Sunday, August 20, 2006

Deadline ride

Jeff managed to drag Thom P. out of bed super early (for Thom's standards) for an absolute Rip yesterday. The two steel wielding riders arrived at my house at 8:15 and we were off and pedaling by 8:35. A mellow 10 mile spin on the road for 45 minutes through Wenham, Essex and up into Manchester to Mill st and we entered the woods and hit up some techy single track.
Three riders is the perfect number when you need to keep it rolling. We had a One O'clock dead line that we had to meet or a certain Mrs. Whittingham was going to be leaving for a birthday party solo..and that wouldn't have been a good thing.
We flew through Mill st single track and up the back side of B+T's for a tour of Bruce and Tom's on hardtails. Not the appropriate weapon of choice for the free-ride Mecca of the north shore but we made due...and glad we did, it has been a long time since riding some of these challenges.
After making the most in B+T's we hit the road and re-entered the woods at Red Rock. Rounded Haskell Pond and made the climb to Pipeline. Having Tom behind me on these short but challenging climbs was nerve rattling. I'd hear the single speeder revving up his turbine to gain speed in order to crush a climb and didn't want to be in his path. Having gears, Jeff and I pick our way up a steep technical climb but Thom's SS approach involves massive amounts of Mo-Mo-Momentum.
Now, 11:30 and running short on time we agree that stopping to rest is no longer in the game plan. Doubtfull that we can make it home by the 1:00 deadline we rocket down pipeline. At the end it was decision time, Jeff and I look at each other while standing on School st...Ancient line or the road slog home...? Ancient line!
The three of us tear down the low lieing single track section of rock strewn swamp known as Ancient Line faster than a speeding locomotive. Full-on race pace near the end of the trail, a wipe out would have been fugly, thankfully everyone kept their shite together.
12:42 ! We still had time to hit up shiftlever hill and out through Gordon College. Back at my house at 1:02...hows that for timing!
31.5 miles, 3:20 rolling, 1:10 stopped (eating PB+J and playing on stunts in B+T's), 31.6 max speed, 9.4 overall average with 6.3 rolling average. Thanks for a great ride boys.

6 comments:

jeff said...

i get the feeling the "deadline" ride is now the norm... that was a most excellent rip! can't remember destroying that much epic singletrack that quick before.

Andy, R&D said...

maybe we can drag Thom outta bed even earlier next time.

van den kombs said...

Sounds like some intense north shore action. Next time you need to capture some thomP mo-mo-momentum up some of the rocks on video. Did you go down the teeter-toter drop on your hardtail ?
kc

Andy, R&D said...

We stayed away from most of the bigger stunts that I might have been tempted by.

Andy, R&D said...

that movie was taken back in January, it was 20 degrees and I was covered from head to heel in pads.
Sauturday was 80 degrees, wearing an xc kit wouldn't have helped while bouncing off stunts.

van den kombs said...

I still can't believe you can ride that stunt after seeing how steep that drop actually is. Amazing !