75 degrees on April 9!

Scouting the weather for this week, Tuesday (today) was the clear premier day.   It was going to rain late overnight, stop by 7 or so, and clear up to a sunny warm early spring day.   It looked like Wed through Friday would be colder and rainy (although Wednesday is looking up at this point).

There's another Populaire ride out of Ride Studio Cafe, and the regular Tuesday 10am group was going to follow the route today.    Neighbor Clyde often rides the Tuesday ride, and I emailed him to see if he was going to join them.  He wrote back that my query settled it, he was going to do it, and proposed we ride there and back.

So we did.   And I wrote Pamela and got the Brevet card, making it my second Populaire in 3 days.  I remembered to take a pen this time, but promptly left it at the start, so I had to borrow again.

One thing to note is that I put on my slip on fenders since the roads were still wet heading out.  A couple people were using the SKS Race Blade Clip On / Clip off fenders.  These seem superior because 1) they mount at the brake not the stays, so they're more stable, 2) the mount points stay in place, but the fenders clip off making them easy to put on or off depending on the weather, and 3) they extend further down the tire than my current clip-ons, causing less spray for those behind you.    I think I'll invest in a pair of those later this season.

No pics today, just enjoyed the ride, but I will add the weather did exceed expectations, certainly into the mid 70s and my Garmin showed it hitting 82 at some point.


Mileage Today: 90 miles
This Month: 222 miles
This year: 1185 miles
Since Aug 2006:  15736 miles

Inaugurating the new RUSA Haystack Permanent

Yesterday marked my first century of the year, and also tipped the annual odometer over 1000 miles.   This is the earliest that either of those things have happened I believe.

The occasion was the first ride of Pamela Blalock's new permanent, number 1911 at RUSA and named Haystack RSC-1720.    So it also counted as a sanctioned event, a "Populaire" in Randonneur lingo.  Pamela and her husband John Bayley are fixtures in the local cycling scene, and I was excited to meet Pamela and ride one of her rides ("Pamela" routes are famous here in New England).

The ride left from Ride Studio Cafe at Lexington Center and was a 62.3 mile ride, so I decided to make a meandering route to and fro to accumulate a century for the day.     I headed out around 9am and went through Concord, into Lincoln past Walden Pond, over a couple hills, arriving to Lexington at about 10:10 am.   Just enough time to get my Brevet Card, meet some fellow riders, and order up a Cortado (like a Macchiato but with more steamed soymilk, sorta half way to a latte) and a croissant (I do allow myself to cheat a little when on long rides).

There were 10 people doing the ride, but a couple went out fast, a few dropped back, and we wound up with a core group of 4 plus two on a tandem that were mostly with us.  (Tandems scream on the descents but are slow on the climbs, so they paced a little differently and would be with us for awhile and then gone either ahead or behind).

There were 4 info checkpoints on this rides, spots where you have to stop and look at something to answer a question in your brevet book -- it's the RUSA way to make sure you actually cover the route.  Here we are at the second one.

The route is named after the MIT Haystack observatory, at the top of a high hill in Westford (or, what passes for high this close to Boston).   I'd never been up there, and it was fun to see the different radio telescopes, imaging radars, and other neat things.

The second "control point", a spot where randonneurs have to buy something and get a time-stamped receipt, is at Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe.   I'd never been here, even though it's no more than 4 miles from my home.   Check out the yelp rating!    The noodles were great, and they were vegetarian, but not really nutritarian and they were a bit heavy in oil.    Something I'll reserve for a treat, but I'm glad to have learned about it.

And then it was just 17 miles back to Lexington.   Some new roads for me on this ride, and it was fun to learn some new stuff to add to my repertoire.   It was time to sign and turn in the Brevet cards, and enjoy a snack with my new friends.

I wrapped the day up with a easy-paced ride back through Concord center, up Strawberry Hill, and then added a few miles by going up West St and down 27.

I was pretty happy with my clothing choices.  It was in the mid 30s when I left, and warmed up to the high 50s (it was breezy though).    I almost wore my winter jacket, but instead wore my Marino wool long sleave jersey and used my Showers Pass jacket as a heavy windbreaker.    I took a buff for my neck and a synthetic cap.   All of this kept me warm enough when starting out and I wore it for the first half of the ride.  After lunch I stowed the jacket and switched from my winter gloves to my full fingered spring gloves.  I got cold on the way home and put the jacket back on.  It worked out perfectly.

In the category of ride mistakes, I did learn from my early season mistakes on my prior ride.  Prepping the day before is definitely the right way to do it.   The only think I forgot was to take a pencil or pen, for filling in the answers on the brevet card.   Doh.  Luckily I could borrow one since I was riding with others.  Next time (esp if soloing): bring a pen.

Mileage Today: 101 miles
This Month: 132 miles
This year: 1095 miles
Since Aug 2006:  15646 miles