The Amazing Bike Race

Last week I was lucky enough to participate in what may have been the most fun bike race of the year. I just happened to attend the Saturday morning NEBC ride (had fun, learned some new roads, got dropped, but we'll not get into that). After the ride Tim Dodd asked me if I was planning on doing the Amazing Race the next day, and that he and John were looking for a team mate.

This was the first I'd heard of the race, but since it was obviously local and sounded like an awesome idea I said immediately said, hell yeah! (I don't think I actually said that).

All I knew was to be at the parking lot next to Cycle Loft around 9:30 on Sunday morning, and bring a cross bike. Of course, since I don't currently have a cross bike, I brought my mountain bike. Luckily, Kurt from Cycle Loft was gracious enough to loan my his brand new Gary Fisher Presidio. I say luckily because even though about 20 miles of the course were off-road, about 40 miles were on road, and riding a mountain bike would have sucked. Big shout-out to Kurt and Cycle Loft for hooking me up for the day.

The race was 62 miles - starting and ending at Cycle Loft - and more than just a straightforward test of fitness, the race had a couple of non-riding challenges along the way -- also the ever-present challenge of not getting lost. Before we could leave the parking lot we were tasked with arranging the past winners of the Tour de France back through 1990. Child's play! John, Tim and myself were the first team to get it right and started off with the lead. After some awesome trail riding in the Bedford/Concord area we came upon the first challenge, which was our choice of each teammate having to ride a slalom course around cones while balancing an egg on a spoon, or a crossword. We chose the egg balance, and each of us was able to do it successfully on our first turn. Again, we were first team off! The course continued all over the place, leading through Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Billerica (I think?), Wilmington (where all teams had a mandatory 10 min stop to refuel at a convenience store), North Andover, North Reading, Wakefield, Stoneham, Woburn, and of course Burlington. One of the coolest sections of the race was a area of trails in the Ballardvale section of Andover, where we actually had to ride down along the MBTA commuter rail tracks for a section before we ducked into some really swoopy fast up/down singletrack, which was made even more awesome-er by the freight train that we just missed while riding down the tracks and wound up thundering along right next to us.

The third challenge was at Harold Parker state forest in North Andover, about 40 miles in. We had our druthers of each having to eat 15 marshmallows or doing a word search. Again, we showed our utter disdain for anything cerebrally-intensive and opted to cram 15 while puffballs of high fructose corn syrup down our gullets. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. I don't think it will be replacing granola bars and PB & J for mid-ride snacks anytime soon, though.

The next 20 miles were all road home, though North Reading Wakefield and Woburn, back to Cycle Loft. We worked really well as a team, each taking turns blocking the horrendous head-wind the final miles.

In the end we were the first team to cross the line. Total time, about 4:45; total ride time: 4:20-ish. We each won a pair of sweet Michelin cyclocross tires (now I have to buy a cross bike!), and best part - they even had a meal ready for us! Pulled pork sandwiches with all the Harpoon we could drink. A+ post-ride food.

In summary, everyone reading this should do this race next year! This being the first year, attendance was a bit lacking, but everyone agreed it was a great event, and the modest entry fees went to help to support a PMC (PanMass Challenge) team.

A huge thank you goes out to Michael and Kurt for all the work they put into organizing the race -- just the task of marking 62 miles of road and trails must've been daunting! Epic ride, for sure.


*photo credit to Michelle