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