RdR 3.0 the words

Where do you start with a ride like this.  So much build up, so much preparation, logistics, planning and thinking about it really almost starts after the end of the last one.

This year scheduling was working against me for a bit.  My parents are on their East Coast tour and played at the Peace Abbey Saturday night.  No choice but to go, of course.  Who knows if there will be another chance to see my Grandmother's memorialized awards and see her Table (seems the cabinets and table are moving to Umass Boston) in their original setting.  There was initially a chance that they would come home with us and we would spend Sunday together.  If that happened no RdR for me.  It actually went back and forth.  Team Captain (Jerry, the VT Ice Cube) said we were doing it.  Nick was on board, Curtis was too, even though he thought it was going to be on Saturday until a few days before hand.  Gary bowed out to run 17 miles around a mountain and for scheduling conflicts.  We did pick up the great smelling Cort Cramer as a 5th along the way.

It was a bit back and forth for a few week, and then my folks got a gig in Maine for the 15th.  They left the Peace Abbey at 10:30pm or so and drove straight to Pemaquid, ME.  Yeah. Sort of a long drive after a concert.  They are headed back down here tonight, hopefully in time for dinner.  No clue what I'm making yet. I should probably go shopping, we'll see. Could be a crazy make it work dinner, or just a regular burrito/taco salad night, or we go shopping.

The concert in Maine cemented it.  I was going.  Mid-week I was actually trying to get out of it, just wasn't feeling it, I was in a funk and focused on the negative aspects of last year, getting back and racing home to the family dinner (again with my parents on tour).  Nick was persuasive enough, basically saying, you are going to do this, no backing out, period.

So prep began.  Mentally then in action.

Things got checked off the list.  Tires, garmin, bike, cash, food, beverages...  things fell into place pretty effortlessly.  And as each one did, I started to get more excited about it.  The weather initially forecast rain, but I only saw it here in Rhode Island when I was driving.  It was clear and dry before I got to Foxboro.

Saturday was day 3 at the bike shop.  A few evenings followed by the whole day.  I rode in.  Ate a whole pile of Pad Thai (with tofu) from Aspara for lunch.  A handful of pancakes before and after lunch.  When the shop closed at 5 we grabbed some dinner at Hope Street Pizza, saw Brent and Derdowski there (not together, but they do make a cute couple).  Ate, gathered the oldest from her Swan Lake rehearsal and headed north to the Peace Abbey.  Ate.  Lots.  Of. Food.

Snacked on some Easter colored Peanut M&Ms on the drive home.  And once home I started getting stuff together.  Clothes and what not, everything except loading the bike in the car and making breakfast.  I put the MLFN letters on the bike after cutting the ends of the zip-ties holding the Garmin on.  But I was still a bit wired.  Eventually I got in bed around midnight.  But sleep eluded me.  I dozed on and off all night.  Eventually getting up at 5:45.  Very much sleepy and feeling totally un-rested I set about trying to get out of the house by 6:30.  After making a few breakfast sandwiches (my preferred long ride food), grabbing the last two slices of greek pizza (spinach, feta, fresh tomato and olives) from dinner and making a bit of coffee the car was loaded and I drove off in the drizzle at 6:50.  And I slummed and picked up some DD iced coffee.  For the waterbottles.  Yes.  I started the ride with two bottles of Dunkin black iced coffee.

Metallica mix CD from the last race was the sound track for the drive.  I made it.  Pulling a U-turn there at the Tavern at 7:50.  Found Nick and pointed out that he was parked in the one Handicap spot on the street...  he moved his car.  we've both got functional shitbox cars.  He likes to say his is in better shape.  It might be.  But my rust bucket got me there and home w/o issue.  Will it make it another 3-5 years? I really hope so, doubtful though.

It was really actually incredibly easy and quick to get to the Tavern.  Not only is the owner awesome to support the event, but the location kicks ass for getting to.  Helps that there is little traffic at that hour on a Sunday morning.

Cort showed up a bit late, and Jerry and Curtis rolled in later.  We missed the rider meeting, but we were in the later waves.  I think we missed our wave even still.

The goodie bag was labeled CX OMP.  CyclocrossRacing.com team kit has the big CX on it, and OMP? Well OMP is the hashtag for Old Man Power.  We were all old.  And the slowest of us is really not very slow.

Jerry was wearing arm warmers and a baselayer to start the ride.  No one else was.  And we were looking at him funny.  He cracked, melted, sweated his shorts white (they were black at the start).  Maybe he didn't need them?

We rolled out, Jack's Garmin was calculating, but we were moving and it was probably confused.  So I turned it off, and back on, and realized I hadn't started it.  Did that and switched over to Map view mode while Jerry called off the next turn.

Spooky and the Gang was with us at the start.  We rolled off as a group of 8 or 9.  But gapped them in the technical stuff.  First Curtis, then Nick was riding sweet lines through the trails and Cort and Jerry weren't having any trouble keeping up.

There was plenty of "Where to now?" slowing and looking.  Esp hitting the first section of Trail.

But it was fun.  The tires pumped up to 60psi were bouncing off everything and traction was no where near CX racing requirements but it worked.

Total blast being on the edge of crashing.  Two wheel powerslides were the norm.  Plenty of locking up the rear wheel to make the turn.

We popped out and at some point on the roads we wound up heading towards Cutler.  Roads I had ridden on with Cameron and Wilcox, it was pretty sweet.  Traffic was light but we were generally following the lights and the rules of the road.  Waiting for Red Lights and what not.  No breaking the law in the CX OMP gang.

Cutler was awesome.  We caught up with one of the woman's teams in Cutler just before one of the board walks.  We were f'n FLYING through that stuff.  Nick was setting a pretty determined pace and we were freaking railing it and having fun.  Maybe not tongue dragging pace but it was swoopy.  SWOOOPY.  I LOVE SWOOPY.  I pretty much could be heard all over the whole park.  Andy Huff was at the exit changing a flat or waiting for a team mate to change it and he made a comment "oh that was you, makes sense."  I was loud.  It was f'n FUN.

We actually passed a ton of teams.  Some were fixing flats, others were riding slowly, or looking at the cue sheet.  The Quad gang did catch us before the Charles trail IIRC.  They were on a tear.  Pre-riding had given then the route and they were just cranking to set the best time.  Knowing the roads is super key to setting a blistering pace.  Curtis and Nick were setting hot shit pacing on the road sections.  Jerry was hanging on and Cort was just wicked hung over.  But he smelled nice.

At some unknown point Nick ejected a bottle out of his crappy plastic holders.  But who knows where.  Then at some section of trail he actually lost the second one, but noticed it and went back for it.

Honestly there is a bit of blurr in my brain as to how it all links together.

We lost the Quad train when Jerry broke a chain.  As in broke off, had to turn around and look for it.  Just as nick and I settled in to eat he comes bombing down the hill chain fixed and drops us.  Fucker fixed a busted chain in less than 3 minutes.

It was enough to lose the Quad express but we motored and and powered on.  I was working my ass off to close the gap.  Jerry and Curtis and Cort were flying and me and Nick were going as hard as we could to close the gap.  There was lots of that.  Lots of going flat out to catch up after some sections.

We came out of the trail not quite sure where we were supposed to go after a gap and a wrong turn but caught back on. I think that was where we saw the Chip and stache express.  And what Nick and I were drilling it to catch back.  Or maybe it was me and Jerry. I dunno.  But we got back on and dropped the NEBC gang.

A couple steep run ups would have been easier with toe spikes.  Honestly I was expecting to see the Chipster cleaning EVERYTHING but he wasn't.  CX OMP had skills.  Even me.  I was hopping shit left and right.  There were a handful I had to dismount but the guys would get off and I'd just slow down, let em clear it and then ride it clean.  Was a fucking BLAST.

Trails don't suck.  Well the bumpy rocky ones do.

And the one right after the Cumby farms one REALLY sucked.  We hit it at 25 mph and Nick's bottles ejected at the same time my bike made a terrible crack sound as my bars rotated a degree (alloy no worry) but it hurt.  And then it was old rail bed and those guys weren't slowing down.  Took a bit to get back on the train.

We did stop for water at the Cumby.  I bought a gatorade and a gallon of water.  Wound up with 1/2 a gallon left when everyone was topped up but then marky mark showed up and gratefully took my offer of the cold water.  A quick stop, and really the only non-mechanical stop.  No RSC, no Bagel place.

At one point Chip got a flat and Curtis realized his wheel problem was because the spoke on the mavic had come out.  Took longer to get that sorted than Chip's flat tire change (yes, Jerry's Pedro's tool had the mavic spoke wrench).  And we lost them for a bit.  But caught up just by being awesome on the trails.

After the water stop and while we were cruising at 22mph on the old rail bed behind the Aumiller express Jerry was mostly OTB so I drifted back to give him a draft and hopefully keep him from cracking more and getting him back to the group.  But well.  I guess I missed seeing a big rock and he nailed it with the front wheel.  Hard enough to rotate his bars and pinch flat.  I didn't see it, but still feel bad about it.  I should have seen it.  Oh well.

The flat meant the Chipstick train was gone.  Our massive advantage was driving away, along with DJ.  Hale had a little shuffle speaker thing on his bike cranking out beats the whole time.  It alternated being annoying and entertaining.

My brain can't remember how it all linked up well enough while writing.  If you were on the ride with me you can probably piece the sections here together better.

The railbed stava speed section was crazy sketchy and fun.  We were flying along it, like FLYING.  Curtis was way up there and Matt was drilling it with chip, uri, me, hale, then cort, nick jerry...  flying.  Uri washed out before we went up and over the road and started the speed section and then for some reason chip jumped to the rail bed, so I did, but I nearly ate shit, but saved it.

Felt nice to have handling save my bacon more than once.

Jerry caught a good stick at some point and went over the bars only to get run over by Chip.  I was in the back but nick said it was pretty funny.

Jerry's flat though.  Back to that.  He got the old tube out and the new one in pretty quickly.  But his CO2 blew its wad w/o doing anything.  Then he broke out the pump, only to find the tube to be not working, despite being in the fancy Schwalbe tube bag.  I handed over a spare SV15 tube i had in my jersey pocket and eventually Jerry got it fixed.  Everyone had blown through at that point and we were alone.  Navigating and drilling it when we could.

Tempo was everything.  Every hill was a challenge to keep Jerry attached to the group.  But the last section of trail my handling was gone.  Jerry said I was over cooking every corner.  And I was.  I was fucking them up good.  But we didn't really get lost.  And then at some point we found the Cambridge boys with a busted rear dear on one bike and Cort realized he knew where we were and we set pace for home.

So much fun.  I cracked once or twice from not eating enough soon enough, and then not drinking enough soon enough.  But that's what you get for going hard and having fun.  You forget about stuff like that.

Also not as many chances for photographs.

But.

It

was

a

fucking

BLAST

seriously maybe the most fun i've had on a bike since I don't know when.

Really did feel like Mark's spirit was with me.  Just happy and full of fun.  Just like he always was.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  Maybe all the red lights that the Chipstick and Aumiller express were running.  Seriously they were doing this Alley Cat 'breaking the law' style, red lights? meant nothing if the road was clear.

We certainly looked pretty damn pro, the 4 of us in matching kits, smooth and steady.  It really did feel like  a team.  Never a doubt about the other guys.  100% trust in their line choice and abilities.  A comfort you have to look long and hard to find #TWSS (had to be done).  Was nice.  Cort's not on the same team but he's got that same skills and that level of good friend that trust comes from.  Would have been even more awesome if Gary had been there.  But it was a wicked solid awesome Team bonding experience.

We stuck together.  No question.  No one left behind.

That ride.

Was.

Awesome.

Thanks to RoseyScott, Chip and Aumiller, Gus and everyone else.  So awesome that it raised some cash for Bikes not Bombs.

Seriously Awesome.  Scott's recap is up now.

Once again I didn't stick around for the Raffle.  But I was tired, and was falling asleep on the drive home, a beer would have been bad, and that's what was going on inside.  Also feeling somewhat anti-social.  Had a burger outside the Tavern with Nick after Jerry and Curtis left for the Sox game and Cort headed home to his dog.  So tired.

Legs were so fried.  I was never at my limit, but I was so close and the end was starting to hurt quite a bit.

I think it was harder than the ride with Dean.  Despite being 1/2 as long.

The headset loosened up quite a bit on the ride, but that's fixed now.  Strava has been uploaded.  So where did we ride? Here's the map, speed and elevation profile.

Legs are still destroyed today, but I haven't ridden at all, so that's probably part of it.  Lazy day off at home with the girls on a vacation day. A good opportunity to write this up.

Re-read? Proof-read? Not a fucking chance.  At least not at the moment.  If i messed something up, feel free to correct me.

This was fun.  I might have to make a point to hit some more trails with the CX bike.  or maybe even dust off the Mt Bike.  CX bike would be better though, if nothing else to be sharper when CX season rolls around.

enough words?

maybe...

yes

but one more:

Heddwch
G