Anyone else riding 136 miles & drinking New England's best beer on 6/16/7?

[celticfrost]

OK, there may be some debate as to what is New England's best beer, but my vote goes to Harpoon and Magic Hat, but since Magic Hat doesn't sponsor any rides, I registered for Harpoon's 7th annual B2B (brewery to brewery) ride : http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/index.cfm?pid=28553

I'm living in Colorado now (and have to special order Harpoon at the "packy" here :) ), but lived in New England for 15 years. I've got about 4 months (once the snow melts) to get back into riding shape & figure out the best way to get my bike out there or rent/ borrow something in Boston.

Any BF'ers doing this? And if you are and you see me there, please have mercy if I bonk.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j203/TeteDeCourse/B2Belevation.jpg

[GuitarWizard]

Can't say that I will be....

[Markedoc]

Hi Celtic -

I did the ride last year; didn't sign up for it this year. Many people do it every year, but for me, once was enough. It's a LONG day considering you have to drive into Boston, get ready to ride, ride 136 miles, wait in a long ass line for a shower, eat, take a bus back to Boston, and drive home. I'd say the worst thing about the ride was the long ride back (~3 hours) after. A bunch of us are going to do some loop ride, like the ride around the Quabbin Reservoir this year instead.

Some observations from last year:

There was TONS of food at the stops at mile 50 and 100. I carried a lot more than I needed. Also, given that the only stops were at 50 and 100, I probably would have brought a third bottle on one of those seat post bottle racks. I'm a bottle an hour guy.

The peletons seemed all over the map - seems like people more or less start whenever they feel like it. So the first peleton (leaves at some ungoldly hour like 6am) isn't all slow pokes. So if you can, do the ride with a decent sized group of people you know that will keep a nice, rotating pace line up for the entire ride. I ended up in a few groups that were too slow and with everyone so spread out, you are kinda stuck there unless you want to go it alone for awhile. After the second stop, I connected with a guy who was my pace and we swapped back and forth pulling and went from mile 100 to the end together.


Also, that profile is deceiving - it wasn't really that hard of a ride (except for the length of it). Some decent climbs going into NH but nothing too hard. Weather was just about perfect last year - hope and pray for a nice day!

PS - I also didn't see a sign-up option for no jersey this year. One is nice for a souvenier, but I didn't think the quality was great.

[tomg]

celtic, et al:
i have a size xxl jersey that has harpoon logo on it. real cool jersey, but too large for me (down to xl).
anyone want to buy it, let me know! wish i could attend ride; have fun!
tomg

[celticfrost]

Markedoc -- thanks for the info and advice. I'm not too enthused about a 3 hour bus ride back to Boston. I may have a friend or my girlfriend there (at the finish in Vermont) to haul my carcass back to Boston.

I think(?) there was a no jersey option on active.com registration. I've got 3 Harpoon jerseys -- a black one, a yellow one (both made by Cannondale) and a blue one (made by VOmax). The VOmax one is the nicest IMO.


tomg -- you can keep an eye on the ride website. I think sometime around May, some people may opt to sell their registrations.

[Markedoc]

Did anyone do this ride yesterday?