by This was my tenth Pan-Mass Challenge. I wanted to do something special. Something big. I had another ride scheduled in Burlington, Vermont the weekend before. So that ride would going to limit what I could do.
Or would it?
The plan started forming.
When I laid it out I was really worried that it was too ambitious.
Would I be able to sustain this?
Would my bike be able to sustain this?
10 days
1,000 miles
10,000 dollars
My Tour de PMC 2023
I exceeded my goals. (You can still help with that $10,000 goal: https://egifts.pmc.org/DC0176)
The stage by stage details below….
Prologue
An amuse-bouche to start this Tour. I thought an early morning ride would help center me and prepare me mentally, physically and emotionally for what I had laid out.
Since this was going to be just a warm up so I was looking for something short and flat. Someone had mentioned the causeway up to the “cut” as a good route. No navigation was needed. Just keep the bike on the path and pedal until you can’t pedal anymore.
I decided the best kit choice would be my first PMC jersey from 2005. It doesn’t fit well anymore. I think I liked my jerseys bigger back then. And I was bigger back then. Regardless of the fit, it brought back memories, centering me on my journey ahead.
I rolled out at dawn from the hotel. The route is along a rail trail that runs along Lake Champlain. Hard to get lost. Free of cars. Full of scenery. A good choice.
Then I came to the causeway and it was glorious. The sun was just peeking over the Green Mountains to the east of the lake and burning through the morning clouds. I was biking through the middle of the lake on a narrow causeway.
I came to the “cut, a break in the causeway that originally had a bridge. Now it’s just a big gap in the causeway allowing boats to pass.
The ride was a glorious preview of the what was to come.
At least, what I hope was to come.
Stage 1 Canada to Burlington
When planning my tour, I wasn’t sure what to do for this first stage. Stage 2 was set. Riding each day through the end of the PMC would be nine days. I needed to come up with a ride on this Friday to make it ten days. I looked at rides in Burlington in RideWithGPS and found an interesting 50ish mile loop from Burlington up though South Hero and Grand Isle.
Then my friends John and Cathy biked in the area for a century and touched the Canadian border. Looking closer I noticed the Canadian border was only 50 miles from Burlington. I was skeptical that I wanted to put in a full century and leave myself tired for the JDRF ride the next day. Then it dawned on me. I could have The Son drive me to the Canadian border.
Starting the Tour at the Canadian border would be a great first stage of my Tour de PMC. Right? It ended up being harder than I expected.
First, there was strong wind out of the south. Most of the ride was straight into the wind. Second, it was fairly hot and sunny. The route was largely exposed with little tree cover. I was roasting in the July sun.
Third, I failed to plan for food and water stops. Harborside Harvest Market was a great stop at mile 11. I didn’t encounter a good stop on the route after that. My failure.
With the lack of water and battling a head wind, I was feeling really rough when I came to the amphibious part of the ride. I had turned around on the Prologue when I came to the “cut” in the causeway. There used to be bridge for the train. It was removed when the train stopped running. Now there is ferry to take bikes across the cut. (I suppose walkers can take it as well.)
The short ferry ride re-charged my spirits. I knew from the Prologue I only had 10 miles of flat riding to get back to the hotel. That’s just my bike commute. No problem.
Stage 2 JDRF Ride Burlington
This JDRF ride was what had triggered the idea of this Tour. I agreed to coach this ride for JDRF early in the year before the date was announced. I thought the ride would be in September like the JDRF Saratoga Ride. The Son starts at UVM in a few weeks, so the JDRF ride would be a great reason to visit.
Then JDRF announced the date and it was the weekend before the PMC. That hatched the original idea of riding from Burlington back home.
Then it morphed to a ride across all the New England states,
Then it expanded to ten days of riding
Then expanded further to ride for 1,000 miles.
And here we are.
Before hatching the plan for this Tour de PMC I had signed up for the coaching slot to lead the fast riders for the full 100 miles of the Burlington JDRF ride. JDRF rides have a special feature of having coaches ride to help other riders achieve their goals. The coach is a wheel to follow and constant cheerleader to keep riders motivated.
I realize that I’m doubling on charity rides for this stage. (Of course you can donate to the fight against Type 1 Diabetes: Doug’s JDRF Page.)
I lined up with a dozen riders who wanted to go very fast. I was in a yellow jersey instead of the coaching green jersey as the top recruiter. Not that I personally did the recruiting. The Greater New England Chapter as a whole won the prize. As a board member and coach, they asked me to accept the award. Since the jersey fit me…
The 18+ was understatement. We were averaging over 20 mph through the first 30 miles. It would have been great to have a sub-5 hour century. As a coach, the ride is not about me. I’m there to help other riders. I notice the dozen riders was stretching out. Four up front were pulling hard and the others behind were starting to fall off the back. I trailed off the back and formed a “B” group. That “A” group didn’t need my help.
The ride is an out-and-back route. My “B” group pulled into the turnaround point at Middlebury averaging almost 20mph. I told them I would head back to the start/finish with them, but would pull off if I saw riders needing help.
Five miles out, I pulled off to help with a flat and to help some riders get up a hill. With them on their way, I turned back towards the finish. After a few miles I saw one of the top fundraisers riding by herself, without her husband. I turned around and gave her a wheel to follow to the turnaround where her husband was waiting.
I headed back towards the finish, again, to help other riders.
Rain was in the forecast, but it had been dry so far. The line of rain was coming from the northwest, so we were headed into it. We were starting to get wet. Lightning appeared on the weather radar so the ride marshals closed a loop to get people back quicker.
The rain hit gently at first, but had pockets of harder downpours. There were rumbles of thunder. Shortening the route was the right call.
I put on a tutu and some party beads at the last rest stop with the rain coming down hard, hoping to put some cheer into the gloom. I told the riders these last dozen miles are going to suck, so just “embrace the suck.”
This was going to be the only unpleasant weather of the Tour.
Stage 3 Pan-Vermont
After two days staying in close range of support, I was heading off solo. Was this plan too ambitious? Doubts began creeping in as I got ready to head out.
The beautiful morning along Lake Champlain helped quell my nerves. The route went south along the lake. I had bluebird skies as I turned east into the rising sun.
It was early Sunday morning so the roads around Burlington were quiet as I turned up hill into the Green Mountains. I saw signs for the “Cross-VT Trail” with a bike symbol. Someone thought the beginning of this route was good for bikes. I’m glad my routing software agreed. The roads were scenic, with a mix of tarmac and dirt.
At mile 32, I pulled into Waterbury and had a wonderful breakfast sandwich at Henderson’s Bake Shop. Next stop: Montpelier. I had concerns about encountering closed roads and other devastation after horrible flooding in Central Vermont. That would not be my only concern.
I hit my first re-route with a closed road. When I took my next turn I thought my rear tire felt a little squishy. I stopped. It was. I hit it with some CO2 and kept going. A few miles later, it felt squishy again. Maybe I hadn’t closed the valve completely(?). I hit it with CO2 again and kept going. A few miles later, it was clear I had a problem. I used the last of that CO2 to get me to Montpelier. A close look at the tire didn’t show any obvious problem: no tears, no holes, no sealant ooze. A search of bike shops showed a good one in Montpelier, but it had been destroyed by the flooding. I could have popped a tube into the tire for a kludgy fix.
Then I got a text from The Son that he had checked out the hotel in Burlington and was heading home. I decided the prudent decision was to have him pick me up. I wasn’t willing to give up yet. I broadened my search for bike shops in Vermont. I found Green Mountain Bikes in Rochester, almost 30 miles south. The mechanic found no obvious problem with the tire. He poured in some new sealant, re-seated the tire and put in a new valve core. I crossed my fingers and hoped it would work.
It did.
I was way off my planned route, but I put something together to get me back towards the route and to equal the planned mileage for the Pan-VT route. I stopped by Vermont Law School to send a picture to to Ed, an alum.
As I pulled into Sharon, VT it looked like I could stay on the current road to go right into White River Junction, but I would be short on mileage. If I turned left and went North I could tie back into my planned route and hit my mileage target.
That decision was type 2 fun. Route 132 turned out to be a mountain road. 1,000 of feet of climbing to get over to South Stafford and back on my planned route.
I burned a few matches on that climb. I hit some more washed out roads, detours and extra climbs.
I still managed to pull into White River Junction well before dark. I gorged myself on some BBQ, re-fueling for tomorrow.
Stage 4 Pan-New Hampshire
I woke up refreshed. After the near disaster from yesterday. I was hoping that would be the last major mechanical of the Tour. (I was wrong).
I expected to have a lot of climbing in New Hampshire. I didn’t expect my routing software to pile it on. I had almost 4,000 feet of climbing in the first 30 miles. Fortunately, the route went on to a rail trail for the middle of the ride giving me a chance to recover.
Apparently all that climbing was too much for the bike. My front derailleur stopped working. I looked for the obvious problems. The battery for the electronic shifting was showing power. No foreign object was stuck in there. (It was filthy at this point.)
I hopped on and kept going. I struggled up the hills in the big ring. I walked a few short section of really steep dirt roads. Slow pedal revolutions and loose dirt do not mix well. Eventually I came around a corner and saw a really steep, dirt road. I wasn’t going to make it.
I had sent messages to my bike mechanic, but he was hundreds of miles away. I googled for bike shops. Ten miles south of Laconia, the result were full of motorcycle shops. Even when I explicitly searched for “bicycle repair”, the results still back for motorcycles. I dug deeper into the results and found an actual bicycle shop. And it was open. It was seven miles off course in Laconia. I had no other options so I turned and headed north.
I was in a dark place. Two days in a row of major mechanicals was not good. The bike mechanic at ChainLine diagnosed the problem. My Di2 cable had come out of the bracket, rubbed against the wheel and shorted out. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the part in stock to fix the problem and there were no other open bike shops around. His fix was route advice: take Route 11 because it was flat.
Route 11 was flat. It was also busy, with fast-moving cars and fully-exposed to the sun for most of the distance. At least the shoulder was wide.
I made it to the Maine border, but it was a bad day.
I still had the mechanical problem to face the next day. I was in such a bad mood that I had a salad for dinner instead of BBQ.
Stage 5 Pan-Maine to Home
The hotel was comfortable and I felt a little recovered. The bike was not. That small ring was still not working. I didn’t expect it to magically cure overnight. It was in my head. I’d have some hills to contend with to get to the coast. Then it would be flat.
No bike shop would would be open for hours. So the only thing to do was to get on the bike and pedal.
The route today was from Dover, NH to the Maine coast. Yes, I realize that was only about 20 miles of traversing Maine. Maine is a big state. I could have done more. I only had so many days and so few ways to deal with the logistics. Technically, I still went from one side of Maine to the other.
Coming out of South Berwick, Maine, the roads were great. I did come to a steep, loose dirt road and have to step off of the bike and walk to the top.
From there, it was smooth pedaling to Nubble Light. That was the Atlantic Ocean and I had traversed Northern New England.
Now, it was time to head south along the coast and towards home to re-kit and see family. It was a beautiful day to be pedaling along New Hampshire coast. My spirits were rising. I was thinking of ways to convince my bike mechanic to make a house call tonight.
Soon, I crossed the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border and was feeling stronger. It dawned on me that I would be passing close to CycleLoft in Burlington. They surely would be able to fix the problem. Long-story-short, they saved me. It was a quick change of the wire and I was on my way home. Thank you CycleLoft.
Stage 6 Pan-Rhode Island and Pan-Connecticut: Part 1
I was refreshed after a night at home, sleeping in my own bed. I got to see my family and my dog. My pack was full of fresh clean clothes.
From the messages I saw, I think my Strava followers thought that last night was the end of the journey. They didn’t know I was only half way done. For the first time I felt confident that I would really be able to pull off this Tour.
Getting to the Rhode Island border was relatively easy. These were mostly familiar roads. I also realized that it had resulted in me doing a north-south pan-mass over the last two days.
The trick was finding a route that didn’t go too far south, but also stayed completely in Rhode Island. Plus, I needed a sign. I needed proof that I made it to Rhode Island. I found one.
Rhode Island is small. It didn’t take long to get across. Connecticut is bigger, plus I would need to ride north after crossing the border to get to the rendezvous point for the following day. So I decided to split Connecticut in half.
I hadn’t focused on it, but Connecticut is very hilly. I also didn’t realize that Yale owned forests in New England. I passed through the Yale-Meyers Forest on my way to Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
I was in a much better mood, so I gorged myself on BBQ.
Stage 7 Pan-Connecticut: Part 2 to the NY/MA Border
My first crash. I put a snack bar and an iced coffee in my jersey pocket for breakfast. I pulled into a parking lot. Leaned the wrong way at the stop and BOOM. A little blood and a lot of damaged ego from a slow speed crash.
I was eager to get across Connecticut and into New York to meet up with some Kinetic Karma teammates for the ride the next day.
I once again failed to realize how hilly Connecticut. Fortunately, I had two great rest stops to refuel. The Riverton General Store had a great breakfast sandwich. I needed that because I hit a long detour, up hill, after that second breakfast. Falls Village Café also made an excellent breakfast sandwich for my third breakfast of the day.
After all those hills, I also failed in my route planning to find a sign for the NY/CT border. I took a scenic road instead of a busier state road that would have had a sign. I think that arrow in the road was the border. I stopped at the first marker I could find to show I was in New York. It’ll have to do.
After crossing into New York, I was on a beautiful rail trail heading north to Canaan, New York. There was even a great stop on the trail for a milkshake. I managed to pull to pull into the AirBnB in time to have a shower, a beer and some chips before the crew arrived.
Stage 8 PMC Day Zero: NY/MA Border to Sturbridge
Friends. Family. Mrs. Doug was a saint and drove five teammates out to the border while I was wandering around on my bike.
We treated her and my younger child to a wonderful dinner at Cafe Adam in Great Barrington on Thursday night. It was the best food I’d had in days. I practically licked my plate clean.
Rain was in the forecast for Friday afternoon. We decided to leave before 6:00 to beat the rain. So, I was surprised to woken by rain pounding down the gutters. Was it just a dream? I thought when my alarm went off at 5:00. No, it was not. There were some long faces. Nobody was looking forward to starting the ride in the rain. We checked the weather radar. We were on the tail end of the rain. We decided to wait and the rain stopped 30 minutes later.
We jumped on our bikes to rendezvous with some Bikes Fight Cancer riders and other riders at the state line.
Yes, I started off tired. Riding with Chris, Lance, Bene, Miggy and Charlie gave me new-found energy. I knew that awaiting us at the end of the ride was the Friday night PMC celebration and opening ceremonies. I still had another 90 miles to ride across the Berkshire hills. Lots of cycling to enjoy with a big reward at the end.
The first big climb was long. Almost 10 miles. It wasn’t steep. I had no problem pulling into Jester Lane for our first stop. I wasn’t setting any KOMs or even a PR. I was getting up without a problem.
Even though the first climb wasn’t a problem, I was worried about the next climb: the Route 66 climb. It had been at the back of my mind ever since I lost my front ring in New Hampshire. I thought it would be one of the steepest and longest climbs of my Tour. Then I made the turn and headed up hill. Scoop of Chocolate, Scoop of Vanilla. Again, I wasn’t setting any KOMs or even a PR. I was getting up without a problem. A stop at Outlook Farm to re-group and re-fuel.
With the hardest stretch of the day completed, it was on to Atkins Farms Country Market. There we meet Lance’s mom and ate donuts. That has led to nicknaming this ride the “donut run.”
I was feeling great. We stopped at Palmer library for some popsicles. Then the slog into Sturbridge along Route 20. It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t hot.
We pulled into the host for finish photo. We found Captain Dave in the process.
Registration. Beverages. Finding friends and teammates.
I was re-charged with the energy of thousands of people all there for the same cause: Fighting cancer.
Stage 9 PMC Day One: Sturbridge to Bourne
Pre-dawn.
We’re awake.
Putting on our kits.
Packing our bags.
Throwing our bags on the trucks.
Eating a crappy breakfast at the Super 8.
The full emotional weight of my ride was now upon me. Thousands of riders wearing the same jersey, supporting the same cause.
Members of Team Kinetic Karma lined up, ready for the opening anthem and the signal to ride.
We were off. Under the giant flag strung across the road. The sun was just starting to light up the sky. We came to the first turn and pulled over to greet Jared’s friend, Sheila, who is always out there cheering us on.
So many people on the roads cheering us on. So many friends on bikes. We flew along, feeding off the cheers.
At lunch we were able to get together with some other teammates who had started in Wellesley. Then off to Lakeville for the Pedal Partners rest stop. Unfortunately, Zinnia and her family were not able to make it. We did find her sign among the dozens of others along the road in to Lakeville.
As a consolation prize, I was super happy that Del’s Lemonade was back at the rest stop. The delicious iciness is perfect on a summer day.
More crowds.
More excitement.
The legs were tired, but not too tired to make it to the finish at Mass Maritime Academy. It was time for replenishment: Showers. Food. Friends. Drinks. Massages. Of course, we needed an official team photo along the Cape Cod Canal.
We had ridden fast. I was powered by the energy of the event. I started the day with 800 miles in my legs but still managed to average over 18.5 mph for the 109 miles of this day’s ride.
The Son helped us out and drove us to Captain Dave’s house for the night.
Stage 10 PMC Day Two – Falmouth to Provincetown
This would be one of the easier days of my Tour de PMC for mileage and elevation. It would also be the most exciting and emotional of the ten.
I’d be surrounded by my teammates, kitted out in Team Kinetic Karma gear. Saturday is tough to find teammates riding the route with everyone (at least most people) wearing the same PMC official jersey. Sunday is an explosion of color with teams donning their custom jerseys for the rolling miles of Cape Cod.
My Tour’s finish was within sight. I was going to enjoy this day, full of its traditions.
We left Dave’s house with just a hint of light in the sky.
The Bourne Bridge can beautiful with the sun rising over the Cape Cod Canal. It can also be a slow-moving slog up the steep roadway, followed by a white knuckle, brake squeezing terror descending. I was happy to avoid it this year.
We still had to gather for a team photo under the bridge.
We had a strong paceline along the canal, pulling the team along quickly to the roads of Cape Cod. The sun was rising.
Up the Service Road to find Dave’s buddy: Reggie. Some hellos and pictures. Then back onto the roller coaster that is the Service Road.
To the Barnstable rest stop where Roy and Sharon had set up a spread for us.
The route was lined with thousands of spectators. The team had many stops to see friends cheering us on along the roadway.
The Hedge was back, sort of. It had been a tradition that the campers of Cape Cod Sea Camps would line up on the hedge at the side of the route. It would be a roar of sound and excitement. The camp closed during the pandemic. To replace the kids, a bunch of people lined up this year behind the Hedge to help fill the void.
The Nickerson rest stop is always the most festive on Sunday. I think people are still half asleep in Barnstable and really tired in Wellfleet. Plus, Nickerson has popsicles. We were re-fueled for traversing the bike path.
We turned at Marconi beach and up the hill. At the top, the Davis family was passing out Twizzlers to the passing PMC riders. They had a separate stash of Twizzlers and Red Bull for us.
Into the Wellfleet rest stop, we rested our sore butts on an ice couch.
We needed the rest as we were set to battle the persistent head winds in Truro heading into Provincetown.
We had been flying. We again averaged over 18.5 mph for the 85 miles on the Cape. We had our traditional stop at Herring Cove Beach to re-group with as many teammates as we could.
As we approached the finish line, we pulled the champagne flutes from our pockets and filled them for a toast of Gatorade. We toasted the spectators at the finish line for coming out to cheer. We toasted each other for finishing the ride. We toasted all the riders for raising money to fight cancer.
After 10 days and over 1,000 miles I was finally able to touch the sands of Provincetown.
I was tired. It was time to re-fuel and take ferry back to Boston.
Thank you for reading. Anytime is good time to donate money to fight cancer. 100% of your donation to the PMC goes to the Jimmy Fund. Next up for me is PMC Unpaved. https://profile.unpaved.org/DC0176. Feel free to support that ride.
