Consolation Prize

I did not race this weekend.  It was outside "The Radius".
BUT
that freed me up to just ride.

Friday Doug asked me if I wanted to ride Pennwood.  Pennwood?  The Happiest Place on Earth?  Of course I did.
But being Doug, we weren't going to drive to the trailhead on the Simsbury / Bloomfield town line, we were going to ride to the trail head...mostly on trails...which equates riding Pennwood with a little 30 mile with +3000' of elevation gain jaunt.
Doug, Dave and I all found our way to Res 6 and headed North.
On the way back we picked up a rider.  A student studying for his PhD in Sports Physiology.
He was out riding without water.
He swore alot.
Then he broke his chain.  He swore some more.  Doug fixed it.  We were close enough to the trailhead that we stopped waiting for him.




Saturday, the day of The Massasoit Lung Opener, as a giant blob of precipitation settled over the Northeast.   Neal, another racer who stayed home, and I commiserated with one another by trying to find as many climbs as we could at the res in mid-forties temps and pouring rain.


Finally, before the holiday chaos kicks into high gear I enjoyed a mind clearing little spin on the Fun Machine to mentally prepare myself for the days events.



Not racing wasn't so bad after all.