequently, I've opted out of this weekend's 2nd Annual Rasputitsa.

I'm not doing the Tour de Heifer this year either, despite the fact that the Tour's organizers quoted my write-up of last year's epic ride in their promotional emails. The thing is, my 35th high school reunion falls the day before the Tour and I'm afraid I'm going to be up late that night and will no doubt awaken in no condition to adequately represent Team Shad at this year's Heifer ramble.

So, I have my sights set on the D2R2. By then (late August) my form should be excellent and I anticipate no legitimate reasons that might keep me from tackling the premier event of the gravel road riding season. Allez!

Aside: the photograph of the rider on the D2R2 home page linked to above is, yup, you guessed it, Dubstoevsky (photo courtesy of The Virginian).

As for recent cycling jaunts, there have been two unremarkable outings, April 2nd and April 4th. I flatted out again on the April 4th ride, same front tyre, same spot in the tube. Lucky for me, threatening weather in the form of pissing cold showers and wretched storm skies had prevented me from doing a Reservoir Run so I was just tooling around the local neighborhood hills when I came up lame. I ended up walking about 1/4 mile home. Sigh.

And the weather here in the Woo continues to suck. Today? Cold rain. Tonight? Sleet and fuckety snow. Tomorrow? Rain. Friday? Maybe a glimmer of clearing, but who knows?

The following shots are from the last two outings.

Bancroft Tower, April 2, 2015

Bancroft Tower, April 4, 2015

The run down Institute Rd toward WPI
April 4, 2015