2007 B2B Recap

Happy Father's Day!



This year the club had 7 riders in the B2B with two first year riders:
Ari Shocket
Andy Willett
Dylan Sanders
Eric Thorbahn
Jay Mozek (first year)
John Moore (first year)
and yours truly...



We started in Southie @ 7:15am w/a group of 19-20mph riders. Weather was absolutely perfect. As usual, the staff at Harpoon had the thing planned to perfection. (For those that haven't participated in a Harpoon sponsored event, you really need to. They are by far the best cycling friendly sponsor around)

The roll out thru Boston is magnificent. Sun's coming up and you're rolling thru the financial district and then over the "Salt & Pepper" bridge with a stunning view of the Back Bay and Charles River.




The pace in the city/Cambridge/Arlington is pretty controlled around 15-17mph. Once we got into Arlington heights we started to pick it up a bit.

We got the pace comfortably up to 20-22 from there on out. BHCC did a fair amount of the work to mile 50 which gave us a 20mph average to that point including the roll thru Boston!



Unfortunatley the first 50 showed some of us what kind of day we were going to have later...
The next 25 miles is pretty hilly. The first big hill is in Ashby It's a really pretty climb thru a tree covered pass w/stonewalls and a river. Very scenic! This year we were well behaved! Nice steady 12-13mph pace. The only action was a town line sprint on the climb. Clean heels for JP





Once came over this pass it was Dylan's turn. He put on show as to how to handle a long climb. Steady consistent pace. High cadence exclaimated with the "Praying Mantis" position...


After you make it thru this series of hills there is an unofficial rest stop at a Mobil Station. We pulled in and restocked our drinks and got some tasty junk food (Potatoe chips, candy bars, anything but GU!!!) BTW: still at a 20mph pace...


The next 25mi to the official 100mi rest stop was fairly uneventful. More of the same rolling hills, gradual decents, occasional head/cross winds. At the 100 we noted we'd maintained the 20 pace which was from the Brewery in Boston, so a fantastic effort by everyone! First year guys, Jay and Johnny, were looking good and anxious to finish.

The last leg of the ride isn't as well advertised, probably because no one can remember that part of course given the delusional state they're in, but it is probably the toughest. You come out of the rest area and do about 10-12 miles of big NH/VT rollers. Very tiring! After the rollers, there's a 3mi climb thru a wooded area that is probably the steepest climb on the course and at mile 120 it hurts. A sampling of the guys thoughts on that climb were best summed up as "Cruel"









Sticking to last year's playbook, the BHCC group splintered in this part of course. As I had mentioned earlier about the first 50mi telling some guys how the rest of the day was going to be, namely me, I gave in to a head/chest cold that had gotten progressively worse over the day and rolled off the back of our group at mile 115. The creep home was painful to say the least! The rest of the guys stuck together in small groups; Smooth w/himself, Dylan & Shocker, Eric, Andy, & Jay. The final pace for the lead group was 20.1mph! Nice, nice work!!! Yours truly managed to limp to the finish w/a 19 average.

Great post ride barbie and brews. Awesome group of riders. Lots of story telling on the bus ride home. And plenty of tired legs! The day ended w/a post ride feed back in Boston at La Poloma in the Big Q. Margarita's and mexcian fare for everyone.

Mark your calendar for 2008!




-JP
_________________
Tailwinds Forever

Click Here For More Photos From The 2007 B2B