NBW-129: Diamond Hill One

Good Turnout

I don't know how many riders turned up, but there seemed to be quite a lot. I told a fellow Tuesday evening rider, Scott, about this ride. As I drove in I saw him riding in.

Scott's First NBW Ride, originally uploaded by Martinator.

I know Scott from the Phat Tuesday rides. This is his first year riding and he is kicking butt.

Monica Sends us Off

Monica Giving the Pre-ride Talk, originally uploaded by Martinator.

Monica giving the pre-ride speech.

Start by Climbing out of the valley

The first 3.7 miles of this ride was a couple of climbs that took us from the park (@ 221") to the top of a hill near the Big Apple (@ 473"). It had the effect of stretching out the large group into many smaller groups rather early. This was good as it was a lot harder to wind up with the wrong group of riders (either too fast or too slow).

Familiar Territory

I live just north of the ride start in Franklin, MA. I have already biked on just about every road on the route at one point or another (with the exception of the rotary in Norfolk, I typically avoid that). I didn't take any pictures along the route. It was all pretty familiar to me so nothing really jumped out as picture worthy like the incredible views from the Hill and Gully Ride a few weeks ago or the South Shore Century I did in May of 2007.

Wrong Turn

I was with a group on Miller and I guess the arrow was either hard to see or just plain not there. Miller is a weird street. There is a really bad intersection on Miller where you have to make a left to stay on Miller, yet the right of way bears right onto Green. This is newly paved and the intersection is ambiguous to begin with. Well, everybody I was with turned right. I said "Um, I think we were supposed to go left back there." The group stopped at Chestnut Street (where there were return arrows for the ride back.) I turned around and headed back and people followed me. Then we were back on track.

Overall the ride was very scenic, though traffic was somewhat heavy at times. I was able to hang with a group of riders until we made a right off of Rt 27 onto South St. in Medfield at about the 35 mile point. Then it was a solo ride. I felt pretty good at the end. Hopefully I'm in good enough shape for the TCFE this upcoming weekend.

Social Tent

It was nice having a Social Tent at the end of the ride. The new shirts look real nice. The hot dogs tasted really good after a 50 mile ride :-) I finally got a chance to meet Monica Foulkes after emailing her back and forth. We talked about the website and what potential improvements/enhancements could be implemented. We'll probably talk more as the days get shorter and the weather gets more wintery.

Monica , originally uploaded by Martinator.

Monica holding court at the Social Tent post ride.

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