6/15- Andover to Fitchburg

Before the official ride report, I think it's important to wish my dad a happy father's day. Without his hard work and dedication to our family, I would not be fortunate enough to be enjoying the benefits of this trip.

Total distance (on my garmin, not on the whole time)= 40.6 miles
Total time 2:36:48
Average speed- 15.5mph
Max Speed- 33.6 mph
Total Calories- 2796

Today we rode 45 rainy miles from Andover to Fitchburg. By the time we were on the road in the early morning, it was not only raining, but pouring. Thankfully the group was in pretty good spirits and we had a really good time riding on some beautiful suburban/country roads that also featured the first climbing weve encountered.

I happen to love riding in the rain, as I think it reminds me of collegiate cycling (especially the Philly crits in 2006 and 2008), so I was uber excited to be on the road. It's very liberating to ride regardless of what mother nature has thrown our way, rather then staying indoors.

The weather made me ride a lot faster then I might have otherwise, as by midday the weather had cleared up and by then we were just cold and wet. We reached our host destination of a Unitarian Universalist church by 2pm, but had to wait several hours before the van arrived, so I took the time to clean my bike and show other people how to do likewise, and participated in another one of our group leader sophie's eight minute ab sessions (Although advertised as "the best eight minutes of your life", I would argue otherwise)

I am on laundry crew this week, so after showering we collected everyones dirty laundry and went to the local laundromat so that we all have clean clothes for the next 3 days. Hooray for clean clothes!

On a totally unrelated note, the Garmin 705 is again paying major dividends not only for its amazing routing and mapping information (today I was able to reroute the group when one of the roads we were supposed to take was in fact a dirt road), but also for its announcement that in 2009, it will work with the Saris Powertap.

Tomorrow features 51 miles of hilly climbing to Amherst with more heavy rain likely....