Minuteman Road Club

I'm going to start doing a regular friday morning ride starting in Marlboro/Northboro/Berlin area and looking to see if anyone wants to join me. Before moving here, I was a regular on The Friday Ride in Tempe/Phoenix AZ, which is now 10 years old and a year-round fixture amongst my buddies back home. Check it out at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61232657434#

The basics of The FMR are: hills, a sprint, coffee...in that order. The AZ route features four short (sub-km), steep climbs which are each hotly contested. The queen of the hills is "The Castle" on which the grade exceeds 20%. Regrouping occurs at the top of each hill, then it's ON to the top of the next hill. There's a sprint about 1/2 km from the finish, then coffee at Starbucks on Mill Ave in Tempe.

My proposed FMR (subject to futher refinement) starts at my house (duh!) and rolls past Giuseppe's Restaurant (location of coffee/finish) just south of I-290 near the Solomon Pond Mall...through S.Berlin rotary, a little bonus loop for a bit more warm-up, then up Sawyer Hill Rd, up Coburn Rd, up Barnes Hill Rd, up Ball Hill Rd, then down Ball St and back up it. Back to S.Berlin rotary via Green St with the sprint at the sign post just before the rotary as you approach from the west on Whitney St. Warm-down back to Giuseppe's, where they now have a pretty descent coffee/espresso shop that just opened (I forget the name, but it's good to support locally owned).

I propose a start time of 5:30 from my house, rolling past Giuseppe's between 5:35-5:40. It's about 21-22 miles roundtrip from there, so this makes for finish/coffee around 7AM, which hopefully means people have time for a cup-o-joe before being too late for work. I have a finished basement with a shower if anybody needs to drive, then go straight to work after coffee.

I'm doing it this Friday rain or shine. Anyone want to join me?

Douggie! Great idea - love to try to keep up with the sprinters on steep hils (my least favorite part of races), and love espresso. If I wasn't racing Saturday, I might even make it this week.

You don't HAVE to go hard on the hills.

Doug,

This sounds great I'd be all over it (assuming the coffee shop also has tea) if it wasn't in the wrong direction for me to get to work. I won't steal anyone away from you but if there was enough interest in setting something similar up in the Stow, Acton, Maynard, Sundbury area on a different morning I'd be willing to set it up.

John.

I'll be there. Need to get back on the bike.

onegeardoug wrote:You don't HAVE to go hard on the hills.

I do if I want to get dropped less...

Hi Doug -- just curious as to why Fri? Seems like the lowest odds to get a turnout given weekend racing/riding.

I think this is the best day for several reasons:
1) TGIF - rolling into the office a little late seems o.k. on a Friday.
2) Monday is out due to longer weekend rides (and who wants to wake up early on Monday) and Thursday is out since this is in the same general area as the Wednesday night Stow ride (and would probably attract the same riders). That basically leaves Tuesday morning and Friday morning.
3) Tuesday is the week's ugly step-child. No reason to hate it; no reason to love it. That leaves Friday the winner.
4) Realistically there is a 6-week road racing season in NE, the riders for whom this type of ride appeals to (unless crits started adding good sized hills). Attendance would probably vary from the second week of April to third week of May. In March, why go to Charge Pond on Saturday if you can have the same effort on Friday for free.
5) Coffee. I love coffee.
6) Plus when the Tour starts don't we want to convince Doug he should cook breakfast and allow us to watch the Tour on his sure to be purchased 60+ inch HD TV on Fridays after our ride? He could even make FRENCH toast.
7) Doug picked it and we didn't

Can't do it this week... but will be there for the rest of the summer!

I agree with all of Rob's reasons, particularly the transition to the weekend and late for work reasons. Additionally, the FMR was also always very good for weekend ride planning over coffee.

It is possible to do this ride and race the same weekend. I raced MTB for many years on Saturdays, and always did the Friday ride the day before, albiet at a bit lower effort level. Some argue that 2 days before a race should be your real easy day, and that you should do some short, high-intensity efforts the day before a race...which is perfectly suited for this Friday Ride format!

The funny thing is...after a while...and with how big the AZ FMR has become (up to 40 riders!)...performing well on the FMR became more important to me than on actual races. Who would you rather thrash and see suffer: your closest friends that you ride with every week, or a bunch of strangers that you only see a few times a year? Making your friends suffer is one of the simple pleasures in life!

Regarding the Tour de France, I'm totally in for that suggestion. I was going to instigate another transplant tradition: watching the Prologue live with friends, coffee and bagels. In AZ, this was always at like 5:30AM, so kind of a bit stranger than on the East Coast. I'm going to Lake George for the 4th...so this is out for this year. I'm also traveling the 9th - 17th. Saturday 7/25 is the decisive stage on Mount Ventoux though. Standby for a post for a Saturday Ride followed by viewing on the big-screen with espresso. I don't plan to make French Toast, but I do have a Nespresso machine....which is Da-Bomb.

That would be awesome.

Smudger wrote:Doug,

This sounds great I'd be all over it (assuming the coffee shop also has tea) if it wasn't in the wrong direction for me to get to work. I won't steal anyone away from you but if there was enough interest in setting something similar up in the Stow, Acton, Maynard, Sundbury area on a different morning I'd be willing to set it up.

John.

Doug: any plans to do this ride tomorrow (7/10)?

yo onegear, this concept fits my schedule big time( I don't work Fridays). esp the french toast. I'm trying to visualize where Guiseppe's is - I know I've passed it somewhere between the Pic and the Resy - I'll probably drive somewhere near there and hook up . lemme know if you're on for tomorrow. sounds like fun.

I think that this is the location of Giusseppi's.

Any plans to do this ride tomorrow, 7/17?

I'd be "in" if it's happening!

Well I think I'm on my own plan tomorrow since I don't know the area or the roads! Maybe next week...

Chris

ogd wrote that he would be traveling thru the 17th, so he may be out for this Friday