2006 Ride Results and Notes

Date Ride TimeNotes
03-19-2006 Westfield 100K 4:09 Cold!
04-30-2006 Westfield 200K 8:49 Lovely day spiced up by a spectacular rim failure.
05-06-2006 Boston 200K 7:10 Seven hours of breathless paceline with Jeff Scornavacca, John McLellan, Bill O'Mara, and the rest of the Boston gang. Chip Coldwell accidentally rode a fixed gear!
05-14-2006 Westfield 300K 12:20 Huge storm at the start: "What are we doing here?!" We hammered in the wet darkness with Bryan Johnson and Dan Levesque, the road covered in broken branches, only to wait in the cold for the first checkpoint to open. I was almost hypothermic on the climb at Bash Bish Falls. French fries after the ride never tasted so good.
05-20-2006 Boston 300K 12:21 Pleasant ride on a sunny day, one week before the official event because I had a schedule conflict. Chip and Walter Page also started with me, and Chip cycled with me the whole way, waiting for me when stomach issues slowed me down on Rt.169 in Connecticut. Chip went on to ride the event on the official date as well.
06-03-2006 Westfield 400K 17:56 Wettest ride of my life: 18 hours of uninterrupted rain, heavy at times. My bike computer died and Rick Gowen's lights short-circuited. I owe many thanks to Jeff, Chris Candiello, and Dustin Baker for taking care of me when, cold and hungry, my body almost shut down on the final climb to Becket, MA. I could not have swallowed another Power Bar if my life had depended on it.
06-17-2006 Boston 400K 15:42 Record time for me for a 400K, despite two flats. Good weather conditions and a well-coordinated paceline made for a ride two and a half hours shorter than the Westfield 400K just two weeks earlier. I rode the whole way with Chip, Dan, Chris, Bill, and Glen Slater. Jeff was with us until Bullard Farm, when he decided to ride back with Kris Kjellquist. Rick, Russ Loomis, and Ted Lapinski were also part of the group at various times. All in all, a really fun New England crowd reunion.
06-24-2006 Westfield 600K 27:58 For scenic value and memorable stories, this was probably the best ride of the year, and my fastest 600K to date. Night start in fog and light drizzle, but the forecast rainstorm spared us and we rode most of the way in sunshine. I had the pleasure of riding the whole way with Jeff, Ted, Melinda Lyon, Bengt Schneider, and Tom Dembinski.
07-08-2006 Boston 600K 29:29 Somewhat sadistic course with over 20K feet of climbing, including one rough unpaved section, on a very hot weekend. I raced to get home in time to watch the soccer world cup final (which Italy won!). Burt Prokop probably saved my life by waking me up when I dozed off at 40mph after 24 hours on the bike. Meanwhile Chris hallucinated that I was wearing sweatpants, and when the road became really steep his front wheel lifted up and he fell over backwards. So it goes when manly men do manly things! :)
07-29-2006 Boston 300K 12:15 Ken Abrams, Dan, and I reached Voluntown, CT at 9am, on track for a 10.5-hour finish. That was before the humid heat set in and ruined our party, forcing me to stop several times to dunk my head in water and fill my jersey pockets with ice. Many thanks to Tracey Ingle for always showing up with her support vehicle and ice chest at just the right time. Ironic to have such problems with the heat after the cold and rain earlier in the season.
08-17-2006 BMB 1200K 61:22 Two lessons: power-naps work miracles, and guys from Florida sure can climb.
11-25-2006 Moss Beach Ramble (207K) 7:31 A fine introduction to the central California coast. Beaches, cliffs, rolling meadows, damp redwood forests. Gale-force north wind.
12-26-2006 King City Ramble (229K) 8:11 A visually stunning ride: grassy, oak-studded hillsides; vineyards; distant views of the Coast Range under a stormy sky punctuated by shafts of sunlight. Gale-force south wind.