The King's Tour of the Quabbin is an annual ride put on by the Seven Hills Wheelmen out of Worcester, MA. The ride started at the Naquag Elementary School in Rutland, MA and it was very well done. There are 100k , 100 mi, and 200k options. I had planned to do the 200k, but according to an article in the paper, the 200k skirts the toughest hills, and I need some hill practice so I did the 100mi instead. Those are some tough hills!

I'm getting stronger in my riding, but I'm getting worse in my picture taking. I keep forgetting that there is a delay between clicking the shutter and when the picture is actually taken, so I have about a half dozen pictures of my front tire instead of what I'd planned.

I'd never been to the Quabbin Reservoir before. I highly recommend it to anyone. It's just a spendidly beautiful place. It's very, very hilly and I think they designed the route to be entirely uphill. Still, I averaged 15mph which, considering those hills, I am very pleased. The Quabbin is the water source for most of Eastern Mass. It was created by flooding four town in the 1920's through the 1940's. More about the Quabbin. There were some significant headwinds and crosswinds during a short portion of the ride, but nothing too significant. During one of the big downhills (I think on Rte 122) I hit 42 MPH! Wooo.

Rubel Bike Maps keys hills by severity.

These are sections of the Rubel map into the Petersham rest stop and the area around Barre.:

All roads lead "up".

I took a Zipcar and got there about 7:30. The ride was supposed to start at 8, but after arriving I found out it was a "show and go," there was no mass start. I met a guy named Chuck who was parked next to me who was waiting for a friend who looked to be a no show, so we decided to ride together. He had a friend there, whose name I forget (John, I've been told), who was a really interesting guy. He's over 60, and from his accent, I'd say somewhere from eastern Europe (because all accents I don't recognize sound eastern European), but was clearly a European cycling nut. He wasn't riding because in February, he had broken his collarbone while skiiing and had just had surgery in May to put it back together. Chuck's "no show" friend showed and caught up with us at the Quabbin observation tower. he was also about 60 or so, and was an incredible guy. He had biked the French Alps last year and is training this year for a tour of the French Pyrennes. He has calves the size of your head. They really fun and interesting people. Collarbone guy was leapfrogging us the whole way and every once in a while, at an intersection and at all the rest stops, he and his wife would be there waving or lounging in a couple of lawn chairs. The back of his van had a bumper sticker that said "The driver of this car climbed Mt. Washington".

My knee was trouble again. It lasted longer this time, but by the end, it was getting painful. This is causing me great concern. While none of the New England Classic days are 100 miles, several of them are close to that. My knee let me know it was there around mile 30, but did not become insistant until about mile 60. We took an extended rest (10 min) at the rest stop at mile 77 in Petersham, and it felt back to normal after that, although my muscles had stiffened up and there's yet another killer hill as you leave Petersham center. I swallowed a bunch of asprin last night and kept a heating pad on it all night, and that seems to have done some good. I'm going to take the bike around the block this morning to see what it feels like. If I get out on a seven day ride and can only complete the first day, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll have try adjusting the cleats again or something before the 130-miler next weekend.

More pictures from one of the organizers.

Statisics:

Date:

12-June-04

Type

Road

Miles:

101.80

Time:

6:50:50

Avg:

15.05

Max:

42.1

First rest stop at mile 23 or so. It's at Quabbin gate 43. They opened the gate for us, but we couldn't go out all the way to the lake.

Inside Gate 43. It was an out and double-back, so people are going both ways.

A panorama at the Enfield lookout point. This overlooks one of the former towns that was flooded to make the reservoir.

Me at the Enfield overlook.

The spillway into the Swift River

The Winsor Dam 2540' long, 50' high. You can just make out Chuck and John ahead.

Chuck, Pyrenees guy, and Collarbone guy at the Petersham rest stop, mile 77.

100 miles while climbing the last, killer hill back to the starting point.