Portsmouth, NH, to Worcester, MA

"Cloudy. A chance of showers with patchy drizzle in the morning...then showers likely in the afternoon. Patchy fog. Highs in the upper 60s. Light and variable winds. Chance of rain 70 percent."


Fortunately, they got the forecast wrong once more. Although we rode under cloudy skies all day, it only started to sprinkle during the last ten miles to the hotel. It's raining now, but who cares? I'm inside and dry.


Each morning, we take our bicycles and bags to the driveway in front of the night's motel. At 7:30 AM, riders sign out (you can see then lined up in one of the pictures above.


The rider is Jack, from Israel, who rode with us on XC09 from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. Jack is the youngest rider on this trip, a mere 51 years old. He competes in triathlons and is extremely strong, definitely one of the Big Dogs. I'm green with envy over his bicycle; it's a Lynsky Helix with a polished Titanium frame. The tubes are rectangular and twisted to give the frame the proper stiffness, but with a softer ride. I was looking at Lynsky Ti frames when I bought my Colnago.


Today's route took us inland on State Road 111 through some pretty countryside and small towns. We had been warned that today's route involved a lot of climbing, but it turned out to be more rolling than hilly; at least that's what it seemed like to me. Even though my Garmin recorded 4,000 feet of climbing, it wasn't difficult. I began the day with the usual group: Al, Jack, and Peter, plus Mike T and Don. Before the first SAG stop, Jack noticed his rear tire was going flat once more - one of the support cars came along and stopped to help. Peter, Al, and I continued on. Al was having another mechanical problem - he couldn't get his right shoe unclipped from the pedals and stopped to fix it. Al and I didn't wait for him and rolled into the second SAG stop with Mike. Peter wasn't ready when Mike and I left the stop and we didn't see him or Al for the rest of the day. At mile eighty, I stopped at my first Dairy Queen of the trip and rewarded myself with a chocolate shake! Mike left me and I finished the ride by myself, just beating the rain. Traffic and poor roads made the ride into Worcester unpleasant, but I pulled into the Hampton Inn parking lot and the day was over.


Worchester, MA (wuss ter) (1673)
Pop 181,000 elevation 480'
The monkey wrench was invented in Worchester in 1840. Much of the barbed wire for the opening of the west and for use in WWI was made in Worchester.


95.1 miles; 5:55 riding time; 4,058' of climbing; 5,027 Calories.