An full day on the bike, wonderful rural scenery, frequent stops for Oreos. You just can't beat D2R2. Patrick and I headed out on Friday to camp in the cornfield. It was a little stinky when the wind shifted and hard to sleep with the sound of generators and folks slamming the portopot door all night. Yet, an excuse to run out of work before 4, priceless. We (Patrick and our friend, Tim Young) headed to the local pizza place for dinner and I ran into folks I met 2 years back when I did the 6 Gaps ride. A lot of folks came out for D2R2, the organizers capped it at 650 actually. It was a good opportunity to say hi to many people from the NEBC and many others we've met in our 3 seasons of cycling here. I hadn't seen Doug Janson http://www.northeastcycling.com/ all summer. I'd heard that he broke his ankle in May. Well, he managed to make it back for this ride - and showed me the scar from surgery on the ankle. Wow, that makes me almost not want to try mountain biking.
Sat morning - I was shivering while Tim put the finishing touches on his tie wraps to hold his cue sheet to the handlebars. I put my copy of the God only knows how many turns we have to make in my pocket for emergency use only. We said good-by to Patrick (sleeping in before his 9 am start for the 100 K loop) and checked in with our Cat 1 friend Ryan (to be later referred as "the Ultra-fit") before setting out. Tim and I were on our cyclocross racing bikes, running one chain ring up front. I'll leave the technical talk about gearing to Tim's report (I'll copy in after this) but let me just say, I got bad feeling on the warm up paved section when Tim and I were standing in a group of spinners. Fortunately it didn't take long to get warmed up and progress to chatting. I caught up to teammate Carola and had a nice chat. Then reminisced about last year's ride with a man I met on that section last year. I saw one guy this year run off the road where he had crashed before. This is a nice ride for taking it easy, but it does require some level of focus. You get in a nice 45 min to an hour to start feeling competitive with the surrounding riders and then hit some fast, sharp curves That can be a recipe for disaster. It's best to take it easy, there's plenty of good places to crash later on too.
I was sure happy to have my cross tires on the decent of East Road. That was quite terrifying last year on road tires. Lots of loose gravel, holes, and a few turns. I was slow again this year, but was ok with that.
Mountain road is paved, but it's steep. According to the cue sheet, it is 15% for 3/4 mile. This is where I got my first flat tire last year. In retrospect, although I lost the lead group with that flat, at least it broke the climb up. The climb was definitely longer this year than I remembered it. Without a good climbing gear, I was mashing out of the saddle the whole way and had an aching knee at the 2nd stop. Amazingly, I passed a few spinners on the way up (maybe not so amazing really, as they could take their time, I had to keep moving to not fall over).
There was a lovely field of sunflowers at the stop. I filled a bottle with Heed and headed towards what is described by the cue sheet as 25 miles with almost no flat road. Got a little bonus to that when I led a small group the wrong way down a hill. It was a cool morning and the riding was good. I opted to save my knees and push my bike up the infamous 27% climb on Archambo Road. Tim gave it a go and made it all the way up. Wow, I couldn't wait to catch up and congratulate him on that achievement.
Hmm, no sign of Tim and Ryan on the stretch after the climb, nor on the long, spectacular, steep paved descent through fields. I had to get my directions out to find my way to the on the smooth, gradual paved descent. Looking for red jersey, nope not to be seen. Perhaps, they had met with a really nice group at the top of the hill and headed off into the distance. My progress was now quite stilted as I would get my directions out at each intersection. Usually a guy with a GPS would catch up to me before I figured out the turn. I rode with a few guys and again appreciated my tires as I enjoyed a slow, yet safe and stress free descent of the road where I got my 2nd flat and broke a spoke out from the hub last year. I leapfrogged with a few guys. Passed by them on dirt descents, then catching up quickly enough. With just a few miles to go, I had a large group in my sights - certainly Tim and Ryan were in there. Nope, all guys I didn't know. I gave them a good pull into the lunch spot.
I had a nice sandwich for lunch and was heading back out, when I ran into Tim and Ryan coming into lunch. Apparently, they stopped to wait for me at the top of Archambo and missed me when I went by. It was fortunate that they came along just then. I commenced on a long social break while they enjoyed lunch and a view of the river. There was a small group. The longer I stayed there, the harder it was to leave because more people I knew kept arriving. Patrick came in with a smile on his face. Carola decided to head back early due to ankle and cassette problems.
Ryan, Tim and I rode together for the 2nd half of the ride. It was tough to get the legs going after lunch and good to have company. It was a fun scavenger hunt looking for all of the turns that we had to make. Some of the climbs felt tough after so many miles in our legs. It was great to have an ice cream stop in the middle of one climb. The mashing was slowing Tim down, and I think he wanted to make it up by pushing it a little on the flat sections. I was starting to ever so slightly dread the push up Patten Hill. I remembered this being a tough one last year which required a lot of patience. The climb did not disappoint. It was a good mental challenge. Ryan was out of sight on the 1st pitch - clearly not phased at all by the previous 95 hilly miles. Tim made it up on his mashy gears - and not too far behind. Yea! Time to celebrate with more Oreos, pickles, chips, and pretzels. We marveled at just how long we had been on our bikes (we had left over 8 hours before this stop). This ride can sure stretch out if you let it.
I was the slowpoke down the hill but thanks to the guys for waiting at the bottom. Ugh, there is more climbing after Patten hill. Somehow I'd forgotten that. We made it back safe and happy to the field well before dark. Patrick was waiting there for me to do the optional "corn maze" loop. "No thanks, we've been on our bikes long enough" said Tim and Ryan. It was fun to ride in the corn.
Yea D2R2, what a great day!
The following morning, I explored the area and rode down the valley into Hatfield. I was surprised to see some groups of well muscled athletes pace lining down the opposite side of the road. Then, the groups started to pass me. Wordlessly. I could barely hear them, they would appear in the drizzle at my left shoulder and pull away down the pavement until they were out of sight and it was back to watching the fields passing by change from one crop to another. 3 guys came by and yelled for me to hop on. I jumped, but it wasn't to be. No snap in those legs. I was back to chugging along when I crossed a finish line. It seems that I'd ridden into a team time trial. I had a nice chat with the guys from Cyclonauts multisport club. They told me that the race was to race money for cancer research in honor of one of the club members. They invited me to snacks and it was so tempting, but I didn't want to leave Patrick waiting in a wet tent while I had a great time, so it was off into the drizzle for more farm stand spotting. In the spirit of exploration, I ended up on the wrong side of the bluffs behind the campground, so I got it one last climb on dirt for the weekend.
Here is Tim's account
D2R2 = Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee
http://www.franklinlandtrust.org/randonnee.html
The Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnee was conceived in the 1990's as just a favorite dirt-road loop in the hilltowns of Franklin County, Massachusetts. Since its birth as an organized event in 2005, many have hailed D2R2 as the hardest, most beautiful, most fun, most traffic-free, most unique, and overall best ride that they have ever done. However, D2R2 will continue to maintain is original character as just a bike ride –
* The courses will use the narrowest, oldest, twistiest, quietest, and most-scenic roads available.
* A range of courses will provide access to novices as well as challenge the world's strongest riders.
* D2R2 will never offer prizes for anything other than gags, nor will finish results ever be presented like it was a race.
* Riders shall cover the course in a self-sufficient manner, without motorized crew vehicles.
* The organization will put as much effort into its food offerings as it does the ride itself.
* The event is a key fundraiser for the Land Trust's efforts to preserve land in the region, but the route sheets will always be available on its website for free.
180 km, dirt roads, lots of climbing.
Cue sheet says ~15,000 vertical feet of climbing
One climb at 27%. Lots in the 15% range.
Slept overnight in the field (new Nemo Losi 2P tent... very nice it is! http://www.nemoequipment.com/nemo2010-losi2p-tent).
Ride started at 615am for me and Clara (her husband, Patrick, was doing the 100km which started a few hours later). Ryan was waiting for his crew of Cat 1-2s, so we took off, knowing that they would catch us. Susanne decided (wisely!!??!!) to give her registration to Ryan.
I finished building up my bike on Friday...
Salsa Chili con Crosso, set up for racing, not hill climbing!
I used the DT 1450 wheels with 30c Kenda Quick knobbies (clinchers) at about 80 psi. I didn't want to flat on the bony descents and i wanted traction on the climbs. These tires worked well on both the dirt and the pavement.
Gearing: running 1x10, 40T chainring and an 11-26 cassette. My smallest gear, 40x26, was actually pretty huge compared to the triples and compact gearing everybody else had (i saw several cassettes with 34 or 36 teeth!). I did get my props from several riders, including Ryan, for making (grinding!!!!) it up --EVERY-- climb without walking. Yes, i made it up the 27% grade dirt section, through all the traffic of mostly walking cyclists. At times it felt like i was doing squats for half a hour straight, especially that last, 2 mile climb that even Ryan, a very strong Cat 1, was saying was quite a 'proper' climb. (He was doing the ride on his team Madone, with a 34x25 lowest gear and 25c road tires... well done!).
The roads and scenery was beautiful. The ride supports a land trust to preserve farm land (the area has been farmed since the 1700s, and some of the roads date to that period). The ride sold out at 650 riders, ~half doing the 180km. There were plenty of water stops and good food at the snack stops. The lunch stop had sandwiches and pasta salad catered from a deli... yummy! Somewhere in the middle there was an ice cream truck selling local, homemade ice cream. Deeee-licious!!!!!!! Nothing like fueling up with sugar and dairy in the middle of a hard ride. :-)
Total ride time for me was about 8.5 hrs. We made a coupla wrong turns which added a few miles to the 110 miles of the route. It was pretty tough, especially in the middle miles for me. I didn't spend much time looking at the computer (time), which helped. I tried to keep eating and drinking and pedaling.
Two masters guys (on CCB), who had been riding with Ryan earlier, crashed hard on one of the fast dirt descents and broke their collarbones. Ugh. The last time i saw them on the road they went flying down a descent past me. Sorry to hear that they crashed.
A large group went by me with two national championship jerseys... Jonny Bold and Kevin Hines won them in cyclocross and also both podiumed at the cross world championships this winter.
Overall, this is quite the epic ride. It is very hard, but the effort rewards the rider with great views and tremendous sense of accomplishment. The weather this year was perfect, not hot and a clear sky (Sunday, though, was wet and gray). This was my last hurrah for the summer, as school starts this week, as does cross season (it actually started yesterday... but i wasn't up for racing after 180km). I felt totally fine on Sunday, a little fatigued, but i did sleep about 12 hours.
Gotta wash up the bike, remove the bottle cages and pump, and get it ready to race. Hmmmm, need to glue tires, too...
Thanks for reading.
ty
