Tour de PMC 2021: Mountain Stage

It was probably not a good idea to have done that second lap on Saturday. Miggy, Gunny, and Sava wanted to climb Mount Wachusett. It would be their first time up WaWa.

Boo gave a send-off to us. Miggy, Celia, JT, Cathy, Gunny, Sava, Bene, and Bartsie started off to the west, after some big dog kisses. The group surprised me and showed up in Team Kinetic Karma gear. A special treat for me.

Bartsie didn’t have the whole day to spend on the bike and pulled off after 20 miles. That left the rest of us to the rolling hills that lead up to the mountain.

For me, the nastiest stretch is Old Bolton Road in Hudson. It’s a suburban-looking street with 50s and 60s houses lining the street. Then it just starts going straight up, getting over a 9% grade. It leaves me looking around wondering why a developer would carve these houses into a steep hill.

The hills continued after that. The climb after the Wachusett ranger station up to the summit is tough. But the climb up to the ranger station is even harder. I was definitely feeling yesterday’s century in my legs. No way I was going to let the group ride away from me. 2006 is just a number.

We ran into Anna earlier in the day and we continued to cross paths all morning. Sure enough, there she was pedaling up to the summit while we were taking pictures and recovering. She was training for the Ride Across Wisconsin. And she joined us in the summit picture. You need to prove you made it to the top with a picture.

We were tired and just a little bit relieved that most of the climbing was past us. There were still some substantial hills ahead of us. The big motivation was knowing that Berlin Farm and its delicious ice cream was at mile 80, after the last hill, Sawyer Hill Road.

For the record, it was the pending taste of salted caramel with sprinkles that got me up that last hill. Orange sherbet for Miggy. Ice cream power got most of us powered up for last 25 miles home. Not even ice cream could overcome one rider’s bum knee.