While some of the squad was racing at Wells on Sunday, Shane, Matt M., Curt and I tackled the inaugural Ronde de Rosey (editor’s note: lots of locals spelling this Rhonde, not sure if that is so its easier to search out on Twitter or if my Flemish stinks. Feel free to comment below). This was a local “adventure” ride put on by weekly cx practice guru Rosey. For a short $10 ($5 for Bikes Not Bombs, $5 for beer) we tackled a challenging 65 mile course that was a combination of off-road and road-riding — everything from fast singletrack to rooty woods sections, mud bogs, and pavement linking the trail sections of the course. CX bikes were the weapon of choice.
I’m going to be deliberately vague about the exact route to protect the interests of the organizer and those who were lucky enough to participate in this fantastic ride. Teams of 3-5 riders set off in a staggered start, and we headed out of Brookline around 10:45, with Matt acting as chief navigator. Though this wasn’t a race there was the spirit of friendly competition amongst teams, and also the desire to complete the ride in the expected 4-5 hours. But we had decided as a group to ride hard but to enjoy it, or at least that is our excuse for getting passed by guys who are much faster and more skilled on the bike.
We all knew we were in for a great day after the first checkpoint. After signing in and entering the woods we passed teams on their way out, most wet and covered with mud but with smiles from ear to ear. We reached an early point where we weren’t sure whether to head left or right, and that was where the Embro guys came blazing by. We followed along at a slower pace but luckily they were nearby when we reached another critical point in the trail and they helped us navigate our way out. We reached the checkpoint to sign out, hit the pavement, and started talking about how great the ride was — and we weren’t even an hour into it. We pushed the pace on the pavement through Dover (though we were passed by the Svelte crew), into another secret off-road section, and eventually hit the pavement again on our way to Weston. If memory serves me it was here that we hit the longest off-road section, a fast singletrack along a railbed that was definitely the trail of the day. Somewhere in here Shane flatted, but with an assist from Curt we didn’t lose much time. More pavement, more trails, and finally we entered Concord center about 40 miles and 3 hours in. Other teams were there refueling and we stopped briefly for coffee, food, and a refill of our bottles for the journey back.
No, seriously its this way!
We connected with two teams who started ahead of us when we entered the next off-road sections, including the team of our friends Matt from CB and Robert from HUP. I think the other was the Geekhouse crew. So now there were 10-12 of us riding together through a fairly straight though very muddy section. While Matt rode slightly ahead of me I heckled “even though you are 2 seconds ahead of me, you are really 2 seconds behind me” which might explain why he razzed me for the remainder of our ride together. Then Shane attacked me in the mud, while singing “Ride of the Valkyries” at the top of his lungs. We exited onto pavement briefly, then back into the woods where we separated from the Geekhouse crew while they waited for a teammate. The eight of us were now in Bedford (I think) and we rode more trails, and had the route marking moment of the day. The cue sheet said to turn on the trail towards North St. There was a signpost with two signs pointing in different directions, neither labeled North St. Then one of the women on the other team noticed a broken sign on the ground, of course labeled North St. She positioned it on the post, pointing correctly to the trail we needed to take. Priceless. We traveled on through the woods and may have missed the final turn, but we managed to bushwack through someone’s backyard to exit on pavement, fairly close to the correct spot (thanks iPhone!). More trails (along the powerlines?) and finally out of the woods, onto a bike path, and back to pavement for good. Or at least that is how I remember it, and at this point I think we were in Lexington.
We rode to Mass Ave and split up with Matt’s team who chose to take Mass Ave as we headed towards Belmont. The cue suggested that when you hit Mass Ave you should take the fastest route back and I’m not sure we did that. Curt led us most of the way and was on target for a quick route back through Watertown, etc. to Brookline. But at this point some crankiness had set in and after Shane flatted again I mutinied and suggested we take the “perceived” faster route back through Cambridge. Though in retrospect I think Curt had it right — sorry bud! Fortunately the promise of beer kept our team together and we hauled ourselves back to Brookline safely. Total ride time was 5:07 for 66.64 miles. I think we may have missed one off-road section (School St/Wellesley?) but for the most part we made every effort to ride the whole course, especially since the off-road sections were the best part. We didn’t win, but we weren’t DFL and we only had two flats on the day with no mechanicals.
A huge thanks to Rosey for organizing one of the best rides ever, to Gerry and his staff at the Washington Square Tavern for the pre and post-ride festivities, and to everyone else who participated on Sunday. We had a blast.
Note: apologies for any errors in the route description sequence or if I didn’t mention how your team blew by us or how you put in a brilliant attack in the woods. I’m sure it happened, I was probably just too busy trying not to endo into a mud bog to have noticed.
How many more miles to beer?
2 Responses to “Ronde de Rosey”
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Where can I get a course map for the Rhonde?
Eric G — you should take a look at Rosey’s website, http://roseyscot.blogspot.com/.