Here is a picture of Brian in front of the some of the Saturday crowd. You know that he took the picture himself. He says that the ride is better just because he rode with us. What do you think? Many of us are not sure. 🙂
It was a great Father’s day weekend. During the week many of us rode with Crack’o’dawn club to Provincetown from Plymouth. This is a favorite ride of many members. Judy has been doing it for years. Mohammed’s first P2P was on Wednesday. Glenn did it for his third time. Arvella is in the CycleLife jersey, but she is a South Shore Biker, too. John is on the left.
We had a great weekend. Many rode the Marshfield loop on Saturday. A number of made it into a 55 mile ride from Halifax. The weather held for us. We had a bit of weird set of weather for the weekend, but we make do. Best to enjoy rather than be miserable. A storm front moved across the region on Saturday. The humidity level was high. It rained on the people heading to Vermont while we had sunshine.
On Sunday in the western regions toward the Berkshires we had lots of wind. We were equipped for the wind with the men soldiering against the huge Atlantic winds battering us on the coastal route.
Climbing to the top
John took some of us on the 7 Hills Wheelmen Quabbin Century. This century features a lot of climbing. My garmin registered 8,000 in elevation gain. The first picture shows John in his SSB jersey on the climb to the Quabbin observation tower. This tower is in the southern part
Looking at the Quabbin from the bottom
of the reservation. The place is massive. We would eventually reach the northern part, later. The metric group – they only rode 60 miles – would ride with us to the southern part of the Quabbin for the view. They would not ride to the tower with us.
At the bottom you could ride along the water for a bit. There are several dams. When we left the Belchertown area of the reservation, then we headed towards Windsor. On the way to Windsor there was a steep descent. You could pick up speed but the the reservation funnels wind across one of the set of dams.
Tom reviewing the massive amount of water
You are up higher than the surrounding terrain. The dams are over 100 feet tall. They are like large earthern works. The wind rips across the water.
At the top
The climb to observation tower features a 5% grade for 1 mile. We were happy to reach the top. The road features a wide and smoothly paved road. This is great stuff. All of the rated climbs are actually outside of the Quabbin Reservation. Strava counted 5 rated climbs for this course. We had more elevation gain than the folks that rode the B2VT.
Closing on Rutland…in Oakham
The last picture is around mile 92. A steady climb for miles concludes at this small village. The next descent would start at the other side of this stop sign. Just one big hill to go after this descent according to one gentleman. He neglected to consider the absolute last hill on the final approach to the carpark. Still, the roads in Rutland were great. The smooth pavement really helped.
Linda Adams, one of our ride leaders, is raising money for MS. She is riding MS Global with Tyler Hamilton! All of the donations go to the MS Global fund which contributes to research and treatment for MS patients.
We had 20 riders on Saturday’s coastal route. A number of the members stopped in Cohasset along the flags for our soldiers. The VFW sets the flags for Memorial day. They work hard on their tribute to our soldiers. It was hot on the Saturday. Several brothers from our sister club, the Apostles, rode with us on Saturday. We also saw some of the MBRC guys, too.
Our man, Keith, was back to riding after having two kids. We missed him! He was in the front group. He did not miss a beat.
Starters include a new rider from out of town, Larry, Eugene, Allison, Dan, Action Jack Murphy, Tom, California Mike, Judy, Julie, Linda, Irish Liz, Len, & Pam.
Everyone did the standard coastal route. Some rode the “box.” It has been repaved by the town of Scituate. It takes you past Minot Beach. In the distant on the water is the lone tower of the Minot Lighthouse.
There was a well deserved rest spot at Coffee Corner for ice coffee on Saturday. The temperature reached 95F. During the early hours of Sunday morning a cold front would move across the region. It would turn to fog in Nantasket Beach. Yet, there was brillant sunshine and clear skies across Martha’s Vineyard
On Sunday a bunch of us went for a tour of Martha’s Vineyard. We rode 55 miles on the Shining Sea Bikepath and around the island. Liz did her first week of 5 days of consecutive riding. In the picture are Linda, Len, Lauren, Patti, Liz, and Bill.
Below is a picture of Greg during his 80 mile tour of the South Shore on Sunday. It was a cold day on the south shore. It was hot and muggy on the Vineyard. Greg is happy to get out there riding!
Here is a picture of Brian in front of the some of the Saturday crowd. You know that he took the picture himself. He says that the ride is better just because he rode with us. What do you think? Many of us are not sure. 🙂
P was on Wednesday. Glenn did it for his third time. Arvella is in the CycleLife jersey, but she is a South Shore Biker, too. John is on the left.
