D2R2 Mini-Camp: With Wing Nut in the Western Mass Hills

Under two weeks to go until the crescendo of the summer season arrives, the D2R2.

Today, Team Shad came together in the hills of western Mass for a mini training camp to gauge our form and the state of our machines. We did 50 miles and exceeded 5,000 feet of climbing, a little less of what we'll face on Saturday, August 20th.

I learned something crucial - my gearing is wrong. I've ridden the Rasputitsa and two or three short training rides on my current set-up but until today I never thought to myself "Why is climbing so hard? WTF?"

We'd hit a climb and I'd be on my easiest gear out of the saddle hammering and Wing Nut would be in the saddle casually turning over his peddles with ease, not even on his lowest. It didn't make sense, Except it did because I've got a 36x28 set-up. D'oh! Wing Nut's riding a 34x32, a much more appropriate climbing ensemble.

This is important because Team Shad is doing the "mystery ride," described in one of the latest D2R2 emails as follows.

6) Mystery Riders. Wow. You guys are in for some crazy s***. Sometimes we send you down paved roads that are too cool to pass up, and other times we send you down, by far, our gnarliest stuff ever. Don't stress it, however: the roughest sections will have workarounds depending on your tire size. Overall, do not attempt this ride on less than 32c's, and those of you on hardtail mountain bikes will have a complete blast with some of the 200-year-old jeep tracks. You will have lunch at the 160K lunch site. The difficulty of the last 25 miles is sensational, but, as always, the aesthetic and historical qualities of the roads will be equally mind-blowing. Literally, the Mystery finishes with three Patten-caliber climbs and five gnarly sections. Yeah, gang, holy s***.  In a couple weeks, we will give more route description and some pictures of a couple spots so you know what this is like. Overall, though, the message is: fat tires and save up for the last 25.

"The difficulty of the last 25 miles is sensational." Um, this alone mandates a gearing reconfiguration. But having hammered my way through today's 50 miles with my current set-up, I'm buoyed at least to know that late in the D2R2, I'll have a gear so low that I'll be able to lock into a slow steady grind rather than a quad-cramping pump hammer. I've got the fitness - I just need the right number of teeth.

And how'd the camp go today? Given the statewide drought, the roads are bone dry, many with loose gravel, sand, relentless washboards. Climbing the steepest slopes requires total concentration and attention to line. When you're out of the saddle and digging hard, you don't want your rear tire to pass through a sand patch or spin out on a bed of gravel.

At one point, maybe in Ashfield, we visit the giant old stone kiln.

The kiln of champions

Dubstoevsky and the portal of Shad

Wing Nut, guardian of the portal